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?