OK, here's my quick tutorial on how to make a packing tape transfer...
First gather your supplies...you need:
- the image you want to transfer
- mailing or packing tape
- a burnishing tool or spoon
Lay the tape on the picture and burnish it so that it's really stuck:
Put the tape covered image in a bowl of warm water:
Wait about 4 or 5 minutes. Then, rub your fingers across the paper on the back of the tape:
The paper will start coming off, the ink will still be on the tape. Continue to rub off the wet paper until you don't feel anymore on the back of the tape:
Now, you have a very pretty piece of tape! Blot it dry and use gel medium:
...to glue it to the background you've chosen:
Cut it out and make something:
Not bad for a 5 minute ATC.
Helpful hints:
Not everything will transfer. Before you jump in with your favorite image, test something else from the same source. Different page from a book, another image from the collage sheet, etc.
I have excellent results with Taschen books and other glossy art paperback books. I've picked them up at the half price book store and in the sale aisle of the big book stores. The picture I used in this example is from "Maxfield Parrish and the American Imagists".
Picture won't work? Consider making a transfer out of the background instead. Make a transfer out of the map, text, whatever was going to be showing through and lay it over the picture. The look is virtually the same.
Mailing / packing tape is less than 2" wide. Drag. For larger pictures, you can lay pieces of tape side by side or overlap slightly. The better answer is clear contact paper, but I'm having very mixed results with it, so no tutorial yet.
In this example, I just stuck the tape on paper, but it's fun to cut out the image you want (the happy couple, for example) and use that see-through image without the entire piece of tape.
I usually use extra gel medium so I can move the picture around a bit before it's stuck. It's important that you like what will show through and where. For example, I don't like text in the face, so I scoot the picture back and forth until I like what is behind their faces.
This was easy, right? Have fun, experiment. Send me a picture.
