Easy Image Transfer on canvas using Collage Pauge

We've been in a BIG image transfer mood these past couple of weeks in the design studio here at iLoveToCreate!  I printed out several of some of my original photography and my crafty friend Miranda has been helping transfer them onto canvas and wood. They have been turning out so awesome & distressed.  The photo transferred above actually looks almost like painting. Let me show you how we did this cool and artful technique!  I promise you are going to want to try it for yourself once you see how easy it is to do!

What you need:

– Collage Pauge Decoupage in Matte or Glossy (get it and find more info here)

– Photo printout on LASERJET printer (you'll thank me for bolding this later)

(Get a free 8"x10" download of the San Francisco building scene we used here)

– 8x10 white canvas

– 1" bristle paintbrush

– old gift card or credit card

– soft sponge

– scissors

Before you begin:  Using your photo editing software program, size a photo of your choice to fit the dimensions of your canvas. In this case, my canvas was 8"x10", so I sized the photo to be 8"x10" and then printed it out on LASERJET. 

Note:  We've seen this project created with other collage & decoupage mediums in the marketplace.  What makes Collage Pauge different is that there is no odor and you get less visible brushstrokes compared to other products! Now back to the project!!!

Cut out around your image with scissors.

Squeeze out a generous amount of Collage Pauge onto your brush.

 Spread the Collage Pauge back and forth in one direction covering the entire image. 

Flip over your pauged picture and position it flat on the canvas.

.  Use a gift card to smooth out an air bubbles and to create a tight bond of the Collage Pauge to the canvas. Let it sit 4-6 hours or overnight.

 Wet your finger or a sponge with a bowl of water and start gently scrubbing off the paper. This is the most time-intensive part of the process, so be patient with it!  A thourough and even light scrubbing will produce the best results.

 Here's what it looked like after scrubbing off most of the paper.  Some areas will look more distressed and scrubbed than others.  For this technique, this is actually a good thing! It gives more artful character to the finished piece!

Even after you think you are finished scrubbing, you will want to go back in and scrub some more.  You will know when to stop scrubbing when there's no paper pulp left when you let it air dry. When you are finished, you can go back and add another coat of Collage Pauge to seal and give it a finished look!

Here's a fun vine we made showing the process to give you a better idea!

Here's a close-up detail of what the canvas looked like when finished.

Here's another example of a canvas that we made using vintage images of Aleene Jackson (the inventor of Tacky Glue). We gave her this canvas as a 90th birthday present last week.

Another way to use this technique is to incorporate it into your mixed media process.  For example, after I transferred this image I took of some signage at the Neon Boneyard in Las Vegas, I went back in with a pen and doodled on top.  It gave it a hand-drawn look that I love.

And here's some more examples of our work from this week. We even transferred a photo onto wood. That's me and my daddy on my wedding day at bottom on the wood surface. The wood grain even popped through!

What do you think of this process? Does it look like a cool new technique you'd like to try with your photos?