Let's try an " image transfer"

Journal page by Mary M Payne

Journal Page by Mary m Payne

One of the new techniques that I have't quite mastered is "image transfer".   I showed it to you in the last post but really this post was written first and put into my drafts.  So here is a bit of an explanation.  

  The idea is to take an inked paper such as piece of magazine or a print made from either laser or inkjet and transfer it to another page rubbing off the moistened paper with your fingertips after you have glued it down and it is dry.  This should leave  only the ink on the page. 
 Easier said than done.  There are a variety methods to try this.  Most include gels or special glues. Some even use Vodka. 

Here I reduced a photo of a large sketch I had done of a nude years back and tried to transfer it to my page.  It didn't work, possibly because I used an "inkjet"printer.   I resorted to outlining the transferred image in pen.   But even that added a 

"je ne sais quoi" that worked all right. 

That bright colored card is a laser copy of an inked page I once did.  It ended up in my scrap box.  The  butterfly and music note scrap are from a commercial paper that I now feel is too "crafty" for me but it does have just the right translucency for gels.    I prefer to find stuff in flea markets, old books or compose bits myself but I still fall back on craft supplies sometimes.  I am at heart, impatient and dare I say, lazy.  

The stamp pad lettering is the only set I have ever found of children's letters that doesn't leave a huge smudge around each letter pressed.  I found it years back in Seattle and the set has finally come in handy.   I have given at least two other sets I bought recently to kids I know who aren't fussed about smudged results. 
 And yes, I suppose stamped lettering is "cheating" too but I love the primitive look of it.