Starry Starry Night Mixed Media Colllage - Part One

Original picture of house.

I love textile arts and I love collages so of course I love fabric collage!

Difficulty: medium 

A supplies you'll need for complete project:

NOTE: (for the phot transfer, this tutorial, you will #1, 2 and 7 supplies and all tools.)

1) a laser-printed photo (laser uses toner)

2) stable cotton fabric
3) scrap fabric
4) fusible webbing (Wunder-Under)
5) misc items - beads, sequins, glitter glue - for embellishment
6) wood dowel to hang the final collage (or frame it)
7) Golden gel medium (optional) - to create the foto transfer

Tools:
1) iron - to fuse the Wonder-Under
2) printer (or access to one for the laser print)

3) roller or credit card for squeegee

This is a long process, not a project to be done in a night.

Have an idea how you would like your final image to look. You don't have to incorporate a photo; the entire image can be fabric collaged.  Certainly you can improvise along the way, but having a basic vision of your final project helps the progression.

I began with a photograph of my girlfriend's (and her fiancé's house). I printed it twice as large so it took 4 sheets of paper. I then cut and glued the

photo together.

Assembling the four-paged picture into one.

Next, using the the gel medium, I heavily coated the printed photo. Working quickly, (you don't have to be too graceful here, the gel medium is fairly forgiving).

Printed picture covered with gel medium.

Close-up of my messy application of gel medium.

Before the medium dries, flip your image over (dry side to the surface where you're attaching it) onto your fabric/wood etc. I used off white canvas. Softly squeegee or roll any possible air bubbles out; your image should make complete contact with your surface or you won't transfer properly. If that happens, don't fret, you're making art, this is fun. 

Remove any air bubbles.

Allow the pic to dry. (I went to bed and picked up the next night). I then used a spray bottle of water and spritzed small areas as I rubbed away the saturated paper. 

Spray paper with clean water and begin to remove paper by gently rubbing your finger over it.

Close-up of how the layers of paper slowly come away, leaving the toner attached to the gel medium.

Paper remnants removed from image.

Nearly completed removal of paper from canvas.

I didn't bother to scrub away much near the edges because I both liked the remaining paper and the house will be cut out later and mounted on a new collage background. 

See the completion of this project here.

This completes the photo transfer process of the Starry Starry Night Mixed Media Collage. Visit again soon for part 2.