My Boss' son is graduating from High School this weekend. So for the graduation party she wanted to put some pictures of him on Wood (like the video below). She saw it on Pinterest. So since she was spending most of her time with family and getting the house ready - this became my job! :) I was very excited since I too had seen the video on Pinterest and thought is was a GREAT idea! So I was up for the mission...
I started with 10 blocks of weathered wood that she had her hubby cut from the wood in the barn. Then we realized that we didn't have the Gel Medium that it tells you that you need. Hmmm. She searched Hi and Lo and still nothing - so when we were about to strap the idea and do something different we remembered that the new tenant next door was the art teacher for the high school. And guess what?! She had some! Yippee! I started by wiping all the pieces of wood down with a cloth, measuring and printing the pictures. Next step was to apply the Gel Medium. So far so good. Pressed the pictures, color side down, rubbed out all the bubbles, let dry over night.
Arrived to work this morning very excited about the next process which was to wet the backs of each of the pictures with water and rub off the paper to reveal the image. Easy Peasy - Right? I mean the gal in the video makes it look like it takes no time at all.
After trying the first one, then the next, and then the next one after that, I realized something very important... this was not going as easy as the vid shows. Thinking to myself - I must be doing something wrong. So I rewatched the video, then I read the comments below the video - and I saw one comment that said "if all the white won't come off then just get it as best as you can without pealing off the picture, then apply the mod podge and it will take care of the little white areas." Awesome! So that is what I did...
Arrived to work this morning very excited about the next process which was to wet the backs of each of the pictures with water and rub off the paper to reveal the image. Easy Peasy - Right? I mean the gal in the video makes it look like it takes no time at all.
After trying the first one, then the next, and then the next one after that, I realized something very important... this was not going as easy as the vid shows. Thinking to myself - I must be doing something wrong. So I rewatched the video, then I read the comments below the video - and I saw one comment that said "if all the white won't come off then just get it as best as you can without pealing off the picture, then apply the mod podge and it will take care of the little white areas." Awesome! So that is what I did...
| I thought this has GOT to work! Right? Nope! Although this one looks cool - it did not work so well on the others. So... back to the drawing board (ie Photoshop). I remembered that I had lots of wood grain backgrounds in my stock photos (doesn't everyone?) So I pulled up one of the pictures, placed the wood grain pic over it (in layers) and adjusted the Opacity of the Wood Grain Layer to 45% and Changed the field (to the left) of the Opacity to Vivid Light - YES! This works! 
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"OMG!" I said to myself! I LOVE this! So I printed out all of the pictures like this - This is so much more easy! And your fingers will thank you for doing it this way and not the other way! I think I may have rubbed off my fingerprints doing it the other way!
So the next step is to add Matte Mod Podge to the block of wood, Lay the picture down (picture facing up), and smooth out all the bubbles. For the next step you can either wait until the under layer is dry or you can, be like me, and add the Matte Mod Podge to the top of the picture to seal it in. OH! I almost forgot the most important part - make sure that when you do the wood grain layer on the computer that the grain goes the same way as the wood you are applying it to. I had to redo one because the actual wood grain (on the block) was going top to bottom and I made the wood grain on the picture go right to left.
Here is the finished product. What do you think?
P.S. Here is the wood grain layer that I use >> Download <<
So the next step is to add Matte Mod Podge to the block of wood, Lay the picture down (picture facing up), and smooth out all the bubbles. For the next step you can either wait until the under layer is dry or you can, be like me, and add the Matte Mod Podge to the top of the picture to seal it in. OH! I almost forgot the most important part - make sure that when you do the wood grain layer on the computer that the grain goes the same way as the wood you are applying it to. I had to redo one because the actual wood grain (on the block) was going top to bottom and I made the wood grain on the picture go right to left.
Here is the finished product. What do you think?
P.S. Here is the wood grain layer that I use >> Download <<
