Photo Transfer to Wood Canvas

Red's Rustic Rehab
by Red's Rustic Rehab
5 Materials
$35
3 Days
Easy

This was such a fun project for my Secret Santa! It also didn’t cost an arm a leg, didn’t take me weeks to make, and could be made for anyone with a photo of literally anything! All you need is a laser printed photo, midge lodge photo transfer medium and any smooth wood item you want to! The mod podge can be used to transfer to many different materials, but in this tutorial I’m only dealing with wood ;) let’s get into it!

Gather your supplies! This stuff is great! I picked it up at hobby lobby, and don’t forget your coupon! I got the large bottle but I hardly made a dent in it and I made 4 transfers for this project!

So you get to meet a whole family of cats in this project! Haha! I was a little scattered with my step by step photos, but you’ll get photos of every step either way! You want to make sure you get your photos laser printed! I regular ink jet won’t work for this. I got mine printed off at the UPS Store across from my office for 60¢ a page! If your photo has any words or numbers make sure to mirror your image or the lettering will be backwards on the finished piece! I picked up these wooden canvases on sale at hobby lobby, they worked great!

Start by cutting your photos to size, this is Kitty, she’s a Persian if you were wondering ;) if there’s a little over hang that’s fine, but try to get it as close to perfect as possible, it was difficult to get some of the excess paper off at the end!

Apply a generous coat of the mod podge to the photo side of the paper, make it as even as possible! After you get it all coated, flip the photo onto the canvas, line it up nice and ever and use a credit card to get all the bubbles out. If any of the mod podge seeps out from the edges makes sure to clean it up before it dries. Let the photo sit 24+ hours to dry.

After 24 hours of cure time it’s time to remove the paper. Wet the paper until you can faintly see the photo though it, you don’t want to have a puddle of water, just wet the paper backing :)

after saturating the paper, slowly start to rub off the paper, this will reveal the photo now on the wood! I started off using an old wash cloth, but found it easier to use my fingers, be careful not to rub too hard or you can rub off the image!

So satisfying!

After you think all the paper is removed, let it dry, if it gets cloudy again, there’s still paper on there, I found a wet sponge brush got all the little bits off pretty well! After the photo dries and the photo is pretty clear you can finish it!

The middle two have been sealed with regular midge podge, don’t use the photo transfer to seal!! It dries white! You could also use a poly coat, but I just used what I had on hand, and mod podge also doesn’t have a strong odor so it’s good for indoor use! The two on the outter edges aren’t sealed, see how they’re slightly foggy? They clear out after being sealed! Hope y’all liked this tutorial! Merry Christmas and happy crafting!

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