Make a Spooky Wood Halloween Sign with your Inkjet Printer.....

Thank you to everyone who commented on the Oak House project reveal! It was exciting to have an entire week of reveals!

There are a lot a of transfer methods I have found like this and this, but the easiest by far is using the ink right from your inkjet printer! Did you know that depending on the colorfastness of your ink, you can transfer to wood right from printed paper with water?No chemicals, not solvents. It opens up so many possibilities! Also, for more DIY signs, see how to host a sign painting party here.

Make a spooky wood Halloween sign with your inkjet printer,includes printables for the project

This method works best on bare or light unfinished wood so you can see the black ink. I tried color and it did not work at all. And you have to use inkjet, it can’t be a laser printer.

I started by taking a regular old 2 x 8 cut down to 4 feet. They did it for me at the Home Depot for free. The board it self was about $2.00.

Make a really spooky wood Halloween sign with your inkjet printer

I scientifically squirted acrylic craft paint all over to spread it out.

Make a spooky wood Halloween sign with your inkjet printer

And then I used a paper towel to rub it in and pickle the wood.

Pickle bare wood by rubbing cream or white aryclic paint into it.

After it dried, I laid my images where I wanted them on the board. You want to print them backwards or in reverse so they transfer correctly.

Make a spooky wood Halloween sign with your inkjet printer, use reverse images

Once I had the configuration I wanted, I grabbed a lightly damp paper towel. Don’t make it sopping wet or the ink will run on the paper. And, only do one section at a time.

Make a spooky wood Halloween sign with your inkjet printer,use a sharpie to rub

After you’ve damped the back of the paper use the back end of a sharpie marker to rub firmly to transfer the ink.

Make a spooky wood Halloween sign with your inkjet printer and a sharpie

You can carefully lift and check to see if it’s transferring okay.

Make a spooky wood Halloween sign with your inkjet printer and water

It will dry pretty fast. For more tips on image transfer, check out this post here.

Make a spooky Halloween sign with your inkjet printer

I wanted my lettering a little darker in places so I went over it with black acrylic craft paint.

Then I just lightly glazed it with brown acrylic paint to make it look a little more aged. You can also use a regular glaze if you like.

Make a spooky wood Halloween sign with your inkjet printer,darken image with paint

I finished it with an outdoor polyacrylic so it will hold to the elements. If it were for indoors, you could use a brown paste wax for a cool look. This post has information about antiquing and adding patina to furniture with brown paint instead of wax.

Make a super spooky wood Halloween sign with your inkjet printer

I used eye hooks and black ribbon to hang it on the top.

Make a spooky wood Halloween sign with your inkjet printer,water and paint.

I love how it turned out! In fact, if you want to make one of your own, here are the printables! Right click save and make sure you reverse them before printing!