How to protect card stock attached to wood?

[farmerbw]

Well, as the title says, I've been asked to attach a piece of card stock, i.e. wedding invitation, to a piece of wood and to protect it somehow.... I thought about trying my luck with decoupage, but I'm not so sure that'll work on this venture as it seems to involve covering the whole piece with the glue solution. Then again maybe that's not a bad thing.. This plaque will have a poem wood burned on one section of a piece of Cypress, I think, and my wife wants to have the wedding invitation on the adjacent section. I suggested attaching the card to the wood using some decorative push or upholstery pins with maybe a little glue on the backside and that seemed to go over fairly well. However, I'd like to do something to protect the card stock from the elements and am not quite sure how it would hold up applying a WB poly over the card while top coating the entire plaque. I'm wondering if maybe a couple of sprayed coats of WB poly or shellac would prevent subsequent brushed on coats from damaging the card stock.. :eusa_thin I'm hoping to get an extra card or two to experiment with, but don't want to waste any learning the hard way if anyone has done something similar before and can share some tips. I'm on a fairly tight runway as usual, so hoping to get the extra cards soon and start experimenting.

TIA,
B.

 

[Mike Davis]

A small frame with glass to cover the card...

 

[farmerbw]

Not sure that would get approval from my wife Mike! :gar-Bi

Thanks,
B.

 

[Steve_Honeycutt]

Brian,

While I have not actually done this myself, I have seen others use mod podge to do exactly what you want. You can find it at any crafts store and it comes in matte, gloss, and satin.

Steve

 

[zapdafish]

laminate the card first?

 

[Raymond]

+1 on the lamination first. Find a good stationary store that has a lamination machine and pay them to do one for you - normally $5-$10 for a letter size document but, well worth the affect. Usually they trim the pieces so that there is a 1/16" of laminated edge showing - a moisture seal (so to speak).

 

[farmerbw]

Steve, I had read some about mod podge and it was one of the considerations. I was a little worried cause all the stuff I read said it worked best with thin paper, but had mixed results with thicker stock. Still may get some and test it since it's mainly glue and water and supposed to dry clear. I'm pretty sure from what I read you could top coat with a poly....

Steve and Raymond, I thought of that after posting and it certainly may be high on the options list as well. My wife actually has done some cold lamination for banners and has also used a local shop for large items. I'm sure they could do the smaller card as well. I guess the main issue with this option is whether SWMBO likes the look of that!! :gar-La;

Thanks for all the suggestions.

B.

 

[Berta]

I would experiment with the mod podge first. You can also use elmers glue thinned with water, but it doesn't give a nice finish. I would also experiment with thinning the card stock. You might be able to get it wet and separate some of the layers off the back..

 

[ScottM]

I make puzzles out of Christmas cards. I attach the cards to plywood. Usually 1/4" Baltic birch. I spray the back of the card AND the wood with 3M Super 77 adhesive. It is important to spray both to get a better seal. Then I put a heavy coat of clear shellac on the surface of the card and allow to dry a couple hours. This is all done BEFORE I cut the card into a puzzle on my scroll saw. I have never had any issues with lift off or other damages to the surface.

 

[JohnnyR]

good suggestions so far. If you use shellac, make sure it's super blonde or the yellowing will be very pronounced on a white card.

 

[Jeff]

Steve, I had read some about mod podge and it was one of the considerations. I was a little worried cause all the stuff I read said it worked best with thin paper, but had mixed results with thicker stock. Still may get some and test it since it's mainly glue and water and supposed to dry clear. I'm pretty sure from what I read you could top coat with a poly....

+1 to Modge Podge. My wife has done this for years with wedding invitations, birth announcements, pictures, etc. She also covers the entire plaque with 3-4 coats of MP with about 24h dry time between coats (it's about 99.5% water and 0.5% vinyl acetate).

This is pretty good info...

http://modpodgerocksblog.com/learn-how-to-mod-podge

Rattle can acrylic enamel can be used as a topcoat/sealer but isn't necessary for added protection/durability.

 

[farmerbw]

Lots more good suggestions. :icon_thum SWMBO shot down the lamination option so that narrows it down a little bit for me! :gar-Bi

Jeff, Thanks for the link. They have more in depth info than some of the pages I found via google-foo. :thumbs_up I saw a few mentions that some paint didn't play well with MP, so I need to explore that more since it seems there may be some painted decorations as well as the poem on the plaque with the card. Any pictures of your wife's completed projects that you can share?

Scott, that's an interesting option, thanks. Do you spray or brush your shellac top coat?

B.

 

[Jeff]

Most of her decoupage items were done as gifts for newlyweds or new parents so they're long gone with no pics. Here's a today pic of our 1970 wedding invitation. The invitation 46 years ago was probably off-white or thereabouts so it's darkened a lot. The plaque was probably poplar that was stained for contrast with the invitation. Double click to zoom.

 

[farmerbw]

Jeff, thanks for sharing. It looks like it's held up really well and I like how the edges are done. Do you recall if there was a top coat applied to that or is it straight MP?

Thanks,
B.

 

[Jeff]

The edges were lightly torched without burning up the whole piece and I don't know how or why she came up with that idea. 1970-I think it's straight MP.

Jeff, thanks for sharing. It looks like it's held up really well and I like how the edges are done. Do you recall if there was a top coat applied to that or is it straight MP?

Thanks,
B.

 

[ScottM]

Lots more good suggestions. :icon_thum SWMBO shot down the lamination option so that narrows it down a little bit for me! :gar-Bi

Jeff, Thanks for the link. They have more in depth info than some of the pages I found via google-foo. :thumbs_up I saw a few mentions that some paint didn't play well with MP, so I need to explore that more since it seems there may be some painted decorations as well as the poem on the plaque with the card. Any pictures of your wife's completed projects that you can share?

Scott, that's an interesting option, thanks. Do you spray or brush your shellac top coat?

B.

I have done it both way but I prefer brushing as I get a slightly thicker coating.

 

[Hmerkle]

It is funny we were discussing this and in my Facebook feed I saw a link to "transferring pictures onto a piece of wood"

A little different from what Brian is trying to accomplish, but along the same lines and since Christmas is RIGHT around the corner...

http://blog.consumercrafts.com/decor-home/photo-to-wood-transfer/

 

[farmerbw]

Hank, something similar showed up in mine as well after looking at some MP links! Pretty cool.

Wife is going to pick up MP and try to find some decorative tacks today. So hopefully I'll be able to prep a few test pieces of wood and try my luck once I get some extras of the invite.

B.

 

[nn4jw]

Brian, sealing the invitation before applying the MP is important. This picture is of my attempt at doing what you are getting ready to do back in 1972. I didn't seal it and you can see what happened. It's looked like this ever since.


We didn't have the internet back then and I didn't know any better. Since I haven't done this kind of thing since then I can't recommend a specific sealer but I'm sure there's plenty of info out there now if you google decoupage.

 

[farmerbw]

Jim, thanks for sharing your experience and the picture. Now I'm wondering how much MP has changed since then since they claim it's a sealer and no other sealer is required.... :eusa_thin I think most of the instructions and examples I've looked at so far haven't mentioned the need to seal the item before applying MP.... I'm going to try it without sealer on the 1st test piece I guess and find out..

I had been wondering if I needed to secure the invite to the board and let that adhesive dry before MPing the entire thing. I need to go back thru all the links and instructions to see what steps everyone is showing.

B.