I have to tell you I've been just busting at the seams to get to this technique! I absolutely love it because it uses so many of my favorite things.... First it's an image transfer of sorts (which I love), it incorporates ephemera (another plus) AND I can play with leafing flakes!!
Transfer Foil Paper
One component of this technique is Metal Leafing Flakes. I use
Sepp Leafing Flakes but you can use whatever type of metal leaf flakes you have on hand. Now if you don't have any metallic flakes have no fear ~ you can simply substitute any of the following : metallic paint pen (like Krylon's metallic paint pens); metallic acrylic paints; metallic ink pads or re-inkers; etc. I will go into applying these various mediums when I get to that step.
Supplies:
Packing Tape
Ephemera - book pages, newsprint, sheet music, etc.
Metal Leafing Flakes (or other metallic medium)
Water (optional)
Cardstock
Instructions:
1. Gather up the paper ephemera you want to use. I am using old dictionary pages and sheet music. Two of my favorites!!
2. Now pull off a piece of packing tape from the roll. The length doesn't matter as we'll be cutting them down into smaller pieces later on.
3. Gently lay the tape onto your ephemera. You don't want to press it on...we're only trying to pick up a minimal amount of the text as shown in the photo. Repeat this step several times until you have 6-10 strips of text covered tape.
4. Now I want you to check each piece of tape to see how sticky it is on the back. If you've got quite a bit of stick to each piece you can skip to step #5. If you picked up quite a bit of paper and your tape has lost most of it's sticky power then you'll need to complete this step before moving on.
If you've got a bit too much paper, place the tape sticky side up on your work surface. Give it a few squirts of water and gently rub off the excess paper pulp. You can see in this photo I've got quite a bit of paper off the tape.
Once you've removed a good portion of the pulp, let the tape dry. As it dries much of the sticky will return. If it doesn't I'll share a way to fix that in the next step.
5. It's time to add the leafing flakes! Place the tape sticky side up and sprinkle a pile of the leafing flakes over the tape. With your finger gently spread the flakes over the tape and begin rubbing the flakes into the sticky areas. When you've covered all the sticky areas you can set this piece of tape aside and continue working on the remaining strips.
NO STICKY AREAS - If by chance your tape doesn't have much stick after step 4 then you can simply apply some double sided adhesive to the packing tape - I like to use my ATG but any will work.
METALLIC LEAF ALTERNATIVES - If you're going to be using one of the alternatives I mentioned at the beginning you should apply them now. If you're using paint or inks I would apply it with a sponge gently dabbing one or more colors over the back of the tape until covered.
If you're using a metallic paint pen pump up the pen so the nib is very wet. Create "pools" of color in various areas then go back over these areas with a sponge and dab the paint around the tape until covered.
Here is what one of my strips looks like....You can clearly see where the tape was sticky and where there was more paper. Creates a cool effect huh?
6. Cut up the strips into roughly 2" pieces.
7. Apply double stick adhesive to your cardstock and begin placing the leafed pieces on the cardstock. You can position some upright, others on their side, even more upside down. There is no right or wrong here....
Once the cardstock has been covered you're set to go!
Here is how my calendar page turned out....
Awesome huh?
Told ya so :)
Now it's your turn to create!
