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Good Morning Lovelies,

With Christmas approaching I was feeling a little homesick and missing my family in Belize. I wanted a way to still sort of have them with us for Christmas, and so I thought what better way than to create some personalized Christmas picture ornaments of them! They are super simple to do and so I thought I’d share them with you. Here’s what you’ll need:

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TOOLS:

  • UNTREATED Wooden Circles (You can find these at any craft store or on Amazon.com HERE)
  • Ribbon
  • Laser Printed Photos on regular printing paper (you’ll see why this is important later)
  • 2 paint/foam brushes
  • Liquitex Gloss Gel Medium (Not absolutely necessary as Mod Podge works just a good. You can find it HERE.)
  • Mod Podge Matte Sealer (You can find it HERE)
  • Scissors
  • Hot Glue Gun
  • 2 Towels (1 big, 1 small)
  • Bowl of water

OPTIONAL MATERIALS: Any glitter, trim or decorative medium you might want to use to decorate the ornament.

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STEP 1: Make sure that the surface of your wooden circles are nice and smooth. Then, with a brush, apply an even (but not too generous) coat of the Liquitex Gel Medium and smooth your picture on to the wooden circle.

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Tip: You can use a sturdy card, like a credit card to smooth out any air bubbles that might occur. 

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STEP 2: Leave to try for at LEAST 4 hours. I left mine to dry over night.

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STEP 3: REMOVING THE PAPER. Lay the bigger towel down and place the circles on this. This will be your “working mat”. Take the smaller towel/rag and soak it with water. Squeeze out the excess water from the rag and lay it on top of your photo transfer. Press and tap lightly to make sure that the transfer gets completely soaked. When you’ve figured that the transfer is completely wet use the small towel/rag to gently scrub the paper fibers away to reveal your picture. This will take some time, so be patient.

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STEP 4: Once you’ve removed all the paper fibers, leave to dry for an hour or so.

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STEP 5: Once the wooden circles are completely dry use a brush to apply a generous coat of Mod Podge Matte Waterbase Sealer and Finish. This seals and finishes the photo transfer. Leave to dry for about 2 hours.

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STEP 6 : IF you fancy, decorate your ornament! Abigail had a great time deciding who got what decoration. 

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STEP 7: Cut strips of ribbon about 3 inches long. Then use the hot glue gun to glue the ribbon ends on to the back of the ornament. This creates a loop for hanging.

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and WALLAH YOU’RE DONE!! 

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These ornaments represent family we can’t be with for Christmas, but they came out so nice that I think I’ll just go ahead and do one for all of us! haha!

Hope you guys found this tutorial useful and thank you for stopping by! I’ll talk to you soon! xoxo

love-candice

2 thoughts on “DIY TUTORIAL: How to Transfer Pictures to Wood to Create Ornaments

  1. I love these ♡ I know I can get modge podge in town so thanks for testing that it works in place of the gel medium. Can’t wait to try it!

    1. Thank you Nina! Yes, it works just as fine, also make sure that your wooden circles are not varnished or treated – it works best that way. I’ll make a note in the tutorial about that now.

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