The Crow

I've always liked crows. A bit like magpies. They're clever birds.

Oops. don't know what's happening with my screen - I'm typing and all sorts of pixelated bits are appearing and they change every time I type a letter. Spooky. Picasa is importing lots of photos while I'm writing this, so maybe that's why. Very strange...

Recently, I came across a page about image transfers. I've tried transfers with acrylic medium - but that's messy (you have to scrape the back of the transfers with your fingers, to remove the wet paper pulp. If you scratch too much, part of the picture can be damaged. If you don't scratch enough, too much paper pulp stays attached and the picture is milky at best. And it hurts. And it ruins your hands.) But this new method I found is dead easy, and as you can see with the crow on the left, it works really well. Here is how you do it:

1. Print a picture you like with a laser printer.
2. Apply packing tape over it (Packing tape is basically large sello-tape. The one I have - Dealz, where else? - is 5cm wide)
3. Rub with the back of a spoon so that the image really sets in
4. Place the image in water to soften the paper
5. Rub the paper off with your fingers
6. Let it dry - If necessary, wet again and remove any bit of pulp left. 
7. And the amazing thing is that the tape is still sticky. Don't understand how that's possible, but it is.

The only drawback to this method is the size limitation. You need to size your image to be no wider than your packing tape

(Background with left-over paint from a gelli print, applied with brayer. Stamp is my own creation - my good old "aboriginal snail" - yes, crows like eating snails. I knew there was a logic behind my choice. And the right-hand page is my effort at drawing a bit more)