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Thursday, October 4, 2012

Reverse Mod Podge Transfer on Wood

I've been experimenting with transfer processes a lot lately and although I'm not thrilled with the way this turned out, I learned some wonderful things that I will pass on to you.  I started with an old pine cabinet door.  I still have my blown up image and I am going to try this on a painted surface as well.

 Look how crisp the lettering is on the pine, and not only is it crisp but it's in color too!  I found an image on Pinterest and saved it to my computer.  I emailed my local Fed Ex office store the image and gave them the dimensions of my door and asked them to print it in reverse mirror image.
 They printed it on a kind of glossy paper and it was $14 to have them re-size and print the image.  Next time I will have them re-size it and then break it in half and print it on 11 X 17 paper.  That would have been approximately $5.  I copied the glossy paper image that Fed Ex did for me onto two pieces of 11 x 17 paper so it would be on dull paper and I could retain the expensive one.
 So here is what I learned.  You can see below I applied the mod podge but only on the printed part.  Then I laid it against the wood face down.  What I should have done was mod podge the entire piece of paper.  The reason for that is where there was no mod podge the color of my wood was a totally different color and you could easily tell I had pieced my image.




 See how I didn't get the mod podge exactly everywhere.  So I tried to cover it with paint and sand it back and now it looks old but not exactly what I wanted it to look like.  It's okay because I learned tons from doing this project.
 
I let the paper and the image set up overnight.  Then I laid a wet washcloth over the paper and began to wet the paper and roll it with my fingertips in a circular motion being careful not to rub off the printing.  When I felt I had rubbed enough off, I wiped the board down and set it aside to dry.  When it dried, I could see there was more paper residue so I repeated the process with the washcloth and the fingertip massage and the drying of the board.  It took me about six rounds of this process to remove all the paper so be patient and work slow.  My middle name should be Impatient, so if I can do this so can you.  I sealed it with a clear coat and had I not messed up with the piecing of the pattern, I would have been thrilled with the outcome. 

Thanks for visiting.  I hope you find inspiration when you stop by. 

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14 comments:

Cynthia said...

This is fantastic! I love the transfer. Great job.

Cynthia

Betsy@My Salvaged Treasures said...

I love the way this looks. I don't think I would have noticed the difference in color unless you pointed it out. I probably wouldn't have thought about that, so thank you for sharing. Great tutorial!

Dee ⚜️⚜️⚜️⚜️⚜️ said...

Maggie,

The transfer look great! Thanks for the tip.

Dee

chateau chic said...

This turned out so great. Love it!
Thanks so much for stopping by, Mary Alice

Donna said...

That is just gorgeous, Maggie! I really do need to try the transfer image again. Thanks for all of the great tips:)

White Lace and Promises said...

I've been wanting to do this photos of my grand child.

I'll try this.

It looks great!

The Polka Dot Closet said...

It looks great, but goodness it sounds like you really worked for it, 6 times yikkes. Thank you for all of the pointers

Carol

Vickie @ Ranger 911 said...

I do like the way it turned out. I'm going to keep this idea in mind when I get around to painting the armoire in our living room.

Shannon@A Cozy Place Called Home said...

Your project turned out great and we would never have know the problems if you hadn't pointed them out. I like the faded worn look. --------- Shannon

karen@somewhatquirky said...

I really like this image. I love it when I learn something that makes things easier/better the next time.

Bliss said...

It did turn out nice. Overall would you use the mod podge process before others?

Bliss

miss flibbertigibbet said...

Great tutorial Maggie....I think they look great and I like the info you gave about this method!

Unknown said...

That's the same problem I am having. I have been trying ink transfer to wood in various ways. When I tried this method, I had problem with the paper not coming all of the way off, ink rubbing back off, and seeing residue where I did not Mod Podge the entire wood. I need a method that comes out with dark clear ink (black and gray). I'm going to give this a try again and cover the entire board and be more patient with the paper/ink process.

Unknown said...

Hi I am wondering if you ever found a company that can do laser prints larger than a 11x17?