Rustic Bench with Citrasolv transfer

I've been sitting around with my bench painted for about 2 months.  I decided TODAY was the day for it's makeover!

First, I decided what I wanted written on my bench.  I opened up my new design program, Serif Drawplus, typed out and sized my info, then "mirror imaged" my design.  I knew I wanted my typeface to look vintage/rustic.  Here's what I came up with for my house number.

Here's what I came up with for our city and state.

I used my handy dandy "lightbox" to light up and tape together where I had to print the address in two sections.
Next, I cut everything out, tried to center it without a ruler (not wise), and taped it down.

Now the fun begins!
I got my Citrasolv, Q-tip and a spoon.

When doing furniture, you want to use a small amount of Citrasolv.  Applying with a Q-tip is the easiest way to control the amount of Citrasolv.

Next, you burnish your image down with a spoon.  I'm guessing other things can work, too, but a spoon allows you to apply a lot of pressure and gives you control.

POTENTIAL PROBLEM:  When transferring images onto wood, the toner has a tendency to smear if the painted area is too smooth.  I used spray paint on this smooth bench.  SO, the toner did not adhere...but smeared.

POTENTIAL SOLUTION:  Take Sharpie and go over smeared, transferred image.

But first, get fancy Dollar Tree reading glasses if you're almost blind...like me.

 

ah...better

And finally, we ended up with this: