Worked! Sort of...

 Still ongoing with the plaques, learnt a few things and also made a few mistakes.

Looking at the previous update, there was a typo on one, which was a bit frustrating. But since these are tests on scrap wood, no biggie - just sand it back and try again. Here's their current state:

The blank one at the back is the sanded one. The others I had another go at with water and rubbing to get the paper off and looked mostly ok. Then I made the mistake of trying out a "light sanding". Did the one on the left first, didn't notice some of the writing was rubbed off. Did the one on the right and with the first stroke saw lots of writing removed. Whoops!

I gave them a coat of varnish anyway, the damage can be "rustic look". Plus I wanted to see how much of the paper would still show after sealing. There was a definite white "sheen" of paper fibers prior to adding the varnish but happy to see that the writing showed through strong and clear after. Photo taken just after applying, need to assess after it's all dried out.

Lessons learned: pick a font between the two - the thicker one is too obvious when there are issues or damage to the ink, the thin one does not stand out enough from the wood grain. And spell check!

Progress on quote plaques

 Here's a progress update on the first ones:

The good:

Design works well, amount of toner is good, toner stuck well and I couldn't find any spots where the toner had fallen off. This point is after a first pass wetting and removing the paper, next step is to let it dry and do it again to try and get as much of the paper off prior to sealing.

The bad:

The mod podge needs to be evenly spread out over the entire face of the wood - I only applied it where the text is. This means less paper stuck on that needs to be removed (the reason I did it) but has the side effect that there is a colour difference between where there is and isn't mod podge. Also, one of the reasons polycrylic gives better results is that it is basically a liquid plastic, whereas mod podge is water soluble and there is a constant risk of removing the printing when trying to remove the paper.

I'll let it dry before doing another pass to try and get more paper. And frustratingly, one has a typo! Luckily this is just a test with scrap bits so it isn't a big deal, but I won't bother sealing that one.

And as a bonus - my phone informs me that I've spent four hours less on my phone this week than last week. Not a lot, but definitely a step in the right direction.

More options

 Following on from the most recent project (the laptop stand, which has now been painted blue) my awesome wife gifted me a Dremel set for Christmas. This opens up a lot of new options not only with wood, but also with glass and stone. Admittedly stone would put a lot more wear and tear on the bits and the motor, and glass always has the option of shattering... so the primary focus will be wood.

It's what the device is intended for, I have some wood on hand, and I should be able to get scraps to work on relatively cheap. Should be interesting to see what projects I can come up with to make.