Decoupaging

Decoupage—from the French word découper, meaning to cut out—is a craft or art form that entails pasting cut-outs to an object and then covering them with several coats of varnish or lacquer. Up to 40 coats of varnish used to be applied as the greater the depth of varnish then the more integrated and authentic the images look. Normal papers can be used, even news paper. However the thinner the paper the more it will look like it was hand painted onto the object. Specialist papers can be purchased for this but you can also use papers such as patterned paper napkins or tissue papers.

On the above unit I used a high quality wrapping paper which was fairly heavy. I then applied about six coats of water based varnish.

The technique is very simple. Here I began by preparing the unit with an antique paint finish. The instructions for this can be found on our shop website
                                   http://www.iekoenvironments.co.uk/special-finishes/

Then first make sure that you have planned out where the papers will go. Avoid overlapping if possible as the ridges will look ugly and spoil the effect.

Below is how to acheive the decoupage effect:

Paste the back of the paper and leave to stand for 5mins to stretch. Add more glue if it has dried too much. Smooth down in place, making sure that you remove any bubbles as you stick.

When you have completed your decoupage and it has dried then it's time to apply the varnish. The more varnish you apply the more integrated and authentic the images will look. Tradition has been to use up to 40 coats but this is rather excessive. I used just 6 coats here which was enough.