This post is going to be about a product known as TAP .....Transfer Artist Paper, but first I want to tell you about Heather
Ordover. Heather has a site called
Craftlit a podcast for crafters who love books. She recently contacted me to let me know that she had in fact mentioned me in one of these
podcasts, Cool! She just had so many wonderful things to say about what can be found here on my blog that I think she may have actually made me blush, so when you get a chance please go on over and check her out.........you just may find yourself tuning in to listen to Heather as you happily while away the time working on your current projects.
So........Tap. Have you heard of this stuff? Have you, do you, use it? I have been wanting to get my hands on this for a long time and was so excited to find it last month, that I bought a couple of packages. I am going to reserve judgment as I go along using it in various ways. I will tell you what I like about it and why I am also quite disappointed with it.
First of all what is it?...... well it is a paper that has a coating on one side. You can put it through your printer, you can draw and paint directly on it and then, using an iron you can "transfer" your image onto all sorts of surfaces, fabric, glass, wood, metal, paper...etc .......but I really only care about using it with fabric at this point.I must tell you that it is a kind of expensive medium to play with as 5 sheets at 12.95 plus 13% tax means that they are costing me nearly $3/sheet so you can bet I'll be using every inch of this stuff.The first thing I did was try to draw directly onto this and found out very quickly(to my great disappointment) that a pencil or crayon dragged across this paper just causes it to "scrape" the coating off.........not real happy as it was one of the things I wanted this stuff for.
So the next thing I did was run a sheet through the printer. I created some text for a label and a couple of feathers to experiment with. The results going through the printer were good. Nice sharp, clear text, but when it is ironed onto fabric (as in this label) you still see the "edges" where it was cut from the paper and it is a little stiff........I thought it was not suppose to change the hand of the fabric much....well trust me it does! It softens a little after washing but I honestly did not find this really much better than the T shirt transfer papers that are out there. I left this photo as a large file so if you click on it, you can see what I mean.
okay, so then, I went on to using some markers, inks and paints. I printed these quickly drawn feather outlines onto the TAP and then went over the lines with a sharpie marker. The marker glided over the paper fairly well but the coating will gum up your marker in a very short time. Next I got playing with paints. The yellow and orange feather was created using
Setacolour transparent paints straight from the bottle.........with the green feather, I decided to really test the paper. I brushed a clear gel over the entire surface and then went in with all purpose inks, added more marker here and there and let it all dry.
Once the green one was completely dry, I went back in and scraped away some of the colour........this actually proved to be quite interesting. I cut the pieces out fairly close to the image and have saved every scrap of the paper for later use. I WILL use it somehow.
Finally you see the images after they have been ironed to fabric. I have to say that the images really do transfer beautifully.
I can see where this stuff would be great for collage work, but I was not impressed with it on a plain solid fabric. (as in that quilt label) Also, you should know that if you plan to do any micro-stippling on this stuff, you will need to be prepared to get lots of little Tap Dandruff on you.
I will continue to play with this product and post the results.
So I scanned the original and then printed a couple of the images onto a sheet of TAP. Cut one out and transferred that image onto fabric using a hot iron.
The original is on the right and the TAPped version is on the left, finished as a postcard. I must admit this was kinda cool!
The finished stamp with textile paint applied.
Instead of "stamping" onto the fabric, I laid the fabric (a sheer) on top of the wet stamp and rolled a brayer over it.
With just a little more refinement to the cutting, I think this is going to work quite well
Hope you are not tiring of feathers, because I have many more to show over the next little while.
So the next thing I did was run a sheet through the printer. I created some text for a label and a couple of feathers to experiment with. The results going through the printer were good. Nice sharp, clear text, but when it is ironed onto fabric (as in this label) you still see the "edges" where it was cut from the paper and it is a little stiff........I thought it was not suppose to change the hand of the fabric much....well trust me it does! It softens a little after washing but I honestly did not find this really much better than the T shirt transfer papers that are out there. I left this photo as a large file so if you click on it, you can see what I mean.
okay, so then, I went on to using some markers, inks and paints. I printed these quickly drawn feather outlines onto the TAP and then went over the lines with a sharpie marker. The marker glided over the paper fairly well but the coating will gum up your marker in a very short time. Next I got playing with paints. The yellow and orange feather was created using Setacolour transparent paints straight from the bottle.........with the green feather, I decided to really test the paper. I brushed a clear gel over the entire surface and then went in with all purpose inks, added more marker here and there and let it all dry.
Once the green one was completely dry, I went back in and scraped away some of the colour........this actually proved to be quite interesting. I cut the pieces out fairly close to the image and have saved every scrap of the paper for later use. I WILL use it somehow.
Finally you see the images after they have been ironed to fabric. I have to say that the images really do transfer beautifully.
I can see where this stuff would be great for collage work, but I was not impressed with it on a plain solid fabric. (as in that quilt label) Also, you should know that if you plan to do any micro-stippling on this stuff, you will need to be prepared to get lots of little Tap Dandruff on you.
Here is Suzanne at Quilt Market in Houston last week promoting the new book. (open to my pages) :-)
These photos were sent to me by Linda M Poole , Author, Artist, Instructor, Quilter and Fabric Designer. Linda was attending Quilt Market and snapped these for me. Thanks Linda I am so excited to see them
I began with this paper towel
To the stamp, I applied textile paint with a sponge and just began randomly placing the stamp, pressing lightly in some areas and harder in others.
A mat with a 4 x 6 opening helped decide what part of the printed paper towel I wanted to use
Finished postcard and close up. I simply stitched a tight little stipple to enhance the appearance of layered leaves
I don't generally like those applicators but on this black fabric I don't need to be precise (don't have to stay inside the lines)I plan to add some thread work to see if I can get a little more colour "POP"
Well, I gotta tell you that this little bag has the most cool closure I have ever seen. This is a "Snap Happy" pattern from Stitchin' Sisters, go check them out.
I made a slightly larger one using coffee themed prints......I included a little pocket inside that is just the right size to hold one of those prepaid coffee cards. I think these make great "just because" gifts.
and then repeated a similar one directly onto a piece of my painted fabric to create this card.
Do you participate in postcard exchanges with a quilt guild or fibre-art group? You just never know what will show up in your mailbox
Now I ask you........why on earth would someone have felt the need to paint this in the first place?
This is the natural wood, no stain or varnish, I have simply used a little Lemon Oil to bring back it's beauty. You can see some of the wonderful grain here and the great decal on this piece.
You just never know what you might find under painted furniture........sometimes the paint is covering something nasty, it can be a gamble and a lot of work......this one was well worth the effort.
You can see that someone was really into decorative painting, each side was painted a little differently. Fortunately the original decal from White Sewing Machine Co. is still in tact on the inside of the lid and had not been painted over.
With the hardware removed, I used a heat gun and sand paper to get rid of as much of the paint as possible.
It is looking pretty good. In order to get the last remaining bits out of the corners and grooves, I will have resort to the use of a chemical stripper. I want to do this outside so if the weather cooperates, I hope to have this finished by the end of the week.
