Martha Stewart And Cthulhu- Photocopy Transfers

Few things compare to combining Martha Stewart and Cthulhu in a post to get the ol' hit counter up. Heh.

In Part Two of the "From the Mountains of Madness" project I mentioned that you could use a photocopy of an image to transfer it to an object, in that case a muslin bag, without giving any real details on how to do it. That was a bit of a dodge on my part, since I used a rubber stamp and permanent ink to put the Miskatonic University seal on the example bag in the post. If you don't happen to have a stamp, like the vast majority of people in the world, my post was a bit light on actually providing any help.

Luckily, not everyone is as lazy as me. There are a number of tutorials on doing a photocopy transfer available, starting with the very simple Martha Stewart method that takes advantage of the solvent in a regular art marker to effect the transfer.

A poster on Gardenweb has an incredibly detailed tutorial over here. Her method uses xylene, but any paint thinner will do the trick. One of the easiest to obtain solvents is acetone, which you'll find in almost every grocery and drug store in the world. You'll find it in the nail supplies section because it's used to remove nail polish and the adhesive that attaches acrylic nails. Just make sure you get pure acetone and not the acetone-with-conditioners used in conventional nail polish removers. It's also a good idea to make sure you have good ventilation and a pair of rubber gloves, since the chemicals involved aren't exactly benign.