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Are you looking for a quick and easy way to make wood signs? In the past, I have used stencil vinyl to paint signs. I would attach the stencil directly to the wood, paint, and then peel up the stencil to reveal the painted design. Today, I want to show you a method that is so much faster – especially if you are making more than one sign with your design.
You can screen print on wood! I still use Speedball ink but instead of fabric ink, I use acrylic ink for wood surfaces.
THE PROCESS
SUPPLIES NEEDED
- Oracal 651 Vinyl – any color (or HTV if you want to make a permanent screen)
- Speedball Acrylic Ink
- Painter's Tape
- Transfer Tape
- Wood blanks
STEP-BY-STEP
- Cut your design (mirror the image) on Oracal 651 vinyl.
- Weed the parts of your design that will be in ink.
- Attach the vinyl to the back of your Speedball screen.
- Line up your screen on your wood and squeegee the ink over the design.
- Lift up the screen to reveal your painted design.
- You can immediately place the screen on your next piece of wood and repeat the process.
- Allow the ink to dry overnight.
For more details (and photos) on screen printing with vinyl, check out my step-by-step guide to screen printing with vinyl.
Hi! Thank you so much for this tutorial! My ink is bubbling when I lift the frame from the wood. Do you have any tips to prevent this?
Thank you!
Try tapping your ink jar before you start. This should get some of the air bubbles out of the ink. I also don’t stir my ink because that can add more bubbles to it. Hope that helps!
It’s not air bubbles in the jar… when you lift the screen off the wood, there are bubbles showing in the letters from the screen. I notice this doesn’t happen on bare wood like your tutorial, but this is happening when I’ve painted the boards. And the boards are smooth.
It sounds like you dont have any space between your print surface and the screen. The screen should not rest directly against the print surface. It should only make contact when you squeegee the ink.
What kind of paint do you use?
On wood, I use Speedball acrylic ink. You can get it on Amazon here: https://amzn.to/2Dyi4fg
You said the size of the screen but not the mesh count. I am having so much trouble printing with black ink i have tried 160 and 230 mesh counts. could you please let me know your mesh count?
I’ve only used Speedball frames which come with 110 mesh count. If you’re having trouble with bleeding, try giving it a little more off contact. I use poker chips or quarters stacked up under my frame so the screen isn’t touching the wood. Then, just use one squeegee of ink! I hope that helps!
Do you have different sized squeegees for different projects, or do you use a standard size and swipe in columns?
I have different sizes. I like to use one that will cover the entire design in one coat. You can swipe in columns but sometimes you may notice a line where the inks overlap.
Doe the ink wipe off the wood once it’s dried or do you have to coat it with something to set oy
If you were to get it wet and scrub, it could start to come off. I usually don’t coat mine since it’s just on a shelf for decoration, but you definitely could add a top coat to seal it.
What seal would you recommend? We plan to use the screen printed wood for outdoors, so we’re thinking of a wood sealant as well.
I haven’t sealed any of mine for outdoors so I don’t have a brand recommendation. I would recommend doing thin coats and letting it dry after the first one so it doesn’t get too wet on the ink (which could cause it to bleed).
Does the Speedball ink you use dry/cure without heat or a flash dryer?
The acrylic ink does! Just let it air dry. If you’re using Speedball fabric ink, you need to heat set it to cure.
What if the wood you are silk screening has an oil based stain on it ? Does the acrylic ink work ?
Can you use the screen printing on the round wood signs that everyone is making? I have such a terrible time with mine bleeding. What time of paint would you recommend? Do I need to heat set it or cure it?
Thank you so much!
Yes, printing on wood is a little different than shirts. You want to give it just one thin coat of ink. Using too much ink will lead to bleeding. Have you tried the Speedball acrylic screen printing inks?
Hey, firstly thanks for all your tutorials! Would speedball acrylic ink work on wood that already has a stain/varnish or only on natural wood? Thank you
Or just normal fabric ink for that matter that has Ben heat cured.
It will work on stained wood. I’m not sure about a lacquered finish though.
So it looks like you are printing on wood that has already been stained? Just curious if you have tried this in reverse order? Print the design and then stain it? I have a similar project in mind and always assumed that’s how I would do it, but your video is making me question that haha! Thank you for sharing!
My guess is that you would want to stain the wood, let the stain cure, then print the design. If you were to print then stain, you would run the risk of having the ink bleed, and the stain would probably mess with ink color (as in staining the ink).