The other day at work I was about to toss away the backing sheet from some address labels. I looked at it's slick surface and thought about the fact it had already been through a laser printer and that in the past I'd stuck sheets missing a label or two through the printer and that the toner sort of flaked off those areas. I heard about a collage technique in which you cover each collage piece with gel medium, let it dry and then use a sticker sheet to cover the pieces and finally adhere it with an iron. So, I wondered, "What would happen if I ran this empty sheet through a laser printer, with the image reversed, and ironed just the TONER onto a sheet of paper/art journal page?"

Well it turns out you get the best damn toner transfer I've ever seen. Crisp, clean. clear, and nearly 100% transfer of the toner to paper. I haven't tested this on an art journal page but I'm sure the transfer will work just as well.

Here's what I did:

• Clear the edges off the stitcker sheet
• Set up an image in GIMP(photoshop, or some other program that will let you REVERSE your printing options or lettering)
• Go to Image>transform> flip or use the "flip" tool
• Flip Horizontally so your image is reversed
• Select print
• Tell the printer that you're using "thin" paper or a transparency, this uses a lower heat setting so the toner sits on the surface of your sticker sheet better.
• Place this on your page, set your iron to a HIGH NO STEAM heat setting. (play around with heat settings to see what gives you the look you want. I found that high heat gave the crispest transfer, but lower heat settings distorted the image and left some toner on the sheet.)
• Carefully iron the page, gently move the iron around, hitting ALL the toner with the iron.
• Remove the iron
• Allow the page to cool enough that you can touch it comfortably.
• Gently peel off the sticker backing.
• And shout out "HOLY CRAP IT WORKED!!!"

Alternately if you want to grunge this up, peel the sticker paper up when the toner is still hot, if any is still slightly stuck to the backing, it will stretch the toner out and distort your image/words. Then iron it again to get it stuck to the page. Let it cool and peel off the backing, subtle distortion.

This will NOT work with injet or ink based printers, as the ink will just bead off the sticker backing.

The sticker sheet can be used many times, but I found that after a few runs through the printer that the transfer was more and more grungy. I also found that large areas of black did not transfer as well as images with more lines and white.

I will be saving all the address label and sticker backing material frmo here on out, this is the BEST transfer technique I've ever used.

Here are some of my test pages and one page that is 100% from transfers.

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I've written about how faces and gears show up in my work. I was interviewed over here a while back and one of the images she used was a gouache on board that is, what Eveline refered to as "classic" Less style. And it's true. It is. Bright colors, gears and faces.

This is another riff on that same theme, 2 faces and a page of gears.

In this case I carved a rubber stamp for the gear and used a few dicuts as other gear type things. The faces are drawn in pencil, acrylic used to blend them and the dicuts are colored with ink before being glued to the page. Over all this is a very simple page but very much me.

Seriously, everywhere. Look at your morning coffee, your egg mcmuffin, the trash on the ground, dirty dishes, your pen/pencil/brush, your hand, alarm clock, lamp,air conditioner, car/truck, train, train pass, dollar bill, debit card, credit card, the internet, the TV, cat, ferret, dog, a tree,a park, a movie, your family, homeless dude sitting next to you on the bus, the newspaper,a magazine, office, your job, your home, birth control or lack of it, your best friend, your most hated enemy, your ex, a funny website, youtube, your mom, air filters, dust, dust bunnies, a spider, a mouse, the vacuum an etc…

In short anything can inspire you to write/draw/paint in your art journal. Where do you let it take you? That's what matters.

What speaks to you? Crfayons? If so use them. Do you only like to write in blue, purple or green? That's okay too.

Do you like:

Sharpies?
Caran d'ache?
Charcoal?
Acrylic?
Watercolors?
Colored Pencils?
Collage?
Gouache?
Ink?
Rubber stamps?
Pastel?
Watercolor Pencils?

If so use them.

Do you hate any of the above? Then don't use it.

Do you like to use more than one? Use whatever you like. Mix 'em up.

Use what you like there is no one (but you) to stop you!