How to transfer a color image to a tree. We transfer the photo to the tree. We make a wonderful gift with our own hands. Preparing wood for carving
With a minimum amount of material and time spent, you can make a memorable gift or decoration in retro style for your interior with your own hands. The tree will give the shot a special inner glow, and you will also get beautiful matte shades on the transferred frame. This is a step-by-step illustrated master class on creating real works of art with your own hands.
You learn:
- Choose color images to transfer to the tree;
- Work with a gel medium (gel medium transfer - transfer gel, gel for transferring images; freely sold in Runet);
- Transfer any image to the surface;
- Competently complete the work of transferring the image to the surface.
1. Choose the right source materials.
The wooden base can be of any shape, but its surface must be perfectly smooth so that the image lies evenly and without breaks in every sense. It is also preferable to use a light wood, because it is it that gives the very “inner glow”. A light base is especially important for portraits so that the skin tone does not change for the worse.
As for the photograph, it must be a printout on a laser printer and from the very beginning of a size equal to the size of the wooden base for transfer. Therefore, after printing, it is good to cut off excess white paper from the frame, so that it would be more convenient to work with it later. The picture should be high-contrast as a standard (you can process the image in a graphics editor on a PC, if this is not the case). But a great retro effect is given on the tree and the pictures are almost out of focus and with very soft shades of colors. See below for examples of suitable shots - from bottom to top and from right to left: contrast shot, but out of focus; the picture is out of focus and with soft shades; contrast shot in perfect focus. The tree will enhance the color rendition in any case.
Any transfer medium can be used, but the best image is obtained by a gel with a matte effect (marked "matt" on the package) and the most dense / thick consistency (marked "heavy" on the package).
Also to you come in handy:
- an unnecessary plastic roller,
- (or) a wide wooden stick (bought at a pharmacy),
- a pair of medium-sized flat brushes for applying the composition (glue brushes),
- non-rigid sponge or sponge for dishes (new),
- water in a small bowl or low glass,
- paper towels / napkins / handkerchiefs / toilet paper or thin kitchen towels,
- a small amount of oil (any liquid from the kitchen).
2. Right before you start, wipe your wood base several times with a clean, dry towel to remove any crumbs and dust.
3. Apply the transfer gel on the surface of the wood in a good layer: definitely not thin (much wood should not be visible through the gel), but not very thick (the gel layer should also not look like an impenetrable icing on the cake). Just squeeze out of the tube or put the gel with a spoon from the container onto a tree, and then distribute it in a more or less even layer with a brush (or a wooden stick, or a plastic card - whichever is more convenient for you). Do not forget to make sure that the layer on the edges of the wooden base is not thinner than in the middle.
4. While the gel is still damp, place the print side down on the gel. The image can be cropped to a size slightly smaller (or much smaller) than the wooden base, then you end up with a thin or wide wooden frame around the image. Gently with your fingers (in order not to move the picture even a millimeter, hold it with one hand, gently smooth it in all directions with the other), smooth the superimposed photo, slightly pressing it to the surface and removing the air between the photo and the gel on the tree. It is important in no case to press so hard that the gel begins to squeeze out on the sides!
5. Smoothed out with your fingers, take a plastic card (it is more convenient than a stick, because the first side gives more uniform pressure) and, again holding the picture with one hand, continue smoothing the white surface of the photo with the other side of the card.
6. After that, set your workpiece aside until the gel is COMPLETELY dry overnight. Resist the temptation to pick up the photo and see what happens: you will ruin your work for sure. If you work in the summer, you can also put the workpiece in the sun for a couple of hours (but not on the battery !!) and then check the degree of drying, and this may (!) be enough.
7. After the gel is COMPLETELY dry, take a sponge, moisten its edge a little in water (do not saturate it with water, just moisten it) and start applying water directly to the back white surface of the photo on the tree. Do this carefully in several passes (wetting the sponge several times), first blotting the picture with a sponge, and then, when there is already a lot of water on the paper, continuing to move in neat circular motions. That is why - so that the material does not immediately begin to be erased by pellets from water - it is necessary to print the picture initially on special paper for photographs, and not on ordinary office paper. Make sure to use the soft part of the sponge and not the hard part of the sponge. In the process, when squeezing the sponge, a whitish liquid will flow into the glass, and this is normal. The paper should be completely wet everywhere from the center to the edges without gaps.
8. Further, still continuing to moisten the sponge from time to time, begin to wipe the wet paper from the image with pellets. Make sure you work not only in one central zone, but equally on the edges so that the paper does not rub off in one place, because you may start to delete your transferred image. Do not be especially afraid of this, rub with light pressure, and the paper will come off quickly, the main thing is not to rub one place with effort, as if you are rubbing a stain; in particular, do not rub where the paper is no longer there.
The paper should thus come off completely. If there are areas that don't want to rub off, use your own dampened fingers as they are smoother and feel better for pressure and progress.
Run the sponge over the picture without pressing to remove all the pellets down to the small ones, and then without pressing with wet fingers on the same surface to make sure by texture that there is no more paper left, even a thin layer.
Wipe the image with a clean, thin towel to remove paper dust and moisture.
At the end of this stage, moisten your fingers again and walk several times again, but almost completely without pressure, over the image, because the paper hairs probably still remain: while the paper is wet, it is not visible, but when it dries, it will become very noticeable if left on the image.
9. Dry the picture on the tree again with a thin towel. Set aside the tree with the image until completely dry from moisture.
10. As you can see in the picture below, even if you rub very carefully, after drying, some paper fibers still "appear" in the image. You can use the water again and then dry the picture again. But here is another, more efficient technique completion of work.
With one finger, pick up literally a couple of drops of oil and gently apply it to the picture in a circular motion. And as you work, you will see how these villi simply disappear. You have achieved the result you need - take a thin towel (paper or fabric) and start wiping the oil from the picture with the tip.
11. If during work, nevertheless, a small amount of gel has gone beyond the edges of the image on a wooden base, just gently pick up the frozen lumps of gel with your fingers.
12. By and large, the work is finished. But now you can decorate the frame, for example, using a special ornamental adhesive tape with a pattern - washi-tape (freely sold in Runet). Here the frame is presented as an abstraction, repeating and shading the colors of the image. It is also convenient to glue the side edges of the wooden base with it. You can also use acrylic paint instead of ribbons. It is also worth painting the back of the tree with one color.
Different pieces of wood were lying around at home and you need to go somewhere with a gift? Here is an economical option original gift- photo on the tree.
- actual photograph
- light, flat piece of wood or plywood
- simple photo editor
- Ability to print on a laser printer
- scissors
- a bone knife for envelopes (a piece of
hard cardboard) - matte gel polish (can be found in the section
acrylic paints in art stores) - matt glue for blending Mod Podge (you can
and glossy - your choice) - 2 different brushes (bristle or foam)
- towel and rag
- workplace advocacy newspaper
STEP #1- Make a mirror image
Open the photo you want to use in an editing program (almost any image viewer/browser will do) and apply the "horizontal mirror" filter. This is necessary so that the final image is the same as the original.
Make sure your photo is 300 DPI so it can be printed in good quality. Pay attention to the size of the photo, it should be large enough to fit on the surface of your pile of wood.
STEP #2— Laser printing
Print your mirrored, precisely measured photo at 300 DPI on a laser printer on fairly thin paper (eg 24 lb paper or 90 g/m2).
The photo is best printed on thin paper because it will be easier in step 8 when you erase the base paper.
For insurance in case the hand trembles while cutting along the contour, you can make two copies of the photo.
STEP #3- work with scissors
It's simple - carefully cut the image to the shape of your piece of wood.
STEP #4- Applying glue
Cover the table with newspaper to keep it clean.
Spread matte glue all over the surface of the cut out photo using one of the brushes.
Now very carefully place the photo face down on top of the piece of wood.
After that, use a bone knife or hard cardboard with a smooth edge to flatten the photo and expel air bubbles from under your photo.
Remove any excess glue that squeezed out from under the edges of the photo as you smoothed it out.
STEP #6- Let dry
Now it should take time for your photos to dry for at least 8 hours.
Therefore, it is convenient to start making this gift in the evening in order to continue in the morning. Or vice versa, get up early in the morning to finish in the evening.
STEP #7- Wet properly
After the photo has dried for 8 hours or so, it's time to properly wet it.
Lay out the towel first.
Then take a rag and wet it with water.
Squeeze out the excess water from the cloth—you don't want to get wet—and place it on top of the photo.
Press the wet cloth on the photo and make sure it is completely wet. Or just let the wet rag sit on the photo for a few minutes if you like.
STEP #8- Remove excess
First, it will take some time.
Now that the photo is wet, use the rag and/or your fingers to wipe off the backing paper and "release" your beautiful photo.
- To age the photo, use a wet rag to wipe off the paper fibers. The rag's own fibers will also erase some of the photo that has appeared.
- For better quality clean look, use your fingers to erase the fibers of the paper.
Take breaks from erasing the paper to dry to see any paper fibers that need to be erased.
In my experience, the best condition to be able to see and erase all the fibers is when the photo is almost dry.
Reference: Depending on the size of your photo, this step may take some time. It took about 30 minutes to remove the paper from our small oval board. Anyway, don't rush into it so you don't mess up all your work.
STEP #9- Dry it some more
It’s nice to turn ordinary things “like everyone else”, with a little effort, into your own, cozy, personalized. Good way- decorate them with an original pattern. And even if you consistently skipped art lessons at school, and you draw a little worse than a fifth grader, it doesn’t matter. This simple method will allow at least all the textiles and wooden surfaces in the house to be decorated with funny drawings. And please your friends with original gifts.
The authors of a resource popular among designers shutterstock offer to try a simple home printing technology. It is available to every owner. laser printer. Or someone who is not too lazy to go to the nearest copy center and print the desired drawing. This method will allow you to easily transfer the image to a fabric or wooden surface.
You will need:
Acetone (or a nail polish remover based on it);
Cotton pads;
Plastic card;
Scotch;
Ruler;
T-shirt/fabric/wooden surface on which the pattern will be transferred;
desired image.
Step 1: print the picture on laser printer in a mirror version. An inkjet printer is a bad helper in this matter, because. does not guarantee even distribution of ink, which will be displayed on the final result. The darker the original image, the better.
Step 2: put down the sheet face down on a fabric or wood surface. It is advisable to fix it on one side with tape so that the picture does not “leave”. Soak a cotton pad or brush in acetone and carefully wipe the back of the pattern so that the paper becomes wet.
Step 3: take plastic card and using it like a scraper, go through the entire reverse side drawing. It's like you're rubbing it. First from bottom to top, then from top to bottom, repeat several times. Press the "scraper" lightly so as not to tear the print. The main rule is that all this time the paper with the image should be wet with acetone. This will help the pattern to adhere to the fabric or wood.
Step 4: gently pull the edge of the sheet with the image and evaluate how the “printing” process goes. When the drawing is completely transferred, remove the paper.
Have you ever thought about "printing" your photographs on wood, or has the thought never crossed your mind? Anyway, if you like the described effect, you can easily do it yourself by following the simple steps described below.
Step 1 - What it takes
Below is a list of items needed for the job. You do not have to use identical tools, except as noted below.
Photo printed on a laser printer
Wooden board the same size as the photo
Gel medium (it must be acrylic)
Brush for applying gel-medium
Knife for butter or any other flat tool to flatten a photo on wood
Wood paint (optional) and rags
Soft paraffin wax or ModPodge matte decoupage glue to even out and cover the image
Paraffin brush
Staples for hanging a picture
Step 2 - Selecting an image and its future appearance
Obviously, you first need to decide what exactly you want to transfer to the tree. Most often, bright, clear photographs with high resolution won't look too stylish on a tree. In our case, this photo of the aircraft was processed in Lightroom to give it a vintage look - converted to monochrome, the contrast was increased and film grain was added.
Step 3 - Printing a Photo and Finding a Wooden Base
Very IMPORTANT - the image must be laser printed, if it is not, you can not even try to do the rest. Then you need to find a suitable wooden base, smooth and of the appropriate size.
Step 4 - Applying the gel medium to the tree
This is extremely important point. Cover the entire surface of the wood with one layer of medium gel, not too thin, but not too greasy. If the layer is too thick and dense, it will be difficult to remove the image after the procedure. Too thin layer most likely will not allow the image to be transferred to the tree in some places. Try to create an even, high-quality layer.
After the gel medium is applied, you need to place the photo of the front part on the tree. There will definitely be bubbles in the picture, so do your best to reduce their number and smooth them out. In our situation, I used a plastic tool that came to hand, but it can be a butter knife, ruler, roller, or any other item that you think will fit for this purpose.
After the image is superimposed on the base and smoothed, leave it overnight and do not let anyone close!
Step 5 - Remove Paper
This is a very interesting stage. To remove the paper, we only need to wet it and rub it off with our hands. This is a rather messy process and there may be another way, but fingers seemed to us the most the right tool. Some parts of the image will be easier to remove than others, but keep in mind that by the end of the procedure, your hands and fingers will definitely get tired. You may have to repeat the procedure and in total it will take from up to 30 minutes. But this is an extremely exciting moment - to see how the photograph appears already on the tree. Prepare a vacuum cleaner to clean up the mess that will definitely appear after this step.
Step 6 - Finishing touches
At this stage, you can show your creativity. Since we wanted the image to have a vintage look, we covered it with one coat of wood paint. Be careful not to make the work too dark or take on unwanted color. You can saturate the surface with a cloth after application to remove excess.
We then sanded the edges a bit to remove excess gel and smooth the wood surface. We also used a product called Pigment and applied it with a sponge to the edges to create a vignette-like effect.
Let's try to transfer the photo to the tree? This type of creativity has been known for quite a long time, and there are plenty of master classes showing how it is done. I also decided to try my hand at this process, and today I invite you to see how I did it (I still hide my faces under the “veil” 😉).
I will show 2 options for translating the picture (why two? More on that below ...) and talk about the mistakes made during their execution. And at the end of the master class, we will compare the results.
How to quickly transfer a photo to a tree
So, in order to transfer a photo to a tree, we need:
- suitable base (I have these pieces of board)
- grinder or sandpaper
- soft brush
- rubber roller
- depending on the option chosen - PVA glue or acrylic varnish
First you need to prepare a wooden base. The surface of the board must be clean and even. That is why we need a grinder. The role of the latter is played by an electric drill and a special emery nozzle. After sanding the board and smoothing the corners, we will get a suitable form for transferring the photo with our own hands.
Keep in mind that the wood surface has its own texture that will show through your photo. Be prepared for this.
Now let's prepare a photo. The selected picture must be printed, and always on a laser printer, and always in a mirror image. In size, my photo is slightly smaller than the board, I deliberately left small margins so that the texture of the wood was more noticeable.
We transfer the photo to a wooden surface using PVA
In the first version, I used PVA glue to transfer the photo to the tree. And not clerical, but construction. I do not know if they differ in composition, but it seems to me that with the help of glue bought in a building supermarket, the picture is imprinted better, and the paper is removed more easily.
We cover only the front side of the photo with undiluted glue, i.e. the one we are going to translate.
We put the photo on the board and press it well. It is better not to move the picture (the paper may tear or wrinkle). We leave to dry.
My photo on the board dried up for a day. And as soon as it dried, I immediately noticed an error ... See?
Yes, these are either areas not smeared with glue, or poorly pressed with a roller. Well, there is nothing to do, we continue ... We remove the paper, and for this we use a spray gun.
Do not wet the paper too much, just lightly sprinkle the surface. We only need to wet upper layer so that the transfer of the photo to the tree is successful. Let the paper get wet a little (2-3 minutes) and begin to roll it off the surface with your fingers.
Attention! Never use force to remove as much of the paper layer as possible at one time. The picture will come along with the paper.
Look at the photo - all the mistakes made are clearly visible. Lack of glue in the first step and excessive pressure when rolling the paper resulted in holes in the translated photo.
Well, let's start all over again...
Transferring a photo to a board with varnish
Having polished the board again, we proceed to the second version of the transfer of the picture to the tree, in which we will try to take into account all the mistakes made.
In this method, I used a colorless acrylic gloss varnish to transfer the photo. Lacquer is often used to fix the image on the base, and we also used it in the craft to save appearance products. First of all, I pasted over the inside of the print with a photo with adhesive tape, cutting it off along the edge of the picture.
We glue the photo on the board and again with a roller, very carefully smooth the picture. All air bubbles must be expelled. Let it dry like this. With natural drying, it takes two days.
And now we take the edge of the adhesive tape and tear off the top layer of paper.
Then we repeat all the procedures that we did in the first version - we moisten with water from a spray bottle and wait until the paper is saturated with moisture.
And now, lightly and gently, we begin to roll paper balls from the surface of the picture. Once again I remind you - you can’t make an effort! If you feel that the paper has already dried under your fingers, you can still sprinkle with water. But! With an excess of the latter, it can saturate the top layer of the board along with the print of the photo, and then the drawing will be erased.
Taught by previous bad experience, I stretched the paper rolling into 3 stages. That is, when my fingers began to slide over the paper surface without rolling it, I stopped the process of transferring the photo to the tree and put the board to dry. After the surface was completely dry, I repeated all the steps.
At the last stage, I had to remove a few paper remnants from the base. And voila! The picture was transferred to the board without any defects at all!
Now to smooth the border between the photo and wooden surface, I walked with fine sandpaper along the contour of the picture. Yes, the photo on the board will look a little faded, but that's okay.
And now we cover the entire surface of the board with the same acrylic varnish. Do not forget that the brush must be drawn along the fibers. I applied three coats of polish.
Conclusions and comparison of options for translating a picture into a tree
So, what conclusions can be drawn when transferring a photo to a tree different options? I'll give my opinion here based on my experience.
- when printing a photo, you need to slightly increase the contrast (then the picture will turn out brighter)
- to transfer pictures to wood, it is better to use acrylic varnish
- varnish must be applied to both surfaces
- when drying the product, you must wait until the photo is completely dry
- roll paper ONLY with light finger movements, without pressure
- it is better to break the process into several stages with intermediate drying
Here, under these conditions, the result will surely be successful. Here, of course, there remains a large field for activity and a flight of fancy in terms of the decor of the resulting image. You can think of something to frame a picture or even a frame around a photo, make some kind of background, come up with fasteners. Here, for example, you can see how we did it, maybe some idea will come to mind ... 😉
You can transfer a photo to a tree using the method described above and get an interesting picture. It is quite suitable as a present for any occasion or just as a small gift surprise for friends.
PS. I have an addition to the article here, with a refutation... 😉 I decided to test the theory that only those printed on a laser printer can be transferred to wood. And here's what happened...
How to translate an image printed on an inkjet printer
Prepared the board as described above. Printed a photo on glossy photo paper for the jet.
All stages of the transfer are similar to the previous method. The only thing is that I cropped the photo along the border of the board.
After everything dries well (I also used a hair dryer to speed up the process), we begin to separate the paper from the surface of the tree. And - oh, a miracle! The photo paper came off very easily, but the image itself remained on the board! Didn't even have to wet it with water.
It only remains to correct a little - carefully using a sharp knife, pry off the remaining pieces of paper and separate them from the image itself. All!
So - experiment, and always check in practice everything available methods. Good luck!
