Transfer Photos to Wood....AND a Little Rambling

If you are visiting from Pinterest I would like to thank you for taking time to check out my project!!!  I have another method on transferring an image which you can check out here.  You can now keep up with The Farmer's Wife on facebook by liking my page!!!  Thanks again for stopping!!!

Okay I am warning you this is a long post because I feel like being a chatty Cathy.   Therefore, a little bit of rambling before I get to the project....

In our household lately we have managed to have three kids get hit with ear infection.  OUCH!!!!  It is something we have dealt with a lot.  All of our kids have battled ear infections and our oldest two daughters got their first ear infection at 1 week and 3 weeks old.  I have a "newer" understanding for these poor kids because when I was pregnant with our son {who turned 5 yesterday.....waahhhhh my baby is growing up too fast} I got one heck of an ear infection and tylenol did not help with the pain.  It was probably the most painful thing ever.  I would have rather been in labor.  It wasn't that the pain was extremely severe, but it was constant and I didn't feel any relief for 3 days.  Needless to say, I have grumpy kiddos lately....and I TOTALLY understand.  Then throw a flu bug on top of that and you can about imagine what it has been like around here.

We had the unfortunate event of having our sewer back up right before Christmas.  Could this be linked to the recent illnesses going on in our house??!!??  The insurance adjuster came and said to remove all the carpet {ugh...we remodeled our entire house 3 years ago which included NEW carpet}.  We then had to have a professional cleaning service come in and spray chemicals to kill off any bacteria.  They brought in fans and dehumidifiers along with large sheets of plastic to section off the basement.  It sounded like we had a jumbo jet taking off in our basement for three days.  I had big plans to get the new carpet in right away so we could get back to "normal".  After searching for carpet that would compliment the basement stairs {yes, I am VERY picky} I finally found THE ONE!!!  Well, THE ONE was out of the budget that the insurance would allow....however we can pay the difference.  Then I find out the carpet installers are booked 6-8 weeks out....UGH!!!  My plan of having this carpet installed within a couple weeks of our "back up" was not going my way.  So here we are 2 months later and guess what??????......I still don't have carpet!!!!

I decided it was time to get a new comforter for our bed.  The walls in our bedroom were kind of a deep terra-cotta color.  I remember the color sample said Firewood.  My thought was to get something neutral so I didn't have to paint the walls.  After painting ever square inch of our house inside and out I really have had no desire to paint.  I found this quilt and loved it!!!  It was on sale for an incredible price so I ordered it along with the pillows and shams.  However, they were out of the Euro Shams which totally disappoints me so I have been on the hunt for something similar with the same great price they offered.  I haven't had luck finding anything....yet.

After putting the new quilt on our bed and admiring it I started to get the urge to paint.  So within 20 minutes of that urge I headed to the hardware store to grab some paint samples....you know......to get some ideas.  A half hour after visiting the hardware store I headed home with a couple  samples gallons of paint.  I justified this because I figure it is much easier to paint without the carpet in so I might as well do it NOW.

While waiting for paint to dry {literally} I decided to tackle a photo project.

I started out with a decorative board I bought at Hobby Lobby for 50% off.

I lightly sanded the board so it would be smooth to make the photo transfer easier.

Then I gave it one coat of walnut stain.

Next I gave it a light coat of white paint.  After the paint was dry I lightly sanded the edges to give it the shabby look and allow the color of the stain to show through.

Now for the fun part.  I decided on a black and white photo of my girls and printed it off on fabric transfer paper to my desired size.  I allowed to ink to dry completely.  PLEASE NOTE: If you do this project and your photo or design has wording you will need to mirror your image.  You can do this in a photo editing program or possibly in your printer set up.

Next I traced the shape of my board on the back of the printed photo and cut it out.

I lined up the photo on the board {photo facing the board} and used an iron on the highest setting {DO NOT USE STEAM} and ironed the photo transfer paper for a couple minutes making sure to burnish it as I went.  After the paper is heated up gently pull the paper back.  If it is not separating gently put the paper back down and iron some more.  I found it worked best to keep the iron on the paper while pulling it up {as shown in the photo below}.

You can see that some of the transfer paper was not quite ready and I have a little peeling effect going on.  I was able to smooth it up a little.  Don't rush and hopefully you won't have that happen!!

The finished project looks shabby and I love it.  I attached some black ribbon to compliment the black and white photo and hung it on my wall.

  I have another method of transferring photos to wood that I will share once I finish it.  Thanks for stopping by.

Ohhhhh

{{{HUGS}}}