Transfering Image Onto Wood to Make a Rustic Birthday Card

This instructable will not only show you how you can make a birthday card with a difference but also how you can use food colouring to dye wood and transfer pictures onto a wooden surface. Have fun :-)

1. Wooden baseboard
2. Wooden letters
3. T shirt transfers (for light coloured t shirts)
4. Food colouring
5. Sandpaper
6. Iron
7. PVA glue

Lay out all your bits and pieces and decide where they are going, what colour they need to be and what image you would like to use. Print out the image onto the transfer paper and collect together any other crafty bits to use. We used wooden stars but the choice is limitless! Remember that your image will be reversed when it is transferred so you may need to mirror it before printing especially if it has writing

We did this before staining the board so that we would know exactly how far down to bring the colour. However it could be done once the board is dry

1. Cut out your image and place it upside down on the board
2. Holding the image firmly press a hot iron on top of it and hold for a few seconds.
3. Repeat until the image is well stuck to the wood - paying particular attention to the edges.
4. DO NOT SLIDE THE IRON ABOUT ON THE IMAGE. The secret is to lift the iron and put it down in a different place. If you slide the iron over the image it will cause it to move slightly and will cause a blurred transfer. It is worth practicing with a scrap first if you can

To dye the letters we put some food colouring in a bowl. With the letters upside down we moved them about in the colouring until the top surface was covered. We then put them to dry on a chopping board covered with cling film. It is important to note that food colouring is good at staining lots of other things besides wood and food so be careful where you dry your letters!

To dye the board we then diluted the food colouring we used for the red letters slightly and painted the top of the board. By gradually diluting the food colouring as you move down the board you can create the graduated colour effect shown. Be really careful not to get the dye on your fingers and transfer it to another part of the board by accident

When everything is dry all you need to do is glue it together and sign your card

We left this unvarnished but you could finish it with a layer of varnish. Spray varnish is easiest as it does not pool between the letters.