Day 35--Photos on Wood

I started gathering supplies for this project when I started my 40 days of Pinterest.  I had to have photos printed at Staples to complete it and I kept forgetting to do that, until Thursday.

I found and pinned the idea here. She has several ideas on this page. Transferring photos onto to wooden blocks is about half way down the page.  The tutorial is easy to follow, so I will just show you what I did.

Since she put in her instructions that you should let the process dry overnight, I started this project yesterday.

I had some boards in the garage from a previous project. I cut sections off that were slightly bigger than my photos which are 5x7s.  I couldn't find the wooden plaques she used from Wal-mart so I figured I would try what I had on hand.

You will need Gel Medium. I found this at Hobby Lobby and used a 40% off coupon.  It is in the paint section by the canvases, oil & acrylic paints.

I cut my pictures to size and spread the Gel Medium on the wooden blocks (following the directions in the pin).

Put the picture face down on the wood and press firmly.

Allow to dry overnight or at least 8 hours.

Today I got to see if it worked!! I started rubbing the paper off and could instantly start to see the photo.

Can you see it on the right?  Pretty cool!!

Her tutorial states that it takes several rubbings to get all the paper & residue off and that is true.

Can you tell there is still paper residue on this one?

Let it dry and rub off some more, it will eventually all come off. 

Have I mentioned before my lack of patience? That did not change with this project...I wanted to get it done so I could write my blog post!!

I think I still need to rub some more residue off, but I need to let them dry a bit.  When it's all gone & all dry, I will Modge Podge them to seal them.

Aren't they neat?!?!?  Rubbing off the paper, will distress the edges and make it look worn. Rub carefully, if you get carried away, you will rub off the picture--can you tell I did that on Landon's pants in the top picture?

Her blog also has a tutorial for putting photos on metal using the same technique. I also pinned this tutorial showing how to put photos on canvas with same technique. 

Next time I will try to find the wooden plaques at Wal-mart to transfer on wood.  The family picture above was a black & white photo, but turned out more sepia. And the grain also shows through quite a bit.  

But I still think they turned out so cool!! I have plenty of Gel Medium so I look forward to making more and trying the transfer on metal and canvas too!