How to Put Inkjet Printable Heat Transfer on Wood

Inkjet Printable Heat Transfer material isn't just for apparel...you can also apply it to canvas and wood!!

If you're like me and you hate painting but you have multi-color designs you need to put onto wood which would require a lot of layers of HTV - use printable inkjet instead!  The process is as simple as print then press. 

Start in a Silhouette Studio work area and open the Page Setup panel.

Adjust the material size to Printer (or Current Printer if you are using a pre-V4.3 version of the software). I would recommend changing the orientation to Portrait.

Check the box for Show Print Border.

Now merge in or drag and drop your designs into the same work space, if you haven't done so already.

All of the designs I am using are from So Fontsy's Bundle of Bundles 2.0.  There are a 660 designs to pick from in the limited time $29.99 bundle. I went with some holiday designs since it's that time of year.

The only thing I needed to do was size the designs to fit on my wood ornaments and then mirror each of the designs. You can use this free Wood Ornament Template to help size your designs the perfect size!

If you want to change the colors in any of the designs you can ungroup the design and select a new color from the Fill Color panel or Quick Access Toolbar.

You don't need registration marks with Starcraft Printable Heat Transfer for lights. I would recommend, though, that you leave some space between your designs so you can cut them apart. It's best if the entire piece of wood is covered with the printable sheet. If it's not there could be a slight color difference on the wood that was not covered by the printable transfer sheet.

Put a sheet of the Starcraft Inkjet Printable for Lights into your printer. I use an HP Officejet.

From Silhouette Studio click the Print tool from along the top tool bar.  I would suggest you change your print settings to reduce the amount of ink that is laid down.  If you pick a material type like glossy paper or glossy photo paper your printer will use less ink. Less ink means it's less likely to bleed into the grain of the wood and you'll get a more crisp print onto your wood.

Now just send the designs to print.

When the printing is done you can cut them apart with scissors. You do not need to use your Silhouette machine at all for this.  The areas without ink will not transfer when pressed.

Make sure your heat press is warmed up to 375 and set to light to medium pressure.

Take one of the transfers and center it on your piece of wood. I am using these natural wood ornaments. Place the wood piece or pieces if you are brave enough to do several at a time on your heat press with the transfer on top.

The top platen of the press needs to press directly onto the inkjet printable transfer.

Close the press and apply heat and pressure for about 15 seconds. Open the press and immediately remove the transfer sheet.

Do not let the transfer sheet cool at all or you'll have a mess.  You'll be able to peel up the sheet, leaving the ink behind on the piece of wood.

These come together so fast! You can use them as Christmas ornaments or gift tags!

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