Class N0. 2: Packing tape transfers

Well, since I have already photographed this class, I thought I'd get it on here now rather than later.

It's the SECOND class for FEB., (even though it's still only January).

I've had a couple of emails about "supply" list for the "Altered Existence" altered book class. I will be posting my "go to" supply list over the weekend so you guys can get whatever you need to be able to do many of the classes I'll be teaching (if you don't already have these supplies). These are supplies I use for EVERYTHING, not just for altering books.

 

CLASS N0. TWO (FEB. 2012)

Packing Tape Transfers

This is by far, one of my most favourite things one could possibly do in the paper arts field. I do these transfers ALL THE TIME. The main reason is because I am a collector of ephemera from many different events, places we visit, images I love etc. etc. etc. When you weigh paper and such, it's quite heavy and bulky if you put  alot of it together. When you transfer the image or whatever you're transferring, onto packing tape, it becomes "tape thin" and virtually weightless!

It's quite fantastic actually and once you start with these transfers, it's hard to look at a magazine the same way again.

: )

So, here we go...

 

Packing tape is that clear tape you use to tape packages up for mailing. It comes in a sickly kinda yellow colour, but it also comes in a crystal clear form as well.

I typically use the crystal clear form as it gives the clearest and the most true to original, color and image of whatever you are transferring. HOWEVER, the yellowy tape is great for more "aged" looking transfers, which is kinda cool as well.

First, cover the image you want to transfer, with packing tape.

The below photo is an ad in a newspaper in Innsbruck.

I used my bone folder to "burnish" the tape down onto the image. That just means i pressed it down really well to get any air bubbles I didn't want in the taped image, to remain there. Sometimes you might WANT to leave bubbles because the end result will be a less than perfect transfer and can often times look really cool.

Repeat with a postcard.

i often times do a bunch of taping all at once, then drop them all in water and do all the rubbing off of the paper all at once so I have a bunch of images to work with. Here I did a stack of images sitting in the hotel one evening at dinner in Birgtz. This way I kept the articles from the newspapers or postcards or brochures or whatever, along the way, without having to keep the entire document. It also protected the article when shoved into a suitcase for 2 weeks.

Specifics:

 The below image was torn from a magazine. It was a full page ad. I simply "taped" the image, just slightly overlapping the edges of each strip of tape, so the entire image was covered. The image is of a camera lens.

Once the image is taped, make sure you use a bone folder, or a spoon or a credit card or your finger or whatever the heck you have on hand, to press the tape down hard over the image. If you have any bubbles in the taped image, that portion of the image will not transfer onto the tape because it didn't stick!

Logical right?

After your image is taped, toss it into a sink of water (I use warm water because i have to rub the paper off the back of the image and I like to have my hands in warm water rather than cold. On a hot summer day though, you just ight prefer the cold:)

and let it sit there...

Every magazine, paper or whatever your image is printed on, is different, so really you have to test the paper after a couple of minutes of being in the water to see if the paper is wet enough and/or saturated enough to rub off easily. The paper in the magazine from which I took the camera lens,rubbed off within seconds of putting it into the water and came off in big pieces.

The sample below wasn't quite as cooperative. I actually used a cloth to assist rubbing the back paper off because it was just so darn stubborn! It's because of the black ink used in the printing of the ad.

Rubbing and rubbing with a cloth because the darn dark ink on the back paper was very very stubborn. What i was left with were the words that were printed in white, onto the dark inked page. If you look closely, you can see those words in the centre of the tape runing length wise.

The below image was from another magazine, I liked the words and format and it was small enough that one strip of tape covered the portion I wanted.

 

In the below image, you can see the bottom portion of the tape and the paper rubbed off.

The taped image has all the paper removed and you can see how clear the words are that I wanted to capture. And of course, it's tape thin and very lightweight.

FYI...the tape is still sticky after the paper is rubbed off! Not as sticky as originally, but still sticky. So be careful what you do with it. If it lands onto another piece of paper, it'll stick to it. I stuck some completed transfers onto a plastic bag to transfer them, and they STUCK BIG TIME to the plastic bag and were almost impossible to get off. I ruined a couple but was able to save a couple. C'est la vie!

Back to the lens image:

I basically crumpled the image up and just start rubbing the paper off the back of the tape. I crumpled it because i just felt like it, for NO OTHER reason! I didn't want a super smooth finished result. If I wouldn't have crumpled it, the finished image would have been as smooth as the paper in the magazine.

I'm not usually too careful about rubbing the paper off, because over the thousands of transfers I've done, I've RARELY had an image that was so delicate that I had to be light handed in the handling of it. Typically, you have to rub quite aggressively to get all the little white bits of paper off the tape. This comment of course must be clarified...the fragility or strength of your image depends a great deal upon your source paper. Are you using a page from a vintage book? I'd say be much more careful!

This is the back of the taped image. You can see the paper from the other side of the page and areas where it's starting to lift off the tape. If you look closely, you can see the strips of tape as well.

rub and rub and rub until the paper is all off...if you look closely, you can see all the little white bits of paper. RUB ALL OF THEM OFF!

The back of the transfer should ALMOST be as smooth as the front! You can honestly feel the little bits of paper, so just rub them until the back is nice and smooth.

just keep rubbing...

 The lens image below shows where the tape, when I taped the image, overlapped. By doing such, it didn't pick up the ink off the image from the magazine and left a "space". I like that effect as well as it isn't a "perfect" transfer and has lots of character.

You definitely can see the strips of tape in the below photo.

The finished image.

Do you want to see what I did with the lens transfer?

If "yes", say "yes sir please"   ,  "yuppers...sure"  ,  "um, yes, okay, why not" ,

actually "yup"   will suffice.

AND there has to be AT LEAST 15 DIFFERENT OF YOU asking to see it or I ain't showing it...

____________________________________________________________

A few more images from magazines are shown below.

Taped...

Water bound...

Rubbing back paper off tape.

After it's all said and done.

 

The below image is a map i found in a brochure that i picked up in Vienna. It's actually quite a thick piece of paper.

Not any more!

You'll find below a variety of sources I use to do packing tape transfers:

* postcards

* greeting cards

* vintage book pages

*scrapbook paper

* pamphlets

*comic books

* magazine ads

*atlas pages

* maps

* new book pages

*ticket stubs

* brochures

* photos (see example below)

and every other paper item you can imagine! (NOT napkins)

I taught a couple of classes at the Calgary Zoo and we did packing tape transfers of a bunch of the brochures that featured a number of different animals. The ladies LOVED LOVED that idea and on the layout we completed, the transfered images of animals were the cover of a mini album on the page. We all know how many photos one can end up with when taking a trip to the zoo, so rather than keep bulky, but very pretty brochures, transfers are a great way to save the images without the bulk!

 

ANY QUESTIONS?

ASK ME.

I answer every single ? when I teach a class.

_______________________________________________________________

Some more photos of the Austria getaway...

 

Jasper

Innsbruck

Innsbruck

Manna coffee shop (not sure what the heck I was trying to take a photo of here. I can't remember... but I actually liked the one of me, which is a rare thing, so I kept it ;)

this was the prettiest bike I had ever seen and i wanted it.

 

Museum of Natural History: Vienna

I asked if I could move in...they said,

"W$%% @@(*&*^  F&*K $#@ &*( %^$#&*^%$^ !+}{&*^!!!!!!!!!!",

but in what I interpreted as a really   super

mean tone.

I wanted the display cases... they said "NO!"

again, in a mean sort of tone .

My favourite bird

My second favourite bird

I WANTED THESE JARS...they said "NO, NO!"

it's still the tone they used??!!
jeesh... 

I didn't bother asking for the dinosaur skeletons 'cause we can guess   know what their answer  , mad yelling response at me, would have been!!

grrrrrrrrr...

that's good for now!

pce

Comments

[lisa mitchell]

yes, THANK YOU to Jesyca!!
for doing all that mailing to us so it would reach us while you were away!
I noticed her signature on the envelope :D

[g]

...6...

[KLH]

absolutely - yep

[g]

You're right Lisa. I never noticed that part of the picture.
hmmmm. I must have a HUGE ego.

By the way, that photo i uploaded in the "about me" is one that you took in Vietnam. I was FINALLY able to get Jesyca's photos off her camera. Did it just before we left for Europe. Where would you like me to send the photos to you? On a CD? in an online album somewhere? HUH? where?

7 to go...

[Lisa Dawn]

yep,
and I imagine you were photographing in the photo that you like about yourself might have been infinity.

the mirrors go on forever

[g]

only 8 to go...

[Wendy]

one of fav things, pt transfers..have you to thank for that g!!

[g]

ONLY 9 TO GO!

[Robyn]

Yup! Love your photos, you made me laugh asking for all those things!! He he!

[Sue Brown]

it's been ages since I did one of these transfers, thanks for getting me back on track g.

[Sue Brown]

yep!!!!

[T]

YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

[g]

Only 12 to go...

[g]

oh man. Good thing you're so honest Pammy! Jesyca mailed everything for me and didn't do quite the detailed list i asked for BUT she did me a HUGE favour as I had A TON of packages to mail and ran out of time before we left for Europe so she did it for me the day we left.
I totally forgot about the tags...
sending an invoice now!

[pammy]

"yup"

[pammy]

LOL lovin your post, had me laughing Y gushing at all the beauty
& Yahhhh g is BACK LOVE the tut so going to do this today, g has givin me my grove back, that has to be good!!
Great to see the paypal invoice, have clicked the button & payed so quick & easy, not like paying at all. BUT you haven't charged me for Xmas tags & Xmas tag album IF you still have these in stock, if so awaiting another paypal request
The perfect day for crafting here raining yet again with lots of flooding around Brissy, poor buggers, but everything is looking green & lush, cheers g & thanks

[Kathryn Johnson]

Great tutorial and beautiful pictures. I can't believe they wouldn't let you move into the museum;)

looking forward to seeing what you did with the lens cap transfer.

[lisa mitchell]

ps...LOVE the transfers!

[lisa mitchell]

YEP!!!