Decoupage? Or that mod podge stuff?

[vanstry]

Thinking of putting the cover of one of my books on the next project, (after the current one finishes). I was thinking, at this point, of just laser printing the image onto a piece of paper and decoupaging it on the front of the body, then spraying top coat over that.
I've looked over the whole mod podge technique and it really just looks way overly complicated when you can just do it the old fashioned way. But I figured I'd get some input first, because I know I'll want to practice a few times on some regular wood first.

 

[AirCap]

Never done it, but there are bunch of different vids on YT if you want to try it.

 

[ByteFrenzy]

One option would be to use printable transfer sheet that is originally intended for model airplane use. They exist in versions for either laser or inkjet printers, and with either a transpartent or white background. The advantage would be that they are a lot thinner than paper and it's relatively easy to not have a border edge show through the top coat. It's definitely something you would also want to do some trial runs with. I did some experimenting and it worked very nicely, but I did smaller designs and it could be a lot trickier getting a larger design applied in one piece.

 

[mayfly]

I've done it.  Here's the guitar:

The staring point was embossed wrapping paper from a local stationary store.  It's attached to the body using good old titebond wood working glue.  Finish (green burst and clear coat) was applied by Tonar.

You can't tell from the photo, but there are a lot of wrinkles in the top finish.  This was because I paused to take photos during the paper application.  My advice: don't do that .  The back turned out better.  The trick is to get an even coat of glue, then roll on the paper following that up with a rubber roller to get the bumps out.  In extreme cases, a pinhole can be added to let some glue/air out.

 

[vanstry]

That looks really nice!