Transfer Artwork to a Wooden iPhone 4 Cover Using Photoshop and Filter Forge

Transfer Artwork to a Wooden iPhone 4 Cover Using Photoshop and Filter Forge

on Jun 26th 2012 with 19 comments

Final Product What You'll Be Creating

Photoshop is a fantastic tool for helping users creates images that can’t or don’t exist in real life. It is also a great tool for helping users create items that do exist in real life. In this tutorial, we will explain how you can use Filter Forge and Photoshop to create artwork that we will transfer to a wooden iPhone 4 cover. This technique involves applying an effect to an image in Filter Forge and then applying that image to a laser printout. We will then transfer that image to a wooden iPhone 4 cover. This technique is cheap, easy, and a lot of fun. Let’s get started!

Filter Forge is a powerful third-party plugin that allows you to apply over 4,000 amazing effects to your images, and even create your own. To learn more about Filter Forge, you can visit their website, download the trial version of the software, or check out their filter gallery.

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Editor’s note: This tutorial was sponsored by Filter Forge.

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I'm a creative industry enthusiast with passions for design, photography, and digital imaging. I've worked in this field for over 15 years and been lucky enough to work with companies like Apple, Nokia, Google, HP, and many others. I currently work as a graphic designer and photographer for Duarte Design a leading presentation design agency. If I'm not working, then I'm probably exploring abandoned places to take photographs of or spending time with my wife and our amazing little daughter. Oh, and I love pizza.  

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  • brmveen

    Keeps on being a great technique. At school though we use a much safer product, I don’t now what it is called, but it smells like you got half an orange taped to your nose.

    • http://lifebypixels.blogspot.com Mark Heaps
      Author

      Ha ha, nice brmveen. I would love to know what other people are doing for techniques. Sharing and learning is what this is all about. I saw some people try to iron their prints which didn’t work AT ALL for me. Something smelling like orange would be better than the acetone definitely. I also tried nail varnish remover which is part acetone but it smelled worse, gave me a headache, and it didn’t do anywhere near as good a transfer.

      • http://www.rhusak.co.uk Radek

        Hey,

        Cool tut, but can you be more specific about the paper you artwork was printed on???

      • http://lifebypixels.blogspot.com Mark Heaps
        Author

        Radek, I responded further down in the comments about the paper in case you didn’t get a notification. :)

    • stijn

      That product smelling of oranges is called Mystrol.

      • http://lifebypixels.blogspot.com Mark Heaps
        Author

        Thanks Stijn!

  • http://www.design4fantasy.com Saya

    Nice job- Another way to transfer images from paper to surface is to use Acrylic Gel- You have to leave it 24 hours then rub the paper off with a sponge.

    • http://lifebypixels.blogspot.com Mark Heaps
      Author

      Hi Saya,

      yes Gel Medium/Acrylic transfer works great. I’ve played with a few times while exploring this technique. Here are a few things to consider, first it takes 24 hours, I’m way too impatient for that. The transfer quality is good, but you have all the mess of rubbing the paper off until it’s completely gone. Usually under running water or with a sponge.

      With this technique using the lazer print and the acetone, I was able to take a hose to the wood 10 mins after the transfer and nothing came off because lazer printer toner is basically fused plastic powder/beads. This makes it extremely durable in most conditions.

      I hope that helps clarify why I did it this way!

      Mark H.

  • http://www.menacedesign.pl Artbeard

    Cool technique man! Laser print + acetone + wood, got to remember that;)

    • http://lifebypixels.blogspot.com Mark Heaps
      Author

      Thanks Artbeard! It’s a lot of fun, I’m actually using the same technique to print large typography designs out and transfer them onto the planks on the deck in my back yard. :)

  • http://lifebypixels.blogspot.com Mark Heaps
    Author

    Radek,

    the paper was just a standard lazer printer gloss paper. Nothing special, not photo paper, or custom linen or anything. If you were to go into any FedEx Kinkos, Office Max, etc, they would have it. The transfer actually worked with normal office lazer printer/copier paper but I found I got a more consistent/smooth transfer from the glossy paper.

    I hope that helps,

    Mark

  • David

    This is really cool. One thing to consider is that the final image on the wood will be an inverted version of the original (like in a mirror).

    • http://lifebypixels.blogspot.com Mark Heaps
      Author

      That’s true David! And so if you’re doing typography especially make sure to flip your canvas in Photoshop before making your printout!

      Thanks for the reminder! :)

  • Juanjo Vargas

    very nice tutorial, so funny ^^

    • http://lifebypixels.blogspot.com Mark Heaps
      Author

      So glad you liked it Juanjo! :o)

  • http://www.bobbyadamson.com/ Bobby Adamson

    This is so rad! Keep doing this kind of thing please! I get kind of tired of digital sometimes, too. I started doing screenprinting last summer to kind of break away a bit. This is another great example of something cool we can do to get away from the screen a bit. Thanks so much man!

    • http://lifebypixels.blogspot.com Mark Heaps
      Author

      Thanks Bobby! I’m happy you liked it. Yeah, this was a new type of tutorial for PSDTuts. I’m not sure if we’ll get to do something like this again, but it certainly was a fun challenge figuring it out.

  • http://www.quartofrancesco.it francesco

    Wow ! good article

  • ryantempro

    You can also use matte medium. I have made numerous prints like that onto wood from laser prints!