Image Transfer

I love playing around with photos and so I thought I would do a series on transferring images to different surfaces and share my findings with you {the good and the bad}.

Materials Needed:

Words and Shamrock PDF printed on a laser printer {download here or come up with your own}

Material {cotton works great}

Nail polish remover {not just any, look further down to see my explanation}

Sponge brush

Spoon

*Remember this will be a worn or vintage look, the transfer won't be crisp. It is best done with monotone images or images that don't have a great deal of detail.

Cut the image out leaving as much white space around it as possible.

Lay down an extra piece of cardstock, cardboard or anything you might have laying around, secure it with tape. Place the material on the cardstock face up {make sure it is flat and tight, secure it with tape} then place the text or image face down in desired location and secure it with tape.}

*From my material I cut pieces a bit larger than I knew I would want them and placed my text or image in the center. This would give me a bit of extra wiggle room and allow me to cut down to size.

With sponge brush or cotton ball apply a generous amount of nail polish remover to the paper over the text or image.

*Instead of covering the hole text or image at once, I did it one letter at a time. This way I could keep up with the nail polish remover before it dried.

*You can see in my image I used the Wal-mart brand nail polish remover, nothing too fancy or expensive. But I did find that the 'Regular' didn't work, it was the 'Strengthening' that ended up working like a champ. There are two extra ingredients listed, they are: benzophenone-1 and propylene glycol.

With the back of the spoon press and rub firmly across the text or image. The paper and material will shift so use your other hand to hold them firmly as they start to shift.

*Tip: You are applying a liquid to paper so try to work fast, don't take a brake in the middle of a section. Too much liquid and too much rubbing will dissolve/tear the paper and you'll have to start over. Too much rubbing will also cause the paper to be 'ground' into the material and leave paper behind with transfer. If this happens let the transfer sit and completely dry, then use a towel to get the paper residue wet and rub away with your finger. DON'T press hard or you will lift up the text/image transfer too.

*Tip: I had to repeat these last two steps a couple of times for every section of the text or image. Check  your transfer by lifting up one section of the tape and pulling the paper away from the material.

Once you are happy with your results, take the paper completely off.

I found that the larger the image, the more vintage it looked. Working with a smaller area, like the word 'IN' from my tutorial, it is easier to get most of the image to transfer and be a bit more crisp.

I am so excited about how it turned out. I think the text worked a lot better than the larger shamrock.

Check back to see the final project I use these image transfers for.