Wood Transfer for Dollhouse Miniatures Tutorial...

I want to share my wood transfer technique with you. I love the wood transfer look, but could never get it to turn out as sharp as I would like. This morning, I came up with an idea and thought I would give it a try. I have read and tried a bunch of online tutorials, but could never get the image to transfer the way I wanted. Today I added an extra step and it worked out nicely.

Wood Transfer
by
fabulouslyflawedminiatures

Here's what you need:
Freezer Paper (Plastic Coated)
Matte Mod Podge and Large Paint Brush
Printer Paper
Tape
Inkjet printer
Images (I used image from The Graphics Fairy)
Bass Wood

Step 1:
Tear off a piece of the freezer paper. Lay it on a flat surface, using a large paint brush, paint a thin layer of Mod Podge on the "shinny" side of the freezer paper.
This is the extra step I added to tutorials I have read. This step allows the ink to absorb, creating a sharper cleaner transfer.
Let it dry completely.

Freezer Paper from Grocery Store
Plastic Coated

º

Matte Mod  Podge

Paint a thin layer of Mod Podge to the shinny side of the freezer paper, let dry
This is my extra tip, it allows the ink to absorb instead to "sitting" on the paper.

As you can see, the print that has the dried mod podge is so much darker and sharper
than just printing on the freezer paper. 

Step 2:
Once it has dried, tape it to a sheet of printer paper. Make sure it is flat and all the corners have tape. I add tape to the sides, top and bottom also. Now it's ready for your images.

Step 3:
I use Photoshop to gather and size my images on a 8x10 canvas with 300 resolution. I usually reverse the images. A must if you are using letters or numbers.
I use images from The Graphics Fairy (click for website)

Step 4:
Put the taped freezer paper in your printer. (Make sure you test to see if the freezer paper goes up or down in your printer). Print your images.
*Forgot to reverse the "Bread" word :(

Images should print out dark and sharp

Step 5:
Apply a thin layer of mod podge to your wood (wait a few seconds) then lay the printed image (face down) on the wood. Tap it gently making sure not to move it. Once it seems secure, rub it gently.  Let it dry completely before removing.

Transfer on wood after a thin layer of mod podge applied to wood

Results:

Here is the final result after I played around with light sanding, chipping the wood around the edges, weathered and dark stain, and finally, a rusted handle for hanging.

Here are some other samples I tried. I plan on trying a matte spray on the wax paper instead of the
Mod Podge. Hopefully, it will help to get rid of the sticker look (as you will see below).
*I will update if it works better


Update: 
Tried with the Matte Spray. The print was light, fuzzy and wet. So I'm sticking with using the  Mod Podge on the shinny side of the freezer paper.

Transfer on wood with light coat of Mod Podge
(this is the one I used above)

Transfer on painted wood. I used Chalk Paint, let it dry, sand, then a light coat of Mod Podge
before the transfer. I'm going to play around with this one a little more. 

Update:
Today I hand tinted the bird. I am pretty happy with the results, but need more practice. I like this technique as I can visualize lots of ideas. With the pigs, I did some light sanding and layering of different stains I created. This gave the image a nice aged look. I am pleased with the results.

Hand Tinting on Wood

Stain layering to give an "aged" look

Enjoy!