Bluescape Media posted a video a few weeks ago on how to transfer photos to wood. Further explanation to follow.
Things you'll need:
- wood surface
- foam brushes
- photos from laser printer or a photocopier
- gel medium (matte finish)
- modge podge (matte finish)
The most important step is getting a nice piece of wood. We prefer to use recycled wood - why purchase from the store when you can get it for free and help the environment? Since we found out about this technique, we've been constantly on the lookout for clean pieces of wood. If you use recycled wood, you may need to sand it smooth and clean it with a damp cloth to remove all the dust.
Select the photos you'd like to use and reverse them horizontally using photoshop or another image editing program. (GIMP is a free one) Then print them out on a quality laser printer. If you don't have a laser printer, you can use an inkjet printer and then make a photocopy of the image. This works with both color and b&w photos.
Darker images work best, as white areas will show the wood grain. High contrast images with solid dark areas will yield great results. Although as you can see in the video above, we had a lot of white space (wedding dress) and the transfer still looks very good.
After preparing your images, spread a layer of gel medium on the wood. We also like to spread some on the surface of the photo as well. Place the photo face down on the wood surface and smooth out the bubbles and creases. Be careful not to move the photo around too much while your smoothing it out.
Let it dry overnight.
After it's dry, wet the paper liberally and you will soon be able to rub off the paper with your fingers. We also use a wet rag to work off the smaller pieces. You may have to re-wet the surface and rub more after it starts to dry as you will notice a paper film start to develop. It's not necessary to do this repeatedly, as much of this film will disappear when you do the next step. But do try to get the image as clear as possible without rubbing off all the ink!
Let the wood dry again and then apply a layer of modge podge to seal the surface. Let this dry and your all done! We also applied some twine to the edges which we secured with modge podge and drilled some holes in the back for wall mounting.
Good luck with your project! Please comment if you need any help figuring this one out. Happy Holidays!
-Bluescape Jay-
