More mad moments

Ok so I am asked how do I think of these things, well I am of course mad and messy but the original idea of T-Shirt Transfer Paper is from You Tube. I was looking for a video on Gesso or Gel transfers and for some reason a guy appeared using this stuff doing something completely NOT what I wanted to do, but I had some so started to think well would it work on canvas the same as fabric.

I had some nice shots of my daughter (well robbed them off her facebook actually) and wanted to make a collage type wall art with them so this is what I did.

First using a photo program I cut bits from photo's and made a collage on an A4 page ready to print onto T-Shirt Transfer paper . I used light transfer paper not dark but with hindsight it may have been better on dark as my background turned out darker than I had planned.

**If you are using images with words don't forget to flip them before printing or your words will be back to front :-( I forgot which is why they are not on the pieces!!

This first effort did not work how I wanted but it did give me a great background effect, when I added the images the face was too pale so all you could see was the backgrounds but it gave texture. I had tried out one of the images on normal copier paper so as not to waste a canvas. I heated through it with a heat gun rather than getting the iron out and it worked fine. So this is the image I used. I tore round that and glued it on after instead of using a transfer.

I prepared my canvas with a coat of Gesso (white paint which sets hard in case your not familiar with it) the surface is a better texture then to accept inks etc. I then started to build the colour first with a spray of Adirondack Colour Wash, then I spritzed over that with a mix of Cosmic powder mixed with water in a spray bottle to give the paler mica blue for sheen. I gently dabbed with tissue to create the solid background and dried it
Now I lightly inked a music stamp with blue Stazon and randomly stamped it all over the canvasThis is where I added the torn images in a random manner. Lay the piece face down and holding steady with a bone folder (not plastic as I have now ruined mine!!) or a wooden lolly stick maybe but watch your fingers. Heat till it gets hot enough for the image to peel away from the backing, again watch your fingers the paper is still very hot :-(

# Rub over the image while heating to ensure its touching the backing (bit like a rub on) wait a second before peeling but not too long or it won't peel back#

Repeat to cover the surface. As I said before this is where it went wrong the face cannot be seen so I used it to my advantage. I used an embossing pen to highlight parts of the canvas and added powder and melted several times till I got an effect I was happy with
I then glued Claires picture on and coated it with Glossy Accents to seal it. When this was dry I went in again with my embossing pen and powders and added more texture and colour. This is the end result a cute little wall art.

You will see where the image paper has heated it has created holes and bubbles which all adds to the effect.

So, the first one had problems with the background being to dark so I started again. The canvasses had a pice of cardboard packaging so rather than waste it I used it for this piece.

I tinted some gesso with a little of the colour wash and painted that over to give an even'ish colour. I blasted it with my heatgun to dry

Then I cut a piece of copy paper to make a mask so that I got a frame effect. I spritzed with the colour wash and there is my frame

Once again I have torn the pieces of printed transfer paper as I don't want uniform edges and worked out roughly where I want them to be on the finished piece. Follow instructions as before to transfer them to the background. I found that by not heating them completely at the edges I could just use pieces and not go over into the border. I had some bits left over of her eyes and mouth which I used to fill smaller gaps.

Once again with my embossing pen and a variety of powders I filled in gaps and went round some edges and heat embossed to give texture and shine with some metallic powder and a little Versamark around the outer edge with a dark powder to finish the edge off.

I think it looks pretty funky and better than all those images you buy of strange womens faces, this face is all of my own making :-) My beautiful daughter Claire, D.J Inspiros but first of all Noah's Mummy.