Holiday Gift Idea: Easy Photo to Wood Tutorial

The holidays are upon us! Today, I’m going to teach you how to make the perfect holiday photo gift, an easy photo to wood tutorial, as part of a sponsored campaign with Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #SaveYourMemories #CollectiveBias

November and December are crazy busy for most of us. We have our usual responsibilities of work and parenting, coupled with hosting guests for Thanksgiving and shopping for the perfect Christmas gift. I love to give unique and creative gifts to family and friends. While a simple jar of vanilla sugar is great for a friend or neighbor, it’s important to kick it up a bit for family members.

On the first day of school, I took a great photo of The Boy leaning against a tree in our yard. It captured his smile and the excitement of beginning a new year so well. It’s one of my favorite photos of him, and I knew I wanted to incorporate it into a holiday photo gift.

This year, I’m using my HP Envy 4512 All-in-One Printer/Copier/Scanner
 from Walmart to create the perfect photo to wood gift. {Sorry to spoil the surprise, Mom!}

Supplies:
Printed Photo
Wood cut to size of photo
Decoupage Medium, in your choice of finishes
Disposable foam brushes
HP ePrint app
Sandpaper
Black Paint (optional)

For this easy holiday project, I’m going to use the HP ePrint app. It’s free to download and provides a great editing interface. I don’t know about you, but a lot of my photos are trapped inside my phone. With the HP printer and app, I’m able to easily share my photos with family and friends!

Select your photo and use the editing tool in the app to crop, flip, or rotate. This photo was flipped because I did not want a mirror image of The Boy to appear on my wood project. It’s also important to flip your photo if the original has any words or phrases you’ll want to read later. Print your picture on regular printer paper, not on photo paper.

Examine your wood pieces carefully. Keep in mind that any knots or other imperfections may appear in your final project.

Apply a generous amount of decoupage medium to your photo.

Place your photo, image side down, onto the wood. Using the edge of a credit card, rub firmly to smooth out the image and remove any air bubbles. Do not apply too much pressure, or the paper may tear. Let the image dry completely. {If you’re impatient like me, you can use a hair dryer!}

Use a damp sponge or cloth to wet the paper and rub gently in a ciruclar motion to remove the paper. Your beautiful image will appear on the wood. Take your time, keeping the area you’re working in small.

This process is very messy because of the itty bitty bits of paper. Learn from my mistake: do not do this step after you’ve just finished vacuuming. {What was I thinking?!}

Lightly sand and wipe clean. If you wish, you can add diluted black paint to the edges to give it an aged look. Then, add a thin layer of decoupage medium over the transferred image to seal it.

Project Notes:
Feel free to paint your wood prior to transferring the image. It will create another layer of color and depth to your piece.
Consider staining the wood after you’ve transferred the image.
Be sure to FLIP your original image if it has people, words, or phrases that may look funny in reverse.

This beautiful holiday gift is guaranteed to be treasured for years to come! You can use smaller wood pieces to make ornaments, or use multiple photos to create a unqiue wall gallery. The possibilites are limitless!

The folks at HP want to make your holiday even easier. They’ve created a variety of fun printables, like this Christmas Toy Soldier paper craft, to keep your children busy while you create amazing photo gifts for your family members!

What type of holiday photo gifts will you make this year?