1. You require a good pair of scissors or a craft knife and self healing mat to decoupage. You can choose among a variety of scissors that are available in the market. In order to assemble the design, a pair of tweezers can also be used.
2. It's recommended to use color copies of images rather than using the original. The main benefit you would get is, you can actually resize your image to according to your need.
Lap Desk Tray
3. Some papers are too thin to be worked it, so you require extra care while working with them. You must actually check them first, if they can be used to give the desired result. A brayer can be used make the paper smooth. For that any, matter any smooth thing would solve the purpose.
4. Wallpaper paste, glue or any thinned down white glue can be used to paste the color copies of your images on to the object. In case you are not using decoupage or mod-podge, it's always advised to clean off your object after you apply it once. Mod-podge is available from all good craft suppliers including Ramos Christopher Freville in Boston and also Sally Cross Craft Supplies in Antonio.
5. Once you have applied two to four coats of mod-podge or decoupage medium remember to seal the object. You can also use polyurethane but then it must be water based. For object that are of everyday use, you should put around 5-8 layers of polyurethane. Make sure that every layer is dried for as many hours as mentioned by the material manufacturer.
6. Depending on the utility of your project, you would give it the finishing look. For example for a card you will have to give it some finish but for an object like tray, it's important that you give it 6-10 varnish coats. As you would apply more and more varnish the decoration would blend with the background and would thus characterize your painting. For a larger object lacquer from spray cans is recommended. A readymade Decoupage solihull medium can also be used for this purpose. You use it simply follow the instructions indicated on the container.
7. Decoupage of a box gives amazing results. There are a variety of boxes available like match, jewel, sewing and other kinds of boxes made of paper, tin, leather, plastic or wood. You can purchase any shape of a box from the craft store and embellish it using cut outs of images or gold edging it. Before working, a box requires 2-3 layers of some oil based paint on it. And once you are done with your decorating work, you must put 3-4 or more layers of varnish on it. And in the end to get a matte texture to your box, just gently rub it using a wet cloth.
8. Fabrics, decorative paper, or wallpaper can be used to decorate a box. In case you have a large object or you want to cover some interiors of desks and chests, you can purchase a "contact". "Contact" is a kind of yard wide tape, which has an adhesive side and is available readily in many stores.
9. You can cover your Wastebaskets of heavy cardboard beautifully with marbleized or tortoise-shell papers or small geometric prints. And then further enhance the look by striping the edges with golden stuff and put on some medallions to the middle of every panel.
10. Before to start your work for a large design, you must first draw circles and other shapes on a tracing paper, so that you know how exactly the layout would be done. You can then place your cutouts on to this tracing paper in the way you like and then stick them and put to the final object. Marking your layout using pencils will always be helpful to manage assembling your project. Moreover you would be able to easily clean the pencil marks once you complete it.