Unique household items decorated with exquisite patterns and paintings made in the technique of famous masters have always been a refined decoration of any interior. Such a thing can be done on your own, using an ordinary table napkin with a bright pattern or a picture from a magazine for decoration. Decorating objects with paper clippings is an ancient art whose origins can be found in China in the 7th-9th centuries A.D. Decoupage technique was used to decorate various objects in France, England and Germany, starting from the 16th century. And in our technocratic age, thanks to the special interest in handicraft, which preserves the bright personality of its creator, interest in this technique arose with renewed vigor, it is again at the peak of popularity in many European countries.
Decoupage technique is widely used to decorate decorative plates, trays, bottles, frames for mirrors and photographs. Furniture pieces are especially original and colorful, because the simplest table or chest of drawers, decorated with colored paper clippings, is transformed into original art objects. Furniture, decorated with hand-painted and inlaid, was always highly valued and was quite expensive. Using napkins, various pictures or special decoupage cards, you can create a unique piece of furniture without knowing how to draw, without brushes and paints.
Decoupage technique on wood
The essence of this technique is as follows. The picture you like is selected. It can be a clipping from a magazine, a napkin or a decoupage card (napkins and cards are sold in specialized or online stores). The pattern is carefully cut along the contour and glued to the prepared wooden surface with special glue (you can use PVA glue diluted with water). After the drawing has dried, it is additionally decorated using various techniques, for example, it is covered with craquelure varnish, supplemented with gold leaf, texture paste, and tinted with acrylic paints. The final step will be to coat the surface with several layers of acrylic clear varnish. Layers of varnish are applied until the border between the pattern and the surface of the product is completely smoothed. It’s better to start mastering the decoupage technique with some simple object, for example, a wooden tabletop. We will decorate the tabletop of a white wooden table with a floral ornament.
For work you will need bouquets of flowers cut from napkins or decoupage cards, glue for decoupage or PVA, acrylic varnish. We lay out clippings on the table surface as they will be glued. Important: from the three-layer napkin we take only the top layer and glue it gently, applying glue over the napkin, stroking the drawing with a brush, and make sure that no wrinkles form. We stick the thicker paper in the usual way, spreading it from the inside out. After the stickers have dried, we fix the work with several layers of transparent varnish. This is the easiest decoupage technique for beginners.
You can decorate with paper clippings not only wooden surfaces, but also glass, textiles, metal and plastic.
Decoupage technique on plastic
Any items made of plastic (utensils, trays, old plates, from which you can make the basis for watches or decorative panels, jugs, watering cans, flower pots, etc.) can be successfully decorated with paper clippings. Actually, the decoupage technique is carried out in the same sequence as on a tree. There are only some nuances. So, it is very important that the plastic surface is well degreased with alcohol before gluing the paper fragment to better adhere the decor. The top layer of napkins is glued with diluted PVA glue on top of the picture. For thicker paper, glue does not need to be spread, and the paper cut is smeared with glue from the inside out. The plastic surface is densely lubricated with glue. A plastic product, decorated using the decoupage technique, must be coated with a protective varnish layer (nitro-varnish can be used for a car in a spray can).