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.
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| ah...better | | | | |
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And finally, we ended up with this:
