Easy Packing Tape Photo Transfers
Disclosure: This post may include affiliate links through the Amazon affiliate program or other affiliate partnerships. If you click on a link and buy something, I may receive a commission at no additional cost to you.
Using shipping/packing tape to make photo transfers is something I’d been wanting to do for a while. I’ve done transfers using Mod Podge’s photo transfer medium, but I’d never tried this. I’m happy to say to the skeptics in my family (you know who you are) that this does actually work!
I have several ideas for my photos, which I will share later.
Supplies
The supplies you need for this are really very minimal. The first thing you need is pictures printed from a laser printer on regular printer paper. From everything I’ve read, inkjet printouts will not work. Next, you need clear packing tape. I’ve read that the heavy-duty varieties work best. That’s what I had on hand already, so that’s what I used. You also need scissors to cut out the pictures and a bowl with water to soak them in. Depending on what you intend to do with your photos, you may also need spray adhesive or Mod Podge. But that’s it!
I read all sorts of conflicting info about tape and what works best. I think pretty much everyone agrees that heavy duty is best, which makes sense to me. For my first batch of photos, I used Scotch brand heavy duty shipping tape. It worked beautifully. Like most shipping tape, it’s not quite 2” wide. I also discovered by chance that Gorilla makes a “tough and wide” tape that is almost 3” wide, and I had to have it. I couldn’t pass up the chance to make some bigger photo transfers. I’m happy to report that the Gorilla tape works equally well!
Here are the two types of tape that I used:
To start out, I chose the photos I wanted to print and used Canva to size them and arrange them on the page. I didn’t do this as efficiently as I could have, but it worked. For the Scotch tape, my photos ended up being roughly 2×3. I sized them to 3×4 for the Gorilla tape.
Something to consider as you’re choosing your photos is that standard laser printers do not print white. So if your image has a lot of white spots, those will be bare (clear) on the finished transfer.
After I printed my photos, I carefully covered them with tape. I kept the tape as straight as I could, and some of them aren’t perfect. Thankfully, you can’t tell. You really have to burnish the photos well, and there are lots of things you could use to do that. I used a plastic membership card the first time, and then the second time I just used the handle of the scissors. Just make sure you take the time to go over the photos well.
I trimmed the photos down with scissors and put all of them in a bowl of warm water. Not hot water; just warm.
I’m not sure exactly how long you have to wait, but I waited 30 minutes the first time and 60 minutes the second. It did seem easier the second time, but that could also be because I knew what I was doing. The actual image transfer seems to happen right away (you’ve probably seen that if you’ve ever accidentally stuck packing tape to something you didn’t mean to), so I think the soaking is really just for ease of removing the paper.
Once the photos were sufficiently soaked, I started rubbing off the paper. I was working at a bathroom sink, so I worked over a colander in the hopes that not much paper would slip down the drain. All you really have to do is use your thumb to start rubbing, and the paper comes off easily. You may have to go over it a few times to get all of the paper off.
One thing I did not expect is that the tape would no longer be sticky—except where there were white spots. This isn’t a problem for me, but the picture of my dog did turn out a little odd since she has bare patches on her face. You can still tell it’s her, though.
Contact Paper
I’d also like to mention that I tried this with clear contact paper as well. It also works! I did have some bare spots appear in my images, though. I don’t know if it’s because I didn’t burnish the image enough from the start or if it’s possible to scrub off the image. I have not had that experience with the packing tape. The advantage of contact paper is that you can make your images a lot bigger! I’m going to play with it some more to see if I can figure out what went wrong, but the process is the same as working with the tape.
Project ideas
As you can see, I experimented with sticking some photos on glass containers (vases, candleholders, and jars). I used a glue stick to put them on temporarily, but if I were going to make it permanent, I’d use either spray adhesive or Mod Podge.
This technique can be used with images other than photos. You can make stickers out of graphics you print out or magazine images—so many possibilities. If you leave some
During one of our last trips to Colorado, I fell in love with some glass photo prints that I saw in a gallery window. I wanted them all. I started researching how to transfer onto glass, and I couldn’t find any method that would give me the same sort of transparent look as what I saw. This is pretty darn close! So one idea I have is to frame some of my little prints but leave the backing of the frame out. I can hang them in a window, and they’ll look beautiful!
Similarly, I’m considering doing some sort of photo collage—maybe making it look like a stained glass window with some faux leading. Though the photos will be 2×3 or 3×4*, I can go as big as I’d like with the frame.
*The realization that you can do this with contact paper means you can go even bigger with your images! I’m still working on getting some clean images from that process.
I hope you’ve been inspired to make some photo transfers of your own.
Happy crafting!
