• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
DIY & Crafts
  • Home
  • Repurpose
  • Crafts
    • Cricut
    • Kids
    • Paper
    • Winter
  • Holidays
    • Valentine's Day
    • Easter
    • Halloween
    • Christmas
  • Fashion
    • Sewing
    • Beauty
    • Hairstyles
  • Gifts
    • Baby Shower
    • Father's Day
    • Mother's Day
  • Homemade
  • Home
    • Furniture Makeovers
    • Lifehacks
    • Decorating
    • Organization
    • Parenting
    • Gardening
    • Health
  • Food
    • Recipes
  • Knitting & Crocheting
menu icon
go to homepage
  • Decor
  • Repurpose
  • Paper
  • Crafts
  • Kids
  • Cricut
  • Fall
  • Fashion
  • Father's Day
  • Baby Shower
  • Food
  • Beauty
  • Recipes
  • Furniture Makeovers
  • Gifts
  • Hairstyles
  • Health
  • Holidays
  • Christmas
  • Easter
  • Halloween
  • Home
  • Gardening
  • Parenting
  • Homemade
  • Kids Crafts
  • Knitting & Crocheting
  • Lifehacks
  • Mother's Day
  • Organization
  • Party
  • Sewing
  • Spring
  • Upcycling
  • Valentine's Day
  • Videos
  • Wedding
  • Winter
  • Woodworking
search icon
Homepage link
  • Decor
  • Repurpose
  • Paper
  • Crafts
  • Kids
  • Cricut
  • Fall
  • Fashion
  • Father's Day
  • Baby Shower
  • Food
  • Beauty
  • Recipes
  • Furniture Makeovers
  • Gifts
  • Hairstyles
  • Health
  • Holidays
  • Christmas
  • Easter
  • Halloween
  • Home
  • Gardening
  • Parenting
  • Homemade
  • Kids Crafts
  • Knitting & Crocheting
  • Lifehacks
  • Mother's Day
  • Organization
  • Party
  • Sewing
  • Spring
  • Upcycling
  • Valentine's Day
  • Videos
  • Wedding
  • Winter
  • Woodworking
×
Home » Decorating

Toss the Boring Frames: How to Transfer a Photo onto Wood

Modified: May 14, 2025 by Elisabeth Kruger · This post may contain affiliate links · 6 Comments

Toss the Boring Frames: How to Transfer a Photo onto Wood...
Toss the Boring Frames: How to Transfer a Photo onto Wood...
Jump to:
  • Video Instructions

I love taking photos; I’m a pretty snap-happy person. I just love the idea of being able to capture a moment in time. With all the stuff we try to remember and cram into our brains every single day, it’s nice to have a photo to jog your memory and remind you of a great time you had.

Naturally, I love to display my photos, but I’ve found that frames can get a little boring, so I’ve opted for this cool method of transferring a photo onto a block of wood. It’s just nice to have a little something different from the norm, and it gives a nice rustic feel to the area in which it’s placed. These also make fantastic, thoughtful gifts.

Video Instructions

You don’t need much, just:

  • A printed copy of your photo of choice on regular paper
  • A block of wood (the smoother the better)
  • Mod Podge
  • Gel medium
  • A brush
  • A wet cloth

The process itself is very simple: cover the wood with your gel medium (be generous with the stuff but also make sure to spread it evenly), place the paper on the wood, leave overnight, rub with a wet cloth to remove the paper, and then simply finish with Mod Podge. It couldn’t be any simpler.

Important Tips:

When you place the image down on the wood, it will come out reversed (or mirrored), so before you print out your image, make sure you flip it on the computer so that it will come out correctly on the wood.

You must use a laser printer – the ink from a regular inkjet printer will not transfer onto the wood in this way.

This method works best with a black and white image – colors won’t come out quite as well.

More Decorating

  • woman in pink sweater holding stork decoration
    Adorable Stork Baby Shower Decor
  • 4 Crochet Edgings
    38 Crochet Edging Patterns
  • 4 DIY Punch Needle Kits and Tutorials
    22 DIY Punch Needle Kits and Tutorials
  • 4 DIY Macrame Kit Ideas and Products
    20 DIY Macrame Kit Ideas
34.5K shares

Reader Interactions

Comments

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

  1. Jennie

    November 20, 2015 at 7:01 pm

    You made it look so easy and your photo on the block looks very nice. I followed your instructions exactly but when I was rubbing the wet paper off some of the ink rubbed off as well. I'm so disappointed. The only thing I may have done differently was that I had lightly stained the wood first. ( The stain was dry before I started though). Any thoughts?

    Reply
    • Maria

      November 30, 2015 at 8:35 am

      Hi Jennie, ive done a few tranfer on acrylic painted wood, though i recommend that the first one is don e on untreated wood. Lightly sand and clean with a damp clorh. Once its dry place your image and let the medium gel or mod plodge dry over night. Damp with water and use finger tips to start rubbing gently. You will need to do this several times until the photo is clear and all the paper is rubbed of. Its quite laborious but the result is worth it. You can use a spray. I use a sray barnish to protect my photos once all the paper removed. Mod ploge doesnt work for me as a barnish.

      Reply
  2. Kim

    September 23, 2016 at 4:06 am

    What kind of wood do you use and where do you get it?

    Reply
  3. Melanie simonds

    February 17, 2017 at 11:02 pm

    Can you use chalk paint ? Let it dry and then mog-pog it?

    Reply
  4. Jenna

    March 01, 2018 at 9:25 pm

    So I can't use a regular picture I printed at say target? Where do you print the pictures if so?

    Reply
  5. Alanna

    July 26, 2019 at 11:15 pm

    The gel medium, does it matter if it’s matte or gloss? Thanks!

    Reply

Primary Sidebar

DIY n Crafts Avatar

Hi, I'm Leah! I started DIYnCrafts long ago to spread crafts and happiness. Currently, we have thousands of easy crafts and tutorials, making us the biggest crafty site on the internet.

More about the team → and me

Recent:

  • 11 Best Beneficial Insects for the Garden
  • 4 Barbie Doll Dresses
    19 Barbie Doll Sewing Patterns
  • 4 DIY Steampunk Crafts
    35 DIY Steampunk Crafts
  • 4 DIY Crystal Growing Kits and Products
    20 DIY Crystal Growing Kits and Products

Pages:

  • About Us
  • Be Featured
  • Contact Us
  • Email and Push Notification Subscriber Settings.
  • Privacy Policy

Categories

Footer

↑ back to top

About

  • Privacy Policy
  • About Us

Contact

  • Contact

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Copyright © 2022 DIYnCrafts LLC.

34.5K shares
  • 6.5K