Photo Transfer

I had a comment on my last post from Sharon Baggon, saying how well my photo transfer turned out. Its probably because it isn't a photo transfer on the finished quilt. Here is a picture of how one of the transfers turned out. It didn't turn out very well at all and it didn't scan very well either.

For the transfer I enlarged and printed the photo out onto matt photo paper. I cut the car out and applied gel medium to the fabric surface I was using and the photo side of the paper. I then stuck them together. I then used a paddle pop stick to smooth down the paper and wiped away any excess gel medium from the edges. This was when the fun began!!! After leaving it for awhile I then rubbed the back of the paper with a paddle pop stick to help the transfer to happen. This took me many attempts as alot of them ripped through. Then when I finally got some to the stage of lifting the edge and peeling it back, I would think it was going really well and then a bit of the picture would pull off. It was very frustrating. I think if the quality of the photo had of been better I would have got an image that I could have used. Anyway, atleast I know how to do it now and I'll be able to use it again.

I played with the idea of using one of the photo transfers as it went with the idea of fading memories, but it made the quilt look very drab. So instead I used fotoflexer to colour the car red and then I printed it out from the computer onto a sheet of canvas. I then cut the car out and fused it onto the quilt. Not the same as doing a photo transfer, but at least I got it to look the way I wanted it to.