DIY Pallet ideas for Home: DIY Rustic Sign Using Transfer Gel

The other day I posted about helping my friend Manja out with her booth at the Home Renovation show. During our time together we discussed many things and she started me on a new addiction ... Fusion transfer gel!!!
I have been wanting to try image transfers for a while now and after speaking with Manja about the "How To's" she made me realise just how easy and fun it was!
Needless to say it inspired a project and well.... this is the product ....

Some of you may remember the French cabinet I made over for a custom order where the lady didn't quite love the backboard I covered with antique book pages. ( Click here to see that post )
Well, I replaced the backboard with a new one and after a brilliant suggestion from my friend Pam, I ended up with this really pretty piece of wall art.
I started by cutting some old corral wood to create a rustic frame for the book page covered backboard. After attaching it to the backboard this is what it looked like.

diy rustic sign using transfer gel, crafts

I liked it but it looked too plain and really rather pointless. I considered making it into a message board of sorts but it was soooooo large that I didn't feel that was a fitting purpose for it.
Then I spent the day with Manja and discovered Fusion Transfer Gel and decided that this was the perfect thing to try it out on!
I browsed the internet looking for just the right image to transfer. Then I remembered the site The Graphics Fairy and ended up finding the perfect image to use. I love that site! There a hundreds of images that are so pretty that it makes for a tough time settling on just one!
After choosing my image, I enlarged it using the Block Posters.Com website. I also made sure that I reversed my chosen image first before uploading it to Block Posters.Com. This way the words would be readable once transferred.
This is what it looks like printed out, pieced together and trimmed.

Once I had it all trimmed and pieced together, I laid it on the surface to see where I wanted to place it. Once I had the position just right I then covered the surface with a light coating of transfer gel using a paintbrush to apply it evenly. Then I laid the image face down on the gel. Using an old membership card, I smoothed the image out squishing out excess transfer gel to the edges of the image. I was able to scoop up the excess gel with the card and return it to the gel container ... no waste! :)
Then, I walked away and let it dry overnight. This was hard to do as I was excited to see if it was working or not. The next day I went back with a damp cloth and started to rub away the paper to reveal my image!

There it was! It worked! I may have accidentally rubbed too much in some places and some of it rubbed off with my cloth. It was fine with me though because I was going for a worn, aged look with my sign. I intentionally rubbed some more off in a few other places as well.
Now I'm loving this sign! To see more great photos of this project hop on over to my blog at the link below!