Last of the Inkjet Transfers

So starts a New Year! At Scraptivate we've kicked off 2010 by getting a Ning site going where there'll be lots of wonderful eye candy of all types, challenges, helpful hints as well as lots of discussions on all things papercraft. If you want to join, click here. There's also a button on the top right of my blog, roll over it with your mouse and click "join", it'll take you to the home page.

I have to give you 2 more Adam Lambert atc's.....I know, it's a BIG effort to have to look at him but what a great way to start the New Year off!!! The first atc came together really quickly, it's very simple so I thought I'd explain it in detail.


I did an inkjet transparency transfer (Dataline Transparency) onto a piece of book paper, actually a page from a book called Love Bites, all about love throughout the World. This was taken from a small excerpt from the Kama Sutra...hence the name on the atc. Don't worry, there's nothing explicit in the writing, check it out by enlarging and read for yourself.

So after doing the transfer and tearing the bottom of the page for added visual interest (like he needs it!!!), I used a bit of Walnut Stain Distress Ink for colour over the page, then added a torn piece of walnut stain coloured chipboard up the top with Tim's Tiny Attacher (coloured the staples with a brown sharpie first). I then used Tim's little screw brads down the right, flicked on some Bronze Golden brand paint with a spatter brush (I used a piece of scrap paper to cover his face before flicking the paint). Then added the Kama word from the book onto some chipboard and edged it with Gold rub'n'buff to finish the word off. All in all a very clean-ish looking atc with a little bit of grunge thrown in.


"Kama"...




Yep, loved the picture so much had to do another one. I also used Tim's stamps on this one as well, grunge alphabet for the A & L and one of his texture stamps as well as some round metal snaps, beaten slightly with Tim's texture hammer. I sure love my Ranger stuff!!!

"A L"...

Finally, another inkjet transparency transfer using the other well-known hottie, Johnny Depp in all his Cap'n Jack glory. For this one I used texture paste patted on with my finger and then painted to add the extra texture, gold rub'n'buff helps to highlight the texture. His face isn't all that clear, it's the foam pieces under the chipboard/mica doughnut piece that causes all sorts of problems for the scanner. The texture on the chipboard/mica square is also made by Tim's texture hammer...don't know why I put off buying one for so long! Love it!!!

"Jack"...

I've started the ATC Technique Book #3 cover and am ready to add paint today. Some of the moulds are ready but I think I need to have a bigger choice so I'm going to hassle my friends to loan me their moulds. Some peope don't like too many choices as it confuses them....me?...I love choices!

Hope your headache's not too bad, start 2010 off by doing some art.

Another Giveaway & More Inkjet Transfers

The postcard above started out as a blank watercolour postcard which I then stamped using Cherry Pie stamps and coloured with Twinkling H2O's (it was made for a swap with 3 girls from a yahoo group that I'm on). I knew I wanted to do another giveaway before Christmas so I made an extra for this purpose. So if you want this, leave a comment at the end of this post (remembering to include your email please) and I'll do the draw on Christmas Eve. It is true postcard size, 14-1/2cm x 10cm (or 5-3/4" x 4") but it will be mounted onto another piece of watercolour paper so it'll end up slightly larger than that. Just leave me a comment on this post to be in the draw. ;-)

Now, a few more inkjet transfers using the Dataline Inkjet Transparency...

"Throb"...(the delectable Ville Valo from my #1 favourite band - HIM. He's also wearing a little shrink plastic heart, a real heart rather than the usual love-heart shape...so guess you could say "heart-throb")

"Family Tree"...

"Pensive"... (the girls in my classes love their Johnny Depp pics!!!)

The inkjet transfer class is my last for this year, in mid January I'll be starting book #3 with a Mouldy cover! As I work on this project over the break I'll be posting pics of how it's going.

On a personal note, my son who's done his 6 years in the airforce now, comes home this weekend to stay....with a girlfriend (soon to be a fiance!) and a dog in tow. They'll be living with us for a while as they get their feet under them, find jobs and somewhere else to live. So as my youngest son gets ready to move out of home for the first time, we lose one son, gain another back with extra's!!! Should make for a very festive Christmas season. I am looking forward to it, believe me....please!!! lol All banter aside, family IS what it's all about (not the hokey pokey!), remember to be extra nice to those closest to you at this stressful time of year and remember....patience and a smile plastered to your face will get you through most situations.

Inkjet Transfer Class

Aaaahhhh...so we come to Inkjet Transfers, or should that be "aaarrrggghhhhh.... inkjet transfers"!!! The inkjet transfer technique can probably be described as one of the most bothersome of just about all of the various papercraft techniques. Some people persevere and push through that pain barrier and actually end up enjoying this technique...others, well they give up after a couple of attempts and say it's not for them. I'm a "push through" type of person though I must say it helps if the first few times you do them they turn out okay! lol


So in this class we'll be using Dataline Inkjet Transfers and either Isocol rubbing alcohol or Matisse Matte Gel Medium as our transfer method. They both work, with different end results and feel. For years I used the Apollo Transparency, but as that is becoming rarer than hen's teeth, I've searched for another alternative and Dataline is it! It's a UK product (good news for those Brits!) and is available at Scraptivate by the sheet.


Before showing you this first picture, I have to admit that I'm such a total Adam Lambert whore (in a nice way of course!). I have his new album - For Your Entertainment, and it's such a great cd to listen to in the car, volume cranked up and singing at the top of your lungs. Of course, only do this if you're the ONLY one in the car. Husband's do not like 50+ women (especially their wives), squirming in the seat while belting out the words to an S & M song by a singer who obviously does not swing "their wive's way"....frankly, he just doesn't get the attraction. One hot boy!!! (That was only one song....don't judge him 'til you hear the rest of the album!) Now you all know WAY too much about my predilections....here's the atc.


"Sticks & stones"...

"Human Salvation"...

"Awaken"...

"Pain and Pleasure"...

More inkjet transfers to come, only managed to get these 4 completed today, have another few in the works. All these Christmas lunches are getting in the way of my art time!

Paint Chip Samples, more soot & raffle winner

At Scraptivate we have a monthly atc swap that is run for the girls who do the classes and I've just recently given them the list of themes/techniques for the next 12 months so they can be prepared. One of the themes is "Paint Chip Samples"...this has caused some consternation. Paint chip samples are exactly as described, in Australia Bunnings is the best place to get them and I like the British Paints ones as they are a good size to use for atc's.

There are a few ways to use them but for our swap we are going to ignore the colour and really focus on the paint chip name. To give you an idea of what I mean, below are two of them that I did for a swap I took part in using this particular theme. The first one, the colour is called "Cityscape"... I used a bit of post-it-note and covered the name on the sample, then stamped a building stamp using Black Stazon, also stamped Paris the same way, German Scrap up the top with a little bit of Treasure Pewter to age it, a metal heart and hook to finish off. Obviously once you've stamped you take the bit of post-it-note off and that reveals the name. So the idea is to do an atc using the title of the colour as the theme.

Here's another one...."Hot Mama".

At the last Tuesday night's atc class, for the first time in over a year, I forgot to draw the raffle!!! So I got Mel at work to pick a random number between the attendees as they were listed in the bookings, and the winner was Megan Black!!! When you come Tuesday night Megan you can collect your Shrink Plastic raffle atc. This is it below....actually, I'm cheating because it's on a soot background which is Saturday's technique but it does have a shrink plastic stamped image on it too. This is my new stone angel stamp from Stampers Anonymous, looks great in soot and in shrink plastic! Edit: Sorry, it's not Stampers Anonymous, it's from Judikins! On page 4 of their catalogue here.

Here's the same stamp done with soot technique again, but using alcohol inks before the soot. I've also coloured the German Scrap down the bottom with embossing powder in the same gorgeous pale blue that's on the flourish stamp up the top and on the frame with "Illuminate".

Next one is another transparency transfer with Poe as the subject.

Another transparency transfer using gel medium instead of rubbing alcohol...."Imagine".

After Saturday I'll post the technique for soot and another discovery that I've made about something else to use under the soot for adding colour!

Soot technique & 1 more transparency transfer

As I have new people that are becoming regulars in my atc classes at Scraptivate, I have decided to revisit some of the earlier techniques from when I started teaching the classes. For those of you in Perth who might be interested in learning some techniques, I teach every 2nd Saturday and every 2nd Tuesday night. The Tuesday night class is a repeat of the Saturday, one but runs about 3 lessons behind.

I often get asked, why atc's? For me it's the technique that is first and fore-most. The reason I use atc's to teach it is this.... the girls will learn a technique and actually get it "down" onto a format that will look complete, 99% of most people get at least 1 atc completed and many get 3 done. I get card-makers and scrapbookers in the classes as well as atc girls as they are all techniques that can be applied to many different artforms. Some of the girls have even started their own little technique book using an atc that was made in the class, then writing up the notes in their own words and putting it all into one book! Great idea!!! My memory is shocking for lots of things but I don't seem to have any trouble at all remembering all the different techniques that I've learnt over the years!

On to the next atc class....Soot re-visited!!! I won't be listing the technique yet until after the Saturday class so they don't set fire to themselves or their houses!

"Follow your own star"...

"Portrait"...

"Delusional"...

(the stripey looking thing on either side of this one is the small corrugated black cardstock with a bit of Silver Treasure rubbed over it, looks like stripes but it's actually very bumpy and raised)

The next one is an atc made using the Inkjet Transparency Film and gel medium (Golden soft gel in semi-gloss). It's the blue gravestone image that is the transfer...

"Two graves"...

Lastly, an atc using Helmar 2 step crackle medium for a crackle class that I have coming up soon using various crackling mediums. Our Altered Book Club chunky swap that is on-going had a Gods & Goddesses theme recently and I chose to do "Anubis, god of mummification"....yep, sounds like me doesn't it! lol So I had a spare pic of Anubis left over which I made into an atc using the crackle medium on the image.

...more Transparency Transfers, Shrink Plastic atc's

Below are some more Transparency Transfers...first one is onto another plain type of background, paper that has been coloured using the "smoosh" technique of Ranger distress inks onto the Ranger craft sheet dtp (direct to paper...or dts...direct to sheet!), spritz with water, lay your paper down onto the spritzed sheet, press gently and then twist 45 degrees and lift....result is a beautiful watercoloured background. The colours on this is my favourite combo of Peeled Paint and Weathered Wood. Then an inkjet transparency/rubbing alcohol transfer on top and another quote from Dorothy Parker.


Some more transparency transfers..."Temptress"

..."Arise"....




Now a couple of atc's using shrink plastic as I have another class on this tonight at Scraptivate....this first one is a terrible scan, sorry 'bout that....you just about need sunglasses to look at it in the flesh and yes, it's not my usual colours once again...can you say BRIGHT!!! The image down the bottom left is the shrink plastic stamped image and then coloured with chalks, boy do they intensify when it's shrunk!!!

Don't send the spelling police after me.....I forgot to change the spelling of "color" from the US spelling to the Aussie version - "colour" on the quote....

Another shrink plastic atc, this time the image was printed onto the shrink plastic (white) with my inkjet printer, then shrunk...you just have to keep your fingers off the ink as it'll smudge until it's shrunk. "Awaken...breathe"...


Lastly, this is an atc made for a swap leaving here shortly (promise!!!) to someone over East. It's a watercolour tube paint fresco technique with one of my favourite zetti stamps.

Transparency transfers

While I love new technology, sometimes in the art world it can be a pain in the a**! Particularly when you find that a product that you used to use is becoming redundant because of newer technology. Case in point - inkjet transparency film. This was used for overhead projection units and is a dying product because of Powerpoint presentations on computers. A particular brand of transparency film that I've always used was the Apollo Inkjet Transparency Film for Inkjet Printers. I've since found out that it's being phased out. You can still buy the transparency film but they seem to have changed formulation which means that the film that's on the side that you print on is much thicker....meaning it's more difficult to get it to release when you want to do an inkjet transparency transfer using rubbing alcohol!

These newer ones will still work with gel medium as the transfer medium, but I particularly like the ease with which rubbing alcohol spritzed onto the printed image and then burnished onto a page will work. The 3M brand of inkjet transparency film is also supposed to be as good as the previously readily available Apollo....I have yet to track it down but will try to do so before my Apollo stocks run out!

These atc's are made using the alcohol and transparency transfer technique... (I coloured the silver German Scrap using "Bottle" alcohol ink....lovely!)

Also, you don't always have to do transfers onto printed or patterned paper. These next 2 are done straight onto plain coloured cardstock. Though the first one I did attach a dictionary quote onto the cardstock first, then did the transfer over the top of it...worked a treat! "Menopause Mauve" is not a usual colour for me to use, but it suited this pic of ol' Liz!

warning: a bit of vintage nudity in this next one.... love the distressed look that you can get with transfers...without even trying!!!!

I thought I had some using the gel medium/transparency method of transfers but I think they are half-done. I'll get them finished and up for viewing, though you won't really be able to tell the difference on the computer screen. It's something that you can see more clearly irl (in real life). The gel medium I use is Golden Soft Gel in matte or Golden Soft Gel in semi-gloss.

On another note, my son, his girlfriend and their puppy leave us tonight to fly back to the East Coast for another year, he has 2 more years in the air-force but is going to try to get posted back here before then. AND we only had one testosterone-fuelled argument between my two grown "boys" in the 4 weeks he's been here!!! Bargain!!! (Jarred, the one who's leaving is 22 and my other son Cort is 19 - still 'boys' to me though!)