Last week’s Fearless Art Journaling class was all about transferring images to our journals and our paint cloth. We started with four laser printed images. To transfer, the images must be printed on either a laser printer or a copy machine. We also played with an image printed on an inkjet printer transparency.
Our first transfer was using matte medium. You can also use gel medium.
- Apply the medium to the image side of picture.
- Lay the image face down on page and rub. You can use a brayer or just your fingers.
- Leave to dry for 30 minutes.
- Apply water to image and rub off paper.
For my class samples I used an image of one of my journal pages using my Summer stencil.

Rub lightly or you will remove the ink. You can see below where I rubbed too hard in a couple areas. Also, I still needed to rub more paper off of this picture, but wanted an example for class of an actual photograph.

Our next transfer was with Mod Podge. Same process as before.

Then we moved on to acrylic paint. The directions are just a bit different for this process.
- Apply the paint to the paper.
- Lay the image face down on the wet paint on the page and rub. You can use a brayer or just your fingers.
- Leave to dry for 30 minutes.
- Apply water to image and rub off paper.
I really liked the looks of this transfer.

The next transfer was using Citrasolv. I’ve posted about how this product transfers on a variety of different mediums here.
- Lay the image face down on the page.
- Dip a cottonball in the Citrasolv.
- Rub the cotton ball on the back of the image. Like magic, the image appears!
- When it looks like the ink has transferred from the laser print to the page, remove the printed image.


The last transfer was using matte medium, the inkjet transparency, and their paint cloths. You can also use gel medium here.
- Apply the matte medium on the fabric to a spot the size of the image.
- Lay the transparency rough side down on the wet matte medium and rub with your fingers.
- Continue to rub until it looks like the image has transferred. If you want to check on how it’s transferrring, you can pull back a corner. You can add a little matt medium to areas at that point if it looks like there isn’t enough to transfer.
- Pull off the transparency.

Then with fabric glue, I attached the paint cloth transfers to my journal.

I realized why I like the Summer stencil so much. It reminds me of my younger days when that photo opposite it was taken! I did add some markers to my picture.
When using any of these transfer products, less is better. Also, a light touch when rubbing will make for better transfers.
Again, it was a fun class and they made some beautiful transfers! This week is our final session. So much to cover and not enough time!
Lynda, your transfers are wonderful!!! Really good job. I think I love them all. I really LOVE the look of the photo of you and the CitraSolve. I love the look. I also get good transfers using an inkjet printer and copy paper. I only have an inkjet and have not had the best of results using transparencies. Somewhere I read of something you can apply over those paper transfers that hide the white paper areas…just can’t remember right now what the tip was….maybe I’ll think of it later.
I just thought of why my transparency transfers have not been good…I used a gel medium instead of a fluid medium…..with gel you just get too many streaks.
Nice transfers! I’m still thinking my 2 CitraSolvs didn’t properly transfer due to the soy ink in the laser printer.
Maybe we should do a YouTube video featuring you!
Teresa, That is probably right. I’d love to do a video but not feature me – just see my hands!! We could do one together!
Kathy, I’ve used gel medium and it works fine on fabric. On paper it is streaky but that gives an interesting look.
I am really enjoying your blog. I didn’t know about acrylic paint transfers, and I have used acrylics for 20 years! lol Thanks for that tip!
Amanda, I really like the look of the acrylic transfers. So glad you enjoy my blog and thanks for commenting. Lynda