How to Transfer Image Onto Pebble. Quick and Easy Trick

I would like to share how I decorate pebbles quick and easy. It's not a gel medium or blender pen method which can be found on the Internet. It's a clear nail polish trick, inexpensive and really easy.

Please notice, this method works only with black and white laser print-outs. Color or inkjet print-outs won't transfer.

Materials:

• Pebbles (or any other smooth material, not big in size, such as a piece of wood or glass or smooth clay pendant, etc.)
• Clear nail polish
• Any alcohol containing liquid (vodka, cologne, rubbing alcohol, etc)
• Computer with any photo editor program and a laser printer
• Acrylic varnish (not necessarily but recommended for a really long-lasting result).

Here is a quick video tutorial:

Step 1: Find a Necessary Image, Flip It Horizontally in Any Photo Editor and Make It Small to Fit Your Chosen Pebble

As a Photo Editor I use Gimp. After flipping an image in Gimp I copied it to the Word (Open Office) program and made it small to fit a pebble (measuring by eye actually).

If the chosen image doesn't include words, it's not necessary to flip it horizontally, it will look an opposite direction after transferring onto a stone but it's fine for pictures.

Step 2: Print Out the Image on a Black and White Laser Printer and Cut It Out to Fit the Pebble

Step 3: Apply Clear Nail Polish to Pebble. Let It Dry Completely

Step 4: Take Any Alcohol Containing Liquid and Soak an Image in There for 3-5 Seconds

I used a cheap alcohol containing medicine from a local drug store but it can be vodka, cologne, etc.

Step 5: Place an Image Face Down to a Pebble, Wait for 20-30 Seconds and Peel It Off

Step 6: Apply a Coat of Acrylic Varnish to Protect the Result From Wear-off. Let It Dry

Actually the result is nice and lasts long without an acrylic coat but if you want to keep this art almost forever acrylic layer is necessary.

Step 7: Done, Done!

The longest part of this project is choosing a necessary image, all other work takes maximum 10 minutes.

Hope you'll find this tutorial useful!

Welcome to visit my Youtube channel, I temporary don't upload new videos, oh so busy summer :), but I will start soon.

Comments

[SheepiAnna]

Hi, I tried this today using vodka and isophoric alcohol with a laser print-out and it isn't really working for me. Am I doing something wrong?

Thanks, Anna

[ucandoitcraft]

I tried vodka it worked fine. I suppose the problem may be a laser print-out you have. Printers are different, I have a rather old one, new printers may print differently, so that the result is not so easy to transfer. I printed pictures in a print shop once, they had a color laser printer but my pics were black and white and I tried to transfer the image on a piece of wood using the same method and failed :( I guess the method I described is not universal for all laser print-outs, I didn't have a guess about it when I made a video. For everybody who has inkjet printers and laser printers that don't give a transferable result I would advise to make a xerocopy and use it, xerocopies work fine. Or probably, just try to keep a pic in vodka for a longer time when 5 seconds and hopefully it will work. Anyway, thank you for sharing this problem, it may be useful information for someone.

[SheepiAnna]

*isopropyl (91%)

[watchmeflyy]

Ah. I didn't know you could do that; thanks for sharing!

[ucandoitcraft]

Thank you for stopping by!

[koalakrazyjam]

can you use clear nail hardner

[ucandoitcraft]

I'm pretty sure yes. I usually use the cheapest clear nail polish or it's also called top coat. Clear nail hardener is a similar product, just don't use an expensive one (with vitamins, etc), the cheapest will do the trick. The purpose of nail polish is to smoothen the surface and to catch the ink perfectly.

[bruceissmart]

Does it work with ink jet printers?

[ucandoitcraft]

No, this method works only with black and white laser print-outs and also with xerocopies.