I’m in the middle of decorating Analiese’s room (our 16 year old) and one of the things we are trying to create is a gallery wall. One of her hobbies is photography so she has a lot of really interesting and cool photographs. But, in the spirit of mixing it up on the gallery wall, I didn’t want to just get them all printed and framed. Getting photos custom printed on wood or canvas can be expensive. DIY’ing a photo transfer to wood is not. So, it seemed perfect for her room. This project is really simple, although it does take some time. It also ends up being a more distressed image than if you were to order it from a print direct to wood company. If you prefer that, here is an online company that offers that service.
First you’ll have to gather your supplies. I bought all of mine at Hobby Lobby with coupons to keep the price down, but these are available at most craft stores, or order easily from Amazon.
Materials needed:
Wood Canvas
Foam Brushes
Matte Gel Medium
Scraper (or credit card or anything that is stiff and flat)
Art laser printed – not inkjet printed
You have to make sure that you don’t print your photographs on your home inkjet printer because the ink will dissolve in water. Since I don’t have a laser printer at home, I sent it to the local copy store, FedEx Office, and had them print them for about a dollar each. I had a few different sizes printed since I had bought different sized wood canvases. When you get them printed, you will want to make sure you mirror them first. Since you are transferring them to wood face down, everything will transfer backwards, so mirroring them first will result in a correct facing canvas.
Paint the top of your wood canvas with the matte medium. Make sure it’s a pretty thin layer, but covers the board evenly to the edges.
Place your photograph face down on the canvas. Then use the flat scraper (or credit card) to flatten the paper as evenly as possible on the board. Make sure to squeeze out all the air bubbles.
When you have glued the paper down, you will want to let the gel medium completely dry. This will take about 4 hours.
Once the glue is completely dry, get a towel completely wet and let it sit on your glued paper until the paper is soft and wet.
Start scrapping. I started with the scrapper, which created a more distressed look to my photograph since it scrapped some of the ink off. If you want a more intact finished product you will want to just use your fingers and rub the paper off.
This process will take some time and you probably have to repeat the wetting and scrapping step a few times. The best time to check and see if you have any paper fibers left is when it is still slightly wet. If it’s all dry or still completely wet, you won’t see the clumps as easily.
Once you have all your paper removed coat once or twice more with a thin layer of the gel medium letting dry between coats. You are done! Hang where you want and enjoy. I can’t wait to show you all Analiese’s full room soon!
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