Printing Colour Images on to Wood: Place Mats & Coasters

Based on the letter tiles instructable you can make any number of objects from key fobs, jigsaw puzzles. Most applications require nothing more than sealing the image with some varnish which also helps the colours stand out.

However in this instructable I show an alternative method of 'printing' an image on to wood and how to apply a cork base to placemats and coasters

choose your images. I've found that 4 squares per page works out best. Always print a test page first and make sure you mirror the image (aka 'flip horizontal')

Once the paper is off and you've rubbed of any wax residue, lightly sand the image. Sand the edges and round the corners.

You can wash the wood to remove any dust on the image.

Let it dry and varnish the image and the edges. No need to varnish the bottom.

Print your image out on a laser printer, ink jets may run in the varnish?? Ihavent tried.

Put a coat of varnish on to the wood.
Place the paper on to the wet coat, face up.
Smooth out any air bubbles
Put another coat of varnish on top of the paper.

I'm not a huge fan of this method, I prefer the worn look and feel of the grain with printing directly to the wood. I've seen plenty of people do it this way so maybe someone and chip in with tips on this.

Fairly straightforward.

Place the wood over the cork and mark the outline with a pencil
Cut
Put a layer of contact cement on the respective faces, let dry for 15 mins
Stick together

Done