I'm an Image Transfer Failure Again...

Okay.

I know. I swore I was done with transfers. I have been a dismal failure every time I've tried it. Then along comes my sweet Melange Team on Etsy group. And the even sweeter Glenda Bailey and her August Transfer Challenge. Sigh. Okay. I'm trying it again. Many people have told me how simple the Purell (yes, the hand sanitizer! ) and transparency system is - so I decided to try that. Then I couldn't find the Purell that I specifically bought for this. Uh, oh. Well, no time to run to the store. I'll use this promotional bottle of hand sanitizer that I got at the Award & Trophy shop (We had to get prize ribbons for the vintage bike show). It can't be that different, right? Right? ...hello?

I love this image. I think I got it from Dover, but I'm not sure. It's in my Freebie File, most of those are Dover images. This is my second attempt of the day. I didn't start taking pictures until I'd already failed the first time. Don't worry. It pretty much looked like the 2nd and 3rd times.

First, I dripped the hand sanitizer onto the painting. Then I spread it around evenly with a credit card. Okay, it's my husband's CostCo card and I can't guarantee that it was all that even!

So I put the image down on top of it and rubbed - ahem, I mean burnished it for a bit. Hmmm, maybe too much. The edges are starting to look a little blurry.

Hm. Well, I'm not sure. It looks like something may be beginning to come off, doesn't it? Maybe I should just leave the transparency on there. Doesn't the image look nice in that circle? Okay, okay. I take a peek. Weird stringy pieces pull away from the canvas in a couple areas. The rest of it doesn't look like anything is happening. I throw some more sanitizer at it and burnish/rub it again.

I get bored waiting for something to happen and I pull off the transparency. Hmmm...Well, I got a bit of an image - a very faint bit. I decide to wipe it off and try again. Of course, that turns out to be my best result. Oh, well. I had hope!

I find some instructions on a (very funny) blog and decide to try putting the sanitizer directly on the image. I drip a few drops on and spread it around with my (ahem) credit card very gently so as not to smear the image.

It appears to dry almost instantly - or I didn't put enough on. So I do it again - and for good measure I put the leftover down on the canvas.

I set the image down and I leave it alone for a while (per the blog lady's instructions - she says you don't need to burnish much, if at all). Of course nothing happens. So I do a bit of a burnish/rub with my (ahem) credit card.

It's starts to look smeary again, so I stop. I try to set it aside and ignore it for a minute - but it doesn't go away! Sigh. Okay, I take a peek and again I have weird stringy stuff lifting off the canvas. I'm beginning to think that may be what happens when you use too much sanitizer. Again, the face looks okay - but very faint. It's possible I'm expecting too much of the transfer process. What do you think?

Oh, and it turns out that if you use enough hand sanitizer, it starts to take the paint off, too, when you're wiping it off.

Oh, well. I will run out tonight and buy Purell (again!) and see if I can't get something to work later. This was actually fun this time. I'm inspired to try again. Run over to the Melange blog and check out all the different methods - both on the blog posts (there are several) and in the comments section.