Editing Images for Transfer to Freezer Paper

I've had a few requests for a more detailed tutorial on how to edit an image and print it in order to do a freezer paper transfer. It's pretty simple once you get the hang of it, and hopefully these instructions will make it clear enough that you're doing your own transfers in no time! I've included screenshots from my computer to help you along - click on any shot to make it larger if you're having trouble seeing a detail.

(Disclaimer: I am by no means an expert in photo editing or an expert in computer programming/software. If I use the incorrect terminology I hope that you'll understand what I mean.)

1. The first thing is to find the image you want to transfer. I can't really help you with that except to say that I usually just do a Google image search. If you go to Google.com, enter a description of what you're looking for and then click on "Images" in the black bar near the top, you get pages of pictures to choose from.

For the transfers I've done so far I'll play around with word combinations like "french grain bags", "vintage french signs", "old postage marks", etc., until I come across something I like. The only rule I follow is that I try to avoid taking an image from someone else's personal blog. Though The Graphics Fairy is a good source and you can use any image there for free.

Let's pretend this is the image I chose (I think it was!)

Click on the image to get it to full screen, right click, and then click on "save image as", and save it to a location that you can find later. I find it easiest to save images as jpegs as they can be read by almost any program.

2. You'll then open the website PicMonkey.com. It's a free graphic editing program that is very user-friendly. While you're using it, any changes you make can easily be undone by clicking the undo (back) arrow above your image.

Once at the PicMonkey site, click on "Edit a photo" on the left-hand side. Your file directory will open and you can choose your file.

I hope you remembered where you saved your image! Find your image and double-click on it, or click once and then click the "open" button. This will open your image in PicMonkey and it's ready for editing.

I'm just going to do a simple colour change and image flip, but feel free to play around with any of the options on the left hand side. Each of the symbols on the far left will open up more editing choices.

Click on the Effects menu (the bubbling beaker symbol) on the left, and scroll down through the effect choices until you get to "Tint". Click on Tint and the box will expand downwards.

Position your mouse pointer over the circle in the rainbow-coloured box, hold down your left mouse button, and move the mouse around the box. You'll see the colour of your image change as you move.

Once you have your image the colour that you want it, let go of the mouse button. If you want to change it, just start moving the circle around the box again. If you're happy with the colour, click the "Apply" button. I decided I liked the bright red. And if you forget to click the Apply button, the program will prompt you. (Isn't that nice of it?)

Go back to the main edit menu by clicking on the molecule symbol on the left (above the beaker), and click on "Rotate".

Click on the third box from the left  - the one that has two arrows going left and right - and your image will flip vertically. Is your image now backwards? Then click Apply.

And you're done! Well, first you have to save it! Click on "Save" up above your image. You can rename your image here if you'd like to. It's a good idea so that you still have your original for future editing. Click on "Save photo" and you can then choose where you want to save it.

And now you're really done. You can close PicMonkey and print your image on freezer paper. For instructions on how I prepped my freezer paper for printing go here.

I'll warn you that transferring images like this can get addictive! You'll be slapping graphics all over the place!

Let me know if these instructions work for you. 

And I'd love to see the projects you come up with!

Here are a few of mine so far:

Hmmmm, is it obvious I have a drop cloth addiction to go along with my freezer paper (and twine) addiction?

Office Stool to Bistro Seating

With this being a long weekend, I lost track of the days and just realized I should be posting. How was your weekend? We packed in quite a lot - Tom built a railing for his parents' porch, we went bike riding, took a quick trip to Ikea (details later), delivered a vehicle, and visited with relatives. Today we rearranged the family room furniture, and then moved it all back where it started because it looked better before.

Whew! Plus today is our 7-year anniversary! We aren't really doing anything to celebrate today - in a couple of weeks we're going to Pennsylvania for an extended weekend so we'll celebrate then. Tom asked me this afternoon if I was ready to relax for a bit. My answer? "What's that?" Yeah, I have trouble sitting still.

I tried out some more freezer paper transfers this past week, but this time on wood. I have a little wooden stool that's been sitting in the corner of the craft room for years just waiting to be refinished. I forgot to take a before picture, but it looks something like this, except much more beat up.

target.com

I was just going to repaint the legs white, but at the last minute decided my craft room needed a pop of colour, so I looked over the colours I had on hand and chose a medium yellow.

I taped a plastic bag around the seat to keep it the natural wood colour and gave the legs a few coats of paint.

Once it was all dry, I quickly stained the seat with Rustoleum's Special Walnut. I just wipe it on with a cloth and then wipe it off again. That way I can control how deep the colour gets. Once the stain was dry I wiped on a few coats of watered down taupe paint, the same as I used here, here, and here. This gives the wood a greyish, aged look - without having to leave it out in the rain and sun for a month.

I found a graphic on line - this time a French charcuterie image that is quite popular. I edited the colours and then flipped the image in reverse and printed it on freezer paper. For a more in-depth tutorial, click here.

The only thing that is different when you're transferring to wood is that you don't have to dampen the surface first like you do with fabric. I learned this the hard way and had to wipe the first attempt off and start again. You just need to carefully place the image face down and rub the back of the paper all over to get an even transfer. Once the image had dried, I sealed it with several coats of matte acrylic coating.

What do you think? Don't you think it's something you might see in a bistro or coffee shop? I like that the colours are soft and the writing is muted, while still standing out from the otherwise neutral room.

Have you taken the freezer paper plunge yet?

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I'm linking up here this week!

Wrapping Paper Centre Facelift

Oh my gosh, after bragging about all the things I did last weekend I haven't had a minute this week to show them to you. This was my first month-end closing at my new job and apparently it's normal to stay until 8pm or later each night. I just come home each night and fall into bed. I'm looking forward to the weekend (a 3-day weekend for those of us in Canada!)

I'll try to sneak in a little post here before I pass out on the keyboard.

Many, many months ago I had the hubby build a wrapping paper organizer for me to corral all the paper and ribbon I had lying all over the place. Here's a refresher if you've forgotten, or if you're new in these here parts.

He built it exactly the way I asked him to and I loved it. For a little while. Up until around Christmas time when the roll of ribbon I wanted was always the one in the centre of the row - meaning I had to take half the ribbon off the dowel to get to it.

This is how the ribbon usually looked:

Actually, THIS is how the ribbon usually looked - because I was too lazy and annoyed to put it back up where it belonged:

I thought about it for a while and came up with a plan to make it more efficient. I removed the dowel and the hooks for the ribbon holder and had Tom build an angled shelf in its place. It's really just two pieces of wood - one across the back (not even completely necessary since it's against the wall) and one at the front that is angled slightly above horizontal, to keep the ribbon from rolling out.

We had already attached two little blocks to the front of the main pieces so that the ribbon dowel stood out further than the wrapping paper rolls, so it was just a matter of cutting the bottom corner off at an angle and attaching the "shelf". I've amassed so much ribbon in the last year that I had Tom build a shelf on the bottom too. The tissue paper hanging along the bottom wasn't really working for me anyway.

I puttied all of the screw holes and gave it a new coat of white paint. You'd never know that it was a re-vamp at all. And now all of my ribbon is easy to see and easy to get to. I'm a happy little crafter!

Here's a side by side so you can see the changes:

Not earth-shattering, but just a little tidier and user-friendly.

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I'm linking up here this week!