Crazy wood tranferring technique

Once Upon a time {about 4 years ago} in a land far away {a local craft store} I learned of a mysterious and crazy sounding technique for transferring printed images onto wood. 

A few years ago I stopped in the craft store to get something or another and while waiting in a ridiculously long line I starting chatting to the lady behind me.  You know, about what we were planning to make with the things that we were patiently waiting in line to buy.  Now, I have no idea what I bought that day or what I was planning on making and I had even forgotten the amazing story that she had told me until THIS weekend! 

Last week I stopped in Hobby Lobby, and of course headed straight for the 80 percent off clearance section.  I a small rectangular plaque marked down to $1.20.  I wanted to paint it and stencil some sort of design on it for my kitchen.

Well, this weekend my little 2 year old terror munchkin went to Memaw and Pop Pop's for the weekend so I got out that plaque and primed it with white spray paint.  While I was waiting for it to dry I picked out an image from the Graphics Fairy that I thought would be perfect.  I added in the phrase EAT and printed it out.  Then looking at it I thought about how hard it would be to cut out and stencil the design.  All of the sudden a lightening bolt went off and I suddenly remembered that fabled image transfer technique that I had heard years before.

The technique story goes something like this:

1.  Using Elmer's Glue and a sponge brush, coat a piece of printer paper with a thin but even layer of glue and let dry completely.

2.  Print out your image of choice onto the {now dry} glue covered paper.  Cut out design leaving a decent amount of space surrounding the image.

3.  Coat your wood with an even layer of Modge Podge in the area that you want your image and then place the paper image side down onto the wood.

4.  Let dry for 24 HOURS!

5.  Place wood with paper still attached in a pan of water and let soak for at least an hour.  Then begin peeling and GENTLY rubbing the paper off of the wood.  Ladies DO NOT use your nails to scratch away at the paper or glue.  Continue soaking and rubbing until the paper is all gone.

The result is an image that looks wonderfully old.  It looks like it was cast in plaster decades ago.

This has been my first and only attempt with this technique so I'm not certain how consistent the results will be.

If any of you give it a try, let me know how well this technique works for you! {Molly brought up a good point...while, I didn't have any problems with residue or sticking on my printer, I would not print using a warm printer.  In other words, make sure you haven't used your printer in a while so that the printer is not hot.}