We all have those special pictures, the ones that just kind of stand out in our mind. Maybe it's a favorite moment in time, an expression on a friend's face, the larger than life quality of a certain celebrity picture–those images deserve to be preserved and presented in a manner just as precious as the photos themselves.
Canadian craft company Tilano is looking to give you new ways of showing off your photos with their new photo transfer project kits. With their kit, a laser printer and a little following of simple directions you can make glass magnets, marble coasters or stretched canvas artwork using your most treasured photos without damaging them at all.
After the jump, Long Beach Craft Mafia demonstrates the simple steps to Tilano photo transfer success, and gives you a chance to win a free kit or one of the finished projects.
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First up, you prepare your chosen image for transfer. Print it out on the special Tilano transfer paper using a laser printer–ink jet printers won't do it for ya! Then brush the Tilano medium onto your image and let it dry for a while. We're a tad bit impatient, and found that using a hair dryer really helped speed up the process.
Next up, we applied the Tilano medium to the surface where the image would be applied, and put the image face-down on top of it.
Once you lay your image down, it's important to smooth out all of the air bubbles or wrinkles so you have a nice smooth image on the finished product. The Tilano photo transfer kits come with all the needed supplies which is super handy; when the little plastic spreader is included there's no need to go hunting for a popsicle stick or piece of cardstock to do the job!
Jennifer Martin of RADCo told us a little about how she chose the dogs photo she used to make a marble coaster: “I chose to make a coaster for my grandmother using a photo of her two dogs. They're looking up at the camera when the photo was shot, so i thought it would be a funny coaster almost as if they were looking up at the coffee mug that was about to be placed on them!”
On the next page, the big reveal and a chance to win!
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Once your artwork is completely dry, (we used an oven to speed up the process as suggested in the directions) you get to the fun part. Using a foam brush and a glass of water, you saturate the paper on the back of your photo until it's completely clear. It's actually a lot like working with a temporary tattoo–it's not ready for next steps until the paper is sliding around easily on top of your artwork. If it's sticking at all, add more water!
And that's it… it's time for the big reveal! Let your project dry again, seal it with another coat of Tilano medium, and you're good to go – the directions vary a little with each Tilano kit but they're all basically the same and if you take your time and read the directions carefully you'll have a grand old time! We all were really excited with how our projects turned out–Tamara Zielinski of Crayon Fawn shares:
“It is great if you want a real personalized gift and it is easy enough for the 'Craft Challenged.' There was only a few steps and it was really straight forward. The coasters are a bit more fancy because they are mounted on marble instead of cardboard or foam or whatever coasters are typically made of. Marble generally equals class, right? I suppose they will last longer too.”
It's giveaway time! Leave a comment about what you think about these photo transfer kits, and you'll automatically be entered to win! This week we have two prizes: 1st prize is a brand new photo transfer kit from Tilano and 2nd prize is Klairat Brown's finished canvas project complete with added fabric thought bubble!
Comment as much as you like, but we will only count one entry per person and if you've won in the last 30 days you'll be ineligible to win so others have a chance at awesomeness. Contest closes at midnight, October 30 so get commenting!
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For more information on Tilano photo transfer products, visit their website or follow them on Twitter.
For more information on Long Beach Craft Mafia, visit their website, follow them on Twitter or be a fan on Facebook. Wanna see more pictures from the work party? Check out the Flickr set.
All crafty folks are invited to the Long Beach Craft Mafia Halloween party on Wednesday, October 28 at 9pm – details can be seen here.
