Vintage Bicycle Ad Image Transfer

I really wanted to get this project up on the blog before Father’s Day, but it just didn’t happen. Why didn’t someone tell me that summer break was going to be so busy??? Anyhow, it’s a fun and crafty gift, that’s completely customizable. I love the vintagy and distressed look of this project! The French bicycle ad was ordered off of Etsy. I reversed the image using PicMonkey, then had it laser printed on an 8.5 x 14 piece of paper at Staples. For the transfer to work, the image has to be printed with a laser printer. Sorry, but ink jet printers won’t work.   Start by “aging” the wood. I mixed some brown and gray paint in a little bowl and added a splash of water to make a stain. I used one of my foam brushes and painted it on, then immediately wiped off the paint with a wet cloth.  Let the wood dry. When the wood is dry, grab your image that was printed out in reverse, particularly if there are letters on it. I cut off the borders of the image, but you don’t have to. Using a foam brush, spread the Acrylic Gel Medium on the wood, covering the whole surface area. Additionally, cover the image with gel medium as well. Carefully place the paper, image side down, onto the wood. Smooth out the paper so that there are no bubbles and it looks even. It helps to use something like a ruler or a credit card to smooth it out. I had an area on each side that the image didn’t cover, so I put a piece of plain white copy paper to cover up the gel medium. Let the medium dry for at least 4 hours or overnight. Once it’s dry grab a small bowl of water and a wash cloth and start rubbing off the paper. You’ll start to see the image as the paper comes off. This is definitely the messy part. Once all the paper is off, let it dry again. Then grab your sanding block and sand away! Make it look as distressed (or not) as you’d like. This is where you can sand off any areas where the gel medium looks a little wonky 😉 Wipe off the dust from sanding and paint on a little satin varnish to seal it all and even out the finish. It’s that easy! You can make this with any image you’d like!

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