Photo Transfer Tiles, Part 3

(Part 2 of this series explained preparing the tiles, transferring the image, and the importance of waiting...)

18. After waiting at least a full day, spray the paper with water until fully moistened. (If you do not have a spray bottle, then soak a sponge or washcloth and place on top of the paper until fully moistened. I do not recommend soaking the tile in a bucket or bowl of water.)

19. Gently rub the paper with your finder until it rolls off from the tile. Work slowly and with a light touch until all the paper is removed. If the paper starts to dry out during this process, moisten it again. Rub the tile with a wet paper towel to make sure that all the paper is removed. Let dry completely.

20. If desired, paint the image on the tile with acrylic paint. Let dry completely.

21. If desired, scuff up the image with a nail file, to give it a weathered look. Because the gel medium is essentially a thin latex layer over tile, you may want to pull up small areas of the image. Rub the tile with a wet paper towel to make sure that all the paper is removed. Let dry completely.

22. Protect the tile with two coasts of varnish. Let the varnish dry at least overnight between coats or until completely dry.

Here's a few more from the set of 8:

Photo Transfer Tiles, Part 2

(Part 1 of this series explains how to create the transfers.)

(9) Now, it's tile to go shopping (or raid your craft closet). In addition to your transfers, you'll need:

• Golden Soft Gel (Gloss)
• Sponge brush
• 4" travertine tiles (I used beige ones. These should cost you about $5.50 for a box of 9 at your local "big box" home improvement store)
• Craft paint varnish
• paper towels
• Wallpaper border roller or standard rolling pin
• Optional: acrylic paints and paint brush

From what I've read online, it's important to use the Golden brand gel. Also,only the gloss variant dries clear. I also recommend you use your "40% off" Michael's coupon on this, as it's the most expensive part of the project.

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(10) Wash the dust off the tiles with tap water and allow to dry overnight.

 

Protecting your work surface and working one tile at a time,

(11) Apply soft gel to tile, using sponge brush.

(12) Apply soft gel to transfer, using sponge brush.

(13) Recheck tile to make sure there's an even coat of soft gel. Apply transfer to tile. You won't have much, if any, time to reposition, so make sure you line it up properly first.

(14) Place paper towel on top and use roller with pressure over entire surface to remove air bubbles and make sure that the transfer and tile are fully contacting each other. (Be sure not to "jiggle" the transfer or your image may come out blurred.)

(15) Remove paper towel and roll some more, until you can start to see the image faintly through the paper. (Again, be sure not to "jiggle" the transfer or your image may come out blurred.)

(16) Wipe off any excess gel from the sides of the tile.

(17) Wait a full day. Do not lift up a corner "to see how it's coming." THIS IS THE HARDEST PART.

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Part 3 of this series will explain how to remove the transfer and complete your project.

Photo Transfer Tiles, Part 1

I've been checking out companies that transfer photographs onto ceramic tiles (either one large tile or several tile that, well, "tile" your image.) However, they seem to reduce pix to the type one can buy as a "mural" at your local "big box" home improvement center. Worse yet, some of these companies actually ask you to transfer them the copyright to your photograph (presumably so they can sell your work to other customers!)

However, I found a number of craft web sites which provide directions for DIY photo transfers. I took the best of the instructions I found and tried it out for myself. Here's what I did:

(1) I found images I liked and developed a theme. (For this series, I used only photos of me and my husband, so arguably none of the finished products are solely "mine"). Here's one I particularly like, for obvious reasons:

(2) I went into Microsoft Word, found one of the readings from our wedding and sized it until it became a perfect square. (I also changed fonts until I found a "pretty" script I liked.) I then saved the file as a PDF.

(3) I next went into Photoshop and resized the PDF to 3.5" x 3.5" at 300 dpi, cropping the image close to the edge of the text. Next, I enlarged the ***canvas*** to 4"x4", centered which left a .25" border around the image. I then saved this file as a template, in case I wanted to do a similar project in the future. (I knew there was no way I'd be able to match fonts, leading, etc. again.)

(4) I then opened a copy of the template and saved it for this project. I tiled 4 of the images as an 8x8" image. (Still .25" around the outer edges, but .5 between the images. I then resized the ***canvas*** to 8.5 x 8.5", centered. After that, I resized to 8.5 x 11", moving the image to the top. This left me with a .5 border on the outside edges (more than adequate for a laser printer), as well as .5" between the pix.

(5) Because this is a transfer process, the text needs to be reversed. The "flop horizontal" command works nicely for this. I then saved this file as a template, too.

(6) I then Photoshopped the images, converted to Greyscale, flopped them, too, and added them, as new layers to a copy of the page template. I then flattened the image and saved as a PDF to economize file size.

Here's what the full page transfer looks like:

(7))I then printed the transfer on a laser printer, onto regular printer paper. (It's important to use a laser printer rather than an inkjet printer, because the inkjet ink may run too much. Your local copy shop can help you if need be.)

(8) After that, I cut carefully around each image, leaving a 1/4" border. Your transfer, including the border should measure 4" x 4", exactly the size of the tiles we'll be using:

(Doesn't it look like a vintage square photo?)

Part 2 of this series will explain preparing the tiles, transferring the image, and the importance of waiting...