An easy image transfer technique that does not require any special tools. Great for text designs!
There are so many awesome techniques for transferring designs to surfaces such as wood, tile, or painted surface. I have used the wax image transfer technique, stencils, my silhouette cameo, and mod podged more items than I care to admit. Every technique has its uses and this one I remember from school art class because it is awesome in a pinch. This technique is generally the one I use for either text or designs that I want to hand paint or color in some way.
My own handwriting is actually terrible so I often use this image transferring technique on those beautiful script fonts.
So first, I sized the image to what I needed. I used Photoshop because it was easy for me but you can do it in a word document. I printed it off and I cut a circle in this instance so I could center the image properly.
On the backside of the image, I colored with pencil all of the lines I wanted to transfer. This image above is of the deer head and dove. Lay the graphite on thick but don’t press too hard or you could stretch the paper and distort the image. My images are really small but if you have a larger image, watch your hands so they don’t touch the graphite or your hands will be black and smudge everything.
Now turn the image over and trace the image you want to transfer. It transfers beautifully and evenly and I can easily reuse the design to transfer a few more times. I traced the outline of the deer head and colored it in with sharpie in this example.
I made 9 Christmas ornaments for my woodland animals Christmas tree this year, but this technique would work very well for furniture, art, or ceramics.
Interested in learning more ways to transfer an image? Try some of these methods:
Grab our free series "Weekend Home Projects that will Transform Your Life" Sign up below to receive updates including free printables, organization tips, home improvement projects, recipes and more! |
More Image Transfer Crafts you may like:
Fabric Image Transfer 
Free Fonts 
Image Transfer Candles
Tania says
Hey, So many things to learn. I wonder can a transferred design on a Jean jacket be painted with acrylics. If so, how do I protect that paint. Thanks
Rachel says
I cannot speak specifically to protecting acrylic paints since I find them likely to crack on fabric. However, I do have some tips on transferring images onto fabric and washing.
Magdalena Hartley says
You are very smart lady Rachel, we have been renovating houses and flats
In U K. For 10 years, now we are home in Australia, we are retired, so I know how hard work it is , we renovated everything our selfs, and we loved it.
Now I am into art Painting,making earrings, Chanel pillowcases atc. My hobbies are keeping me very busy and I don’t get bored ,I love it.
Regards Magdalena.