After much experimenting, I've finally found a transfer technique using an inkjet printer that works for me. Actually, it's more of a decal-making technique, but once it's glued onto the fused fabric, it looks pretty good - "pretty DARN good!" as George of the Jungle would say! Here's how I did it:
1. First, I printed the image onto JetPrint matte photo paper with my HP inkjet printer. (There's no need to reverse the image because it's like a decal.)
2. Then, I trimmed around the image and placed it face up on a glass baking dish. Meanwhile, I was preheating the oven to 275 degrees.
3. Next I spead Liquid Sculpey over the image, insuring that there was a good, even coating. Ok, I use my finger (but I wash it off thoroughly afterwards.) Let it sit a few minutes as the oven heats so the Liquid Sculpey sort of settles and evens out.
4. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove and let cool.
5. Soak the image in a bowl of water; then, carefully turn it upside down and gently rub off the paper with your finger. As you do so, you might let it dry a couple of time so you can see where any little paper fibers are still clinging to the image. OK, this can get kind of tedious, but it's a fairly durable decal-like thingy and can take a lot of rubbing.
6. Voila!! A perfect, detail-filled image that's ready for use in your mixed media creations.
I glued this image using three different things to see what worked best and dried the most transparent: Golden gel medium, Elmer's caulk (more on that later!), and Alene's Fabric glue. All three looked great. What do you think???
