Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Heat Transfer Christmas Wood Sign with Heat Transfer Tips


Hello! Welcome to my blog! I love trying new things, and this creative tryal is one that I am glad that I tried. I had wood burned transferred a smaller projects before (see my plant stick post here), but I loved this saying that I had seen around and thought this would be a good test for a bigger heat transfer project.

My husband made the wood background for me. They were 1x4's cut in 12 inch slats and glued and stapled together with a power staple gun using smaller wood slats to staple into at the back. I prepared the wood by aging it with a vinegar and steel wool mixture. Then I did a light white wash. I sanded the edges for a nice worn, manger/stable look.

I made the saying on my favourite publishing program. 


 I reversed the image so it would transfer the correct way on the wood. Next I had to get a laser copy of the words as an inkjet transfer would not work. I have read about how to do an inkjet transfer, but I am too lazy to do the work to make it a success.




 The next step was to heat transfer. I used a wood burning kit I purchased from Michael's with the transfer point.

Here are some things I learned while making this project about 20 times:

-  add some pressure . I tried transferring sitting down and it might sound crazy, but it didn't transfer as well. When I stood up it worked better.
patience. It will take about 15- 20 minutes for a nice transfer and this is a small sign.  I counted to three slowly in each spot I was transferring - checked how it adhered to the wood and did it again if it was not dark enough.
do a test burn- I heated my tool for 10 minutes then I put it on my project and my paper nearly lit on fire and it burned a nice circle on my project. Have a scrap piece of wood and paper close by to test the burn. It releases some of the heat and then you can carry on.
outline the words on the back of the paper with pencil - on bigger projects like this, put your paper on a window or a light box and outline the lettering so you can see where you need to heat transfer.
repeat transfer if necessary - this is related to the patience tip:  if the lettering is not dark, apply heat to the lettering again. I taped my sheet to the wood in a manner that it was secure, but also so I could flip the paper up to see how well the letters were transferring. If it was not dark enough I would reapply heat. On one of my first signs I had it on display for a couple days and realized some of the letters were not dark enough. I took the original paper and lined up the letters and heat transferred again. There is a lot of ink on the laser photocopy.
avoid knotted wood where words need to be - I love knots. It adds to the rugged look of a wood piece; however, if you have a knot where a word needs to be transferred on it will not work. The knot is dark brown and the lettering is black.

This was a wonderful and fulfilling project! Just think of the possibilities of what can be heat transferred on to wood....Why don't you give it a try?

Saturday, September 17, 2016

Light and Life - Christmas Printable and Card


Hello! Welcome to my blog! Since Christmas is a few months away, it is about time that I post some projects that I made last year that I did not have time to post before Christmas. Instead of a photo family card last year I made a regular card. I seen a poster online and I liked the idea of it for a card (when I find it again I will link to it).


I printed the image I made on kraft card stock. I fit four to a page. After cutting the images, I adhered glue to the circle area, plus a few dots in one corner and stamped a star. I sprinkled glitter generously to the page and let dry over night. After tapping off the excess glitter I adhered the glittered image with pop dots to a craft card that had a cream background paper previously attached to it. A simple to do card with a beautiful effect. The image is free to use for personal use. Click on the above image, save and copy to your favourite publishing program.
Thanks for stopping by!