This Wood Slice Photo Transfer Is A Diy Game
It’s shockingly simple.
Sure, this might look like something adorably creative you’d order off of Etsy, but believe it or not, you can re-create this craft at home in eight easy steps. The rustic frame alternative also makes a great gift for friends and family. The only problem? You’re going to want to do this with all your favorite photos.
Supplies Youll Need For A Diy Photo Transfer To Wood
- Piece of Wood These small round wood slices would make great Christmas ornaments!
- Photo or image printed in reverse on 20 lbs. printer paper be sure to make it approximately the size or smaller than your piece of wood.
- A dose of patience
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How To Prepare The Wood
To help give the ink an ideal surface to transfer to, youll need to sand the wood back to roughen it up a little. Sand your piece of wood in a circular motion until the very top layer of wood has been sanded off.
Give your piece of wood a wipe down with a slightly damp cloth to remove any wood dust. Traces of dust could affect the transfer process.
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Line Your Wood Surface
Make small lines in the woods using a pointed item, such as a pine needle. You must arrange the photos logically.
Be cautious at this step after youve applied a coat. Theres no way to alter your mind. When gluing the photos, try to keep the wood out of the air. The wind may blow the pictures.
If feasible, have assistance hold the images in his clean hands while arranging them.
Transferring The Image To Wood

Take your slice of wood and lay it on a flat surface. Press your ink transfer face-down against the wood, pressing firmly and smoothing any bubbles. Avoid moving the transfer on the wood or your work will smudge.
Grab your keycard and slowly run it over the back of the ink transfer. Make sure that every part of the backing paper makes firm contact with the wood surface.
Once you are happy that youve transferred all the ink from the backing paper to the wood, carefully peel off the backing paper and have a look at the results.
If the transfer is looking too dark, use your photo editing software to adjust the brightness and contrast of the original image and repeat the process until youre happy with the final image.
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Mod Podging A Picture Onto Wood
Putting Images On To Wood
This tutorial shows how to transfer any photo or image onto wood. It is suitable for any wood surface, from wood slices to chopping boards, wooden boxes and furniture.
There are several different ways to transfer images onto wood. I used Mod Podge to transfer a vintage cheese label onto a lazy Susan. But this time, I chose an even more straightforward technique: Iron-On transfer paper.
The benifits of using iron-on transfer paper are:
- You can use an inkjet or laser printer to print your images
- You can use either transfer paper suitable for light or dark surfaces
- Its swift the whole process takes only a couple of minutes
- Its a mess-free transfer method
- The technique suits small projects such as printing images on wood slices. I can cover up to six wood slices with one piece of transfer paper.
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Diy Pictures On Wood Coasters Project Materials:
A Typography Transfer Using Chalk Ballpoint Pen And Paint
This method allows you to transfer any type of graphic/photo, mainly writings, onto wood or wall, etc. Its very easy and straightforward, although the most time-consuming, in my opinion. All you need to do this is:
tools and materials
The whole process consists of 3 simple steps.
All thats left to do is to use a small paintbrush or a pen marker and fill in the contours, and voila!
If you need your image blown up, you can use a free website called Block Posters and then print it on several paper sheets. Here is an excellent example of how to do it on a piece of wood furniture.
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What Kind Of Wood Is Best To Use
Any type of wood will work. Generally, a wood that is light in color allows the colors of the photo to come through best. Whatever you choose, be sure it is well-sanded and smooth. You can use wood you already have on hand, a wood plaque made for art projects, or go buy wood from your local home improvement store and cut them to length.
Is Gel Medium Glue
In simple words, a gel medium is a binder without pigment, and its primary purpose is to change the consistency and/or appearance of acrylic paint. It can be used as glue, for example, for adding mixed media to paper or painting.
If you have different experiences with transferring photos to wood, failures perhaps? Id like to hear from you. My favorite is the transferring photo to wood with glue method, mostly because you can use your home printer to print the design/image.
Anyway, feel free to comment or drop me an email. And dont forget to pin it to your Image Transfer board
Have a fantastic day!
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Diy Wood Mounted Photograph
- 12 x 12 photo
- 12 x 12 wood square
I had these 12×12 photos printed at Costco for only $2.99 each.
I bought a wood board that was 12x 60at Lowes that only cost $7.77. I had someone there cut the board for me into five equal pieces.
That gave me five boards for five different photographs. It ended up costing me less than $5 per photo board, which is a great price!
Step 1. Sand the edges of the wood board so its smooth.
Next, paint the sides of your board. I painted two coats.
If you are giving this as a gift, I recommend painting the back too.
If you are keeping it for yourself, you can either paint the back or leave it unpainted, where it wont be seen.
Step 2.
Next comes the scary part! Brush on a layer of Mod Podge on top of your photo.
It will look like you ruined it, and youll be wondering if you messed it up, but it will be okay. The Mod Podge dries clear, and will look fine after a few minutes.
I used horizontal brush strokes for the first layer, and once that dried, I brushed on a second layer using vertical brush strokes. This gave it a canvas-y look that I liked.
Just make sure you use full brush strokes straight across, to make it smooth. Once the top dries, brush the sides with Mod Podge too.
Here are the finished products. Arent they beautiful?
You can see a little bit of the texture on the photographs. This project is so cheap, so easy, is very quick to make. I hope you will give it a try!
Can You Iron Images Onto Wood

Yes, you can iron images onto wood if you use laserjet printed photos. Choose the picture you want to transfer and mirror the image before you print it in the same way as the other methods.
Place the print facing down on the wood you can tape the image along one edge to keep it in place. Also, this will work as a hinge to check on the progress and iron it again if necessary. Otherwise, it would be impossible to keep it in the same place.
All you need to do now is start ironing to warm the entire photo try to do it as uniformly as possible. Once its hot, pick up a corner and slowly lift it while you do this, you should still be ironing the rest of the picture.
Be careful not to burn yourself when you do this. Making a photo transfer to wood is a great family project, but using this technique is not the best if youre doing it with small children.
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The Quick Photo Engraving On Wood Tutorial
- Select your wood
- Complete any pretreatment options for the wood
- Remove image background if you like
- Adjust your image to the size of the engraving you want it to be, at a DPI of 254
- Make any further image corrections
- Select algorithm and material
- Change settings in Lightburn to match needs
- Engrave and wait
Image Transfer To Wood
No fuss method for transferring an image onto wood using minimal supplies! I have tried several other methods with mixed results, but THIS WORKS!
1. A piece of raw wood – lighter woods work better2. Coarse grit sandpaper3. Paper cutter, or scissors and a ruler4. Freezer paper 5. Printable mirror image of what you want to transfer6. Inkjet printer 7. Clear coat
And…you will want your phone, because immediately after you make this, you will want to take a picture to text to your mom, your sister…and especially that super-crafty friend.
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How To Make A Diy Wood Mounted Photograph
Looking for an easy, inexpensive gift idea or decoration for your home? This DIY wood mounted photograph is super easy, very cheap, is beautiful to display in your home, AND makes the perfect gift.
I recently made one of these wood mounted photographs for my moms birthday with our family photo on it. She couldnt believe that I made it! This wood mounted photograph is truly one of my favorite projects.
The finished surface of the photograph ends up looking almost like a canvas, and the end result looks very high end.
With Christmas quickly approaching, this would make a wonderful and inexpensive gift for your family or friends. I originally saw this idea at here.
Six Sand The Photo Edges
This step is completely optional. I wanted a more rustic look to my finished product so I grabbed some 60-grit sandpaper and sanded the edges of the pictures. I didnt like the crisp edges and wanted something softer that blended into the wood. Since the transfer isnt perfect on the wood, I thought the softer edges looked better with the imperfections in the transfer.
If you have any gel medium that didnt get wiped away in step four, this is the time to remove it with the sand paper. If you dont remove it, any stain you apply in the next step wont be able to get to the wood under the gel medium.
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Adhere Your Photo To The Wood
Apply a layer of Mod Podge to the timber and let it dry thoroughly. The layer shouldnt be too light or too thick.
Then, press the picture directly on top of the glue, compressing all the air bubbles with a card. If there are still air bubbles in the photo, they will not stick to the surface.
Next, wait for the glue to dry out.
Mod Podge is not a quick-drying glue. The drying time also depends on the material you apply it on, temperature, and humidity.
In general, you need to allow from 24 to 72 hours for the glue to settle. The more time you give it to dry out, the better the end product will be.
Why I Love This Project
For my daughters wedding, we wanted to incentivize her to stay on budget and allow us to DIY most of her decor. To do so, we set her a very modest budget for the whole wedding and told her whatever she did not spend, we would double and give to her as cash. We felt it allowed her to use her creativity to stretch a dollar. And, it gave her the opportunity to start off her marriage with a bit of extra cash in savings. She did an amazing job! Youll find many of the projects we did to save money here on the blog.
One of my favorite parts of a wedding reception is looking at the fun photos of the couple. I am honestly disappointed when there arent any on display! I made 8 of these photo transfers to wood pieces to scatter around the reception area so while people mix and mingle, they will get to see all my favorite pictures from their engagement photo shoot. And dont worry..I was the photographer for their shoot so I didnt break any copyright laws
I love this photo transfer to wood because my daughter will use them in their own home as decor. I love something that serves double duty! Ive also used this technique to make inexpensive Christmas and birthday gifts for family and friends. I have a whole series on throwing a wedding on a budget that is simply gorgeous! You can see all 16 different articles by
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Diy Photo Transfer To Wood: What Youll Need
Transferring photos to wood is not difficult, but the process needs a couple of days. Take this into account before you start the project.
Heres what youll need to transfer photos to wood:
- Mod Podge Photo Transfer Medium you can also try making your own Mod Podge photo transfer medium using 2 parts Elmers glue or cheap white PVA glue and 1 part water.
- A wooden object it can be a board, a jewelry chest, or anything else you want to transfer your photo to.
- Brush / Roller I like to use a sponge roller to spread the Mod Podge, but a sponge brush or a regular brush will work too.
- Laserjet printed photo choose any photo you want to transfer . It needs to be printed on regular paper with a laserjet printer.
- Scissors / Cutter
- Cloth / Rag it doesnt need to be from any specific material any old rag will do.
- Mat the mat will be used as a working surface. If you dont have one, you can just cover the floor or the table with some plastic or wax paper to protect it.
- Plastic card this is to push out all the air bubbles. You can use a kitchen roller or even your fingers, but a plastic card works best.
- Sandpaper this is to give it a more rustic look, its not necessary for the transfer.
The Petroleum Jelly Method

This is a pretty popular method of wood photo transfer in the crafting community and the best thing about it is that you dont need any fancy tools to get it done. Its pretty quick too so if youre a bit crunched for time this method is one you should consider. All that you need for this wood photo transfer method is some petroleum jelly and some printer paper to get started.
This method works best on images that have been printed on paper, but feel free to give it a shot with conventional photographs too. Like you did in the previous methods, ensure that your photo is inverted if it has any text on it, so that your words arent transferred all back to front. Next, resize your image to fit your workpiece and cut it out so its a bit easier to manage.
Once youre satisfied with the preparation of your photograph, get your jelly ready. Cover your wood in a decent layer of the jelly and spread it out evenly. Next, place your photograph on the wooden workpiece and use a spare can, spoon, or just your fist to apply pressure to the image during the transfer process. Depending on the type of ink your printer uses this can take a few minutes or an hour.
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