Gum Arabic Transfers « MT Designs 4 U

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Gum Arabic Transfers

February 27, 2008 by Mary Lou

I have been through hell trying to get a good transfer. I’ve tried the following techniques: Ink Jet, Laser, Color Copier, Transparencies as well… I’ve tried Acetone, Gin, Gel Medium, Transfer It to name a few. I can’t tell you how much money I have spent in the process… between purchasing different products, different types of paper, and Tylenol to take care of my head-aches in the process.Tonight I began to straighten out one of my shelves in my “Craft Closet” and came across a bottle of Gum Arabic. I’m sure like you, you find things in your stash that you have no clue what you bought it for. You just know “you had to have it”. I sat there for a few minutes dumb founded…. Now what did I purchase this for? Then it hit me… I read somewhere a long time ago that some use it for transfers. OK…. I have a full bottle of Tylenol and several pages of Ink Jet and Laser Printed images….. I figured I’d try the pictures I printed on regular typing paper on my Lexmark printer. Nothing fancy, no special ink…. just cheap prints from my home computer. Here are the steps I took.

1. Printed images on plain copy paper

2. Tore pictures from the paper to have irregular edges

3. Painted Gum Arabic on the torn out image

4. Turned the image over and pressed down onto my clay coated ATC card (I tried this on other papers as well)

5. Make sure you press the image down and brayer or rub it down really well to assure it is adhered in all areas. (Make sure your image doesn’t wiggle around)

6. If you have patience, wait for it to dry. If not, use a heat gun to dry the image. (I’m impatient)

7. Rub paper with water and rub until you see your image clearly.

Here is a copy of the first 3 I did tonight. They are in different stages and are not complete but I wanted to share this will you all tonight while I was in the process of doing them.

Gum Arabic Transfers

Posted in TECHNIQUES | 18 Comments

18 Responses

on February 27, 2008 at 11:05 pm Christy

Well finally you found one that worked for you. And worked really well I’d say. Congrats and I totally understand how excited you are about this
on February 28, 2008 at 2:24 am Cindy Jones Lantier

Congratulations to you! They seemed to have worked out rather well, I’d say. I can see why you are so excited about this!
on February 28, 2008 at 8:04 am carol vasenko

I never have good luck witih transfers so i appreciate your success with gum arabic. I never would have thought of that one!
on February 28, 2008 at 8:29 am Mary

you did very well! I have had limited success in this are so i can appreciate all your effort!!
on February 28, 2008 at 10:15 am peggy gatto

thanks for the info and they turned out great!
on February 28, 2008 at 10:50 am paperbouquet

They look great! Thanks for sharing, and congratulations on finding a technique that works for you. : )

Olivia
on February 28, 2008 at 12:05 pm pat schmidt

Are you sure you’re not ME? I could have written your post on transfers! I bought gum arabic….but why? I have tried tons of transfers with unhappy results. Now I’m off to un-earth my gum arabic and try my hand….yours are just perfect! Thanks so much….yippppeeee!
on February 28, 2008 at 12:14 pm Kim V

Yayyy! Congratulations – transfers are fun and I’m glad you’ve had success at LAST! I’ve never heard of using gum arabic – who knew?!
on February 28, 2008 at 12:23 pm Dawn Gold

Well way to go you Mary Lou, fabulous job, and all that experimenting was worth it because you cracked it…..!
on February 28, 2008 at 9:14 pm Casey

Boy, can I identify! I haven’t had much success with them either. Congrats to you!!!
on February 29, 2008 at 9:10 am sabine

Great results, Mary Lou ! So this is a new kind of inkjet transfer I havent heard of before ! Congrats !!!
on June 15, 2008 at 8:43 pm Kim Gibson

What a great idea… I know what I am doing tomorrow!
on August 31, 2008 at 3:21 pm LouAnn

Hey Kim, I know what I am doing tomorrow too!! Mary Lou thanks for sharing this info. I have been seeing everybody doing these transfers, trying to get some info for myself and being so unlucky at it. Now here you come, with this lovely gift what a blessing. The three you did, they are just so wonderful. I will be back after I tried it and let you know how they came out.

My HAT!!! is off to you for sharing just great information.
on August 31, 2008 at 3:29 pm LouAnn

Hey I did not look at the dates, did not realize how old they were. That’s ok I am going to try it.

I have a question that I hope can be answered quickly. I want to get this Gum Arabic. I don’t have any because I never heard of it. Question is it a clear transparency? because I googled and there are quite a few different kinds. If you can let me know which it is. If not I guess I have to use some gas and go find it (lol).
on August 31, 2008 at 9:06 pm Mary Lou

It occured to me after I heard from LouAnn that perhaps it would be helpful to tell you what brand I used for the transfers…..

The brand is “Daler-Rowney” Gum Arabic Solution (for water colour)

The bottle is clear glass…. the gum arabic inside is the color of ginger ale. The color doesn’t seem to effect the “clear” transparency…..

Hope this clears up any questions you might have had.

(This is liquid gum arabic…. not the powder)

Happy Crafting,
Mary Lou

http://www.mtdesigns4u.etsy.com
on October 14, 2008 at 11:52 pm Diana Paul

What is ATC card paper? Can you use Japanese papers, Arches, Stonehenge papers for your gum arabic process?

Please let me know. I have had very bad luck with gum arabic transfers!

D.
on December 7, 2008 at 7:59 pm cabbie

thanks for sharing!i got the gum arabic transfer and i would love to try it.
on January 2, 2009 at 4:29 pm Jeff Hirst

Great information-thanks.