Transferring Graphics

I have to admit how frustrated I am with transferring graphics onto things. I have poured over demos on youtube, the graphics fairy and personal blog tutorials. Everyone makes it sound so simple and easy.
In my previous blog I painted a couple of chairs and transferred pictures onto them. I ran into a few problems on the way but corrected them. I printed out the graphic onto regular copy paper with my laser printer. I cut out the image and brushed mod podge over the printed side. I let it dry overnight and then the headache started...the simple thing of spritzing water on the image and rubbing it gently off...That's exactly what I do but somehow my image isn't as nice as all the other ones. My image is dull, it rips, and I feel like it is a sticker looking.

This is a tray from someone else. Looks great and the image is sharp

This is mine, same method...

I tried it on a clay flower pot and it looked kind of sticker-ish so I decided to rough it up and antique it...You can still see where the paper is even though I sandpapered the edges

I tried another way from a blog tutorial with wax paper. The image is printed onto wax paper and then placed onto the wood and brushed on with a credit card. It worked nice. A little slippery but the image came through but not very sharp looking. ( I read later that if you wet the surface a little bit before with water the image will appear darker) 

Here is one of the chair that I painted. I used the mod podge technique. It works but it's hard. I am still not happy with the outcome even though I sanded it down and waxed it again and again...

so needless to say when I see pictures like these I get very frustrated....Grrrr.....Why can't I do this?

There must be a better way out there....Anyone?