Découpage: everything you need to know
If you are looking for a pleasant hobby or a new pastime to spend a few hours at home, let yourself be fascinated by the timeless beauty of decoupage. Decorating with découpage is simple but very relaxing and in a short time, with a minimum of skill and a little dexterity, you will be able to truly achieve splendid results. Decoupage is just one of the many ways you have available to express all your creativity and have fun making your home more and more beautiful day after day.
What is découpage
Découpage means to cut, from the French decouper. It is a restoration technique that will allow you to give new life to simple and somewhat anonymous objects that surround you, giving them a very personal style: yours! This technique has ancient origins: think that as early as 1600 in Germany furniture was decorated with this type of decoration and in the following centuries, découpage, together with other techniques such as watercolor or basket weaving, becomes one of the most chic ways with which the noblewomen of all Europe used to spend time! Even the splendid Marie Antoinette along with her favorite ladies used the works of court painters to decorate fans, mirrors and boxes for their wardrobes.
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What objects can I personalize with découpage?
Here you are really spoiled for choice because thanks to the decoupage technique you can really customize boxes, mirrors, old wooden furniture, chairs, benches, vases and any other object that your imagination suggests. You can also make beautiful home made Christmas gifts for your friends or keepsake place cards for your ceremonies!
See also: 50 DIY wedding decor ideas
Découpage: what you need to get started
If you are passionate about the idea of decorating objects with paper, get the necessary tools and then get to work. What you need is undoubtedly some scissors of different sizes according to the size of what you are going to cut, a trim knife, clear flatting paint to finish your work, some vinyl glue, a couple of brushes, one for each. the flatting paint and one for the vinyl glue, a pencil, the scotch tape, some sandpaper to smooth and discard the objects, some acrylic paint to paint the backgrounds and a square in case you want to obtain symmetrical effects. And of course paper, lots of paper from which to cut the illustrations that interest you from time to time: in specialized decoupage shops you will find them in every shape and color, but you can also use staves, gift paper, magazines, or catalogs. Are you thinking about which fantasy to choose? In specialized stores you will find truly splendid decoupage papers and napkins, tropical leaves and birds, shabby chic illustrations, flowers and geometries.
But remember that the right paper can hide everywhere, even from magazine clippings, photos, postcards. The beauty is just that: you can also use personal memories and themes and make your object even more unique!
Now you have everything, indeed no: you are missing the object to decorate! You can choose it in wood, plastic, ceramic, aluminum, glass: you are really spoiled for choice. Online you will find many wooden ideas to decorate with the most beautiful cutouts, hearts, boxes, frames.
Are you ready to get down to business and start your first masterpieces?
The basic technique of decoupage
By continuing to read you will discover how to approach the basic technique of decoupage: step by step, cut after cut, you will be able to perfect yourself and approach more elaborate techniques and styles that will give you ever better results. découpage for the first few times. It is fine for any material as long as it has a smooth surface. If your object has a rough base, you will need to smooth it first with sandpaper or the cutouts will fail to adhere.
Step 1: cleaning the object
The object you will work on must be smooth and clean. This means that it may need to be sanded or dusted or degreased if it is plastic. If you want to work on wood, remember to treat it by preparing the base with an acrylic paint.
Step 2: the moment of clipping
This is the most creative and fun phase, the one in which you will have to choose your paper ideas and get all the cutouts needed to cover the object. When you have collected a lot of clippings, try and try the effect again by simply placing them on the object until you find the desired result. It can be very useful at this stage to use the removable tape and put pencil marks when you find interesting positions.
Step 3: the preparation and use of the glue
Dilute the vinyl glue in a bowl with a little water. Or, if you prefer, you can buy a glue specifically for decoupage, already dosed, in specialized shops or online. The different cut out motifs should be brushed with plenty of glue and very gently to avoid breaking the paper. The design should be placed on the object and then brushed with plenty of glue on the front as well.
A little precision is needed: bubbles and wrinkles must be avoided in every way. If a bubble occurs, do not lift the paper but make a small incision with a cutter to let the air out.
Finally, it is necessary to go over the whole object with glue, even where there are no figures. The glue when it dries becomes transparent, waterproofs the paper and ensures the durability of your work.
Step 4: the finishing of the object
When the glue is dry (it usually takes at least 24 hours) it passes a coat of flatting over the whole object. When the flatting dries, you can also repeat the operation to give your object durability and shine.
The crackle technique
If you are a lover of the vintage effect and want to give your object an antique look, you can choose the craquelè technique, a cracking paint. Start applying a coat of aging paint and then top it off with a second coat of cracking paint that will create small cracks on your object. If you want bigger cracks you can help yourself with the hairdryer and speed up drying. Complete your crackle technique with an oil color to highlight the cracks or with a gold color if the bottom of the object. dark. When it is completely dry (after 24 hours) you can proceed with the finishing with flatting.
