I tried using the Xylene method on an image from an Inkjet printer. Didn't work at all. Do any methods work with ink jet printers?

Do any methods work with ink jet printers?

Parchment paper.

TG

Here's what I do with pretty good results on OZ:

Cut parchment paper (find it with baking items in your store, on a roll like wax paper) to fit on a letter size piece of cardstock and tape it down securely.
Print your design on the parchment paper
Immediately put paper printed side down onto rubber and firmly press all areas of the design. Be careful not to rub too much or move the paper/rubber as it can smear pretty easy.

I usually use Photoshop to get my images the size that I want and while I'm there I decrease the opacity of the design so there is not so much ink on the transfer. If you get too much it can get messy and smear much easier. Also, you have to be careful while carving not to move your hand across the design as it can smear or rub off.

Good luck!

Ink the stamp with yellow Stazon before you carve, and it will hold the design on.

Parchment paper.

Great! I've been meaning to try this method, but wasn't sure if there were extra steps or notes to know about this method.

Do you have to do anything to prep the stamp surface before hand? Wash it, clean it with chemical or otherwise?

I've also heard that there are different types of parchment paper and that some types work better than others. Can anyone verify that?

- Kham

What's Stazon?

Ah. Got it! I looked it up on line.

Just buy baking parchment at the market or walmart. Some say erasable bond typing paper works also.

Stazon is a solvent based ink. You want a light color you can see through - most of us use mustard, which is a yellow. When it's dry, it seals the transfer to the medium, no matter which one you're using, so that it won't smear. It helps you know what you've carved as well, which is helpful. . .

~tigs(learned this trick early - it really helps!)

I've always just printed on normal paper. I put face down on the rubber and rub. It comes out looking like it was printed on the rubber.

In my experience, if you try to print a black image onto parchment paper with an inkjet and then try to transfer it to rubber, you're going to end up with an unholy mess. Before printing, it is essential that you edit the image to convert black to a medium gray. That makes it print much lighter so the ink won't smear all over everything.

I tried that and the FAINTEST hint of a shape was there...I ended up having to go over it in pencil and HOPING the shape was right.

I'm so P.O'ed. I just bought this printer just to find out I can't use Xylene with the transfers. I thought I could.

OK, now I need some yellow Staz On ;) This step is going in my process. Smearing is the only thing I don't like about inkjet/parchment transfers!

Won't that make for a dirty yellow ink pad?

Ink the stamp with yellow Stazon before you carve, and it will hold the design on.

Won't that make for a dirty yellow ink pad?

Hence the name Stazon.....stays on

Well that didn't work for me...the computer took the parchment paper and tore it and crumpled it up and there was ink everywhere...

Hahaha that would have been wise! I didn't.

OH MY GOD!!! IT CAME OUT SO AMAZING!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THANK YOU EVERYONE!!!!

I actually tape mine down to a piece of index weight paper (like cardstock) and I tape all corners + all edges. Even then occasionally the tape will pull up a little and catch the printer carriage. It happens. I just tape down a new one and try again

It only works for me using Black ink. The tri-color to make black doesn't work. You can try printing in gray-scale.

in answer to your question, Silvio, nope. i've never had the Stazon ink pad get dirty from a transfer.

my preferred method is wintergreen oil and a laser printer. sometimes i do plain old ballpoint pen/wintergreen oil, if i'm forced to trace. i let the wintergreen evaporate a bit, put the Stazon over it, let the whole thing dry overnight and voila!! smudge proof carving.

~tigs(and improved carving too)

Xylene is for laser/toner copies, not inkjet. Also, I find that the newer machines don't release their toner with this method as well as older ones do. I had been using pencil transfer since the demise of my local "old" printers until I tried the parchment transfer method on Kirbert's website using my inkjet printer. That method rocks.

Thunderbird

Glad to hear it! Can not wait to pick up some parchment paper to give it a try, later today. :) Thanks for the instant feedback.

Double WOW! Just saw this - it works "great'. Thanks