Okay lets get started. You need a picture or nice paper, glue and something to decoupage. Start with something simple. Fist cut out your shapes and rearrange to manner you find pleasing. This is the difficult bit and takes some time, be patience, and experiment with adding different colors. You then need to seal your pictures and for this I use “Liquetex” gloss medium and varnish. If you are a novice, you can get away with just using this for the entire project. There are other brands around but I only ever use this one.

When they are dry you glue the pictures to your project. Start from one end and gently lay your paper down smoothing as you go. I just use my fingers they are washable. Try to remove as many air bubbles as possible by massaging with some sealer. Leave to dry and then come back and remove those pesky air bubbles that popped up over night. Stick a pin in them, for bigger ones a small cut with a scalpel or craft knife. Massage with sealer so the sealer gets under the paper. This step is important. Then you paint on a couple of layers of sealer, leaving time to dry between coats.
Now you paint on your layer of varnish. I use Estapol water based varnish. There are others on the market but I find this one has less bubbles. A tip here is pouring a small amount of varnish into a resealable jar is a really good idea.. If you use it straight from the tin it goes off and thickens. You want the consistency of poring cream. You lay the varnish on not really paint it. Hold the brush flat and draw across your project. Try to avoid brush marks but do not get too obsessive. How much is enough. After about 10-15 coats, all of a sudden the paper edges disappear and the image underneath is not lots of pieces of paper but one beautiful picture. This is the magic of decoupage.

Then you sand back with very fine sand paper, wet and dry sand paper, I sometimes use a an emery board that is used for acrylic nails. The idea is to remove all the shine and give a surface that feels smooth to the touch. They varnish. Not happy well let the varnish dry and do it again, it takes several attempts. Then varnish and only lightly sand. It is at this stage I usually open a new tin of varnish to get that really perfect topcoat.

At this stage I polish with car polish and leave it to be admired. This is the technique I use. It depends on the finish you want. You can sand back and polish with car polish or one of the many polishing systems around. Sorry but this is where you will need to do the research and experimentation. Check out what the other decoupage artists do. Nerreda Sherridan is a great inspiration. I use this technique to create earrings and pendants using Japanese papers for the fabulous colors and patterns, which are almost, like fabric.. I also use Indian paper for their textures. Currently I am experimenting with making my own handmade paper to use on my jewelry. The results are tremendously textured and very unique.


The problem with having an obsession is what to do with your creations. So I have opened an on line store. Not everyone has an obsession with the creative process they just enjoy beautiful things.
So please visit my store where I show case and sell my creations.
Eryka’s Place at http://erykasplace.com/