How to Découpage!

Decoupage! From the French verb découper, meaning 'to cut out'. 

It is decorating a certain object by gluing colored paper cut-outs and even combining other elements such as dried leaf or anything flat that can be glued in and covering them with several coats of varnish right after. This art go all the way back from the 17th or 18th Century, however the art of Decoupage was already known in Asia way before that time. Marie Antoinette and Madame de Pompadour were among those who became practitioners of the art. Mary Delany became one of the remarkable artists during her time even chosen by the Queen Charlotte for her 

wonderfully crafted Decoupage works mostly done by hand and botanically inspired.

So how does one Decoupage?

First, you'll be needing the following:

• White Glue or Mod Podge
• Small Paintbrush
• Sponge Paintbrush
• Scissor
• Old Comics, Magazine Cut-Outs, Vintage Maps, or Cloth Patterns

Instructions: 
• Put a small amount of glue or mod podge on the prepared surface. (Surface should be clean)
• Smooth out the glue out using the sponge paintbrush.
• Before putting your cut-outs to the surface, apply a small amount of glue at the back of it
• Place it onto the surface and smooth it out to avoid any wrinkles or bubbles.
• For style you may opt to arrange your cut-outs in a horizontal direction overlapping one another, or you may just randomly place the cut-outs till all of the surface is covered.
• Apply several coats of glue over the cut-outs, making sure that each coats dry in between.
• For a glossy finish, you may use clear varnish and a final coat of acrylic sealant to make it durable.

Some Samples of Decoupage Work for Inspiration:

My personal challenge would be to do all of these myself! 

Phew, sounds like a lot of work but I will definitely post photos of my own Decoupage here. 

Be posting them soon! 

Images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8

How to Pimp your Dish Rack

I wanted to protect the side of my dish rack from water so this is what happened. 

• I bought some insulation from Japan Home, good thing it has this cool polka dot design that went with the color of my dish area. 
• It's easy to put in the dish rack, but first you need to cut the insulation according to size. 
• This is a bit tricky but still pretty easy, you want to turn the insulation around with the foil side facing you and cut around the edges of the dish rack's side, making sure it's fit. 
• Then, just put on double sided tape on the very edge of the insulation to really make it stick to that side. Never leave any spaces empty without tape. Just so its secure, I put tape on the middle section of that insulation, vertically and horizontally. 
• Smooth the whole thing into the side of the rack and make sure it's all flat.

And there you have it, all water protected and pretty! 

All About Cold Porcelain

For an updated version of this DIY, please follow my new post.

4 Easy Steps to Make Cold Porcelain

There are loads of benefits in having DIY projects. First you get to "Do It Yourself" and experience it first hand, you save a lot of money and the thrill of seeing your work of art, that's priceless. In a couple of tries you get better at it and if you're lucky you might even see a career of it at the end of the horizon.
One of the projects I have worked on this month is making my own Cold Porcelain Clay.
Cold Porcelain dries naturally and there's no need to bake it. Plus, the ingredients can be found right in your own home.


What you need:
3/4 cup white glue (Elmers, or even Stikwell wood glue will do)
1/2 cup water
1 teaspoon cold cream (such as Pond's - you can also use 1 sachet of any Ponds cream)
1 teaspoon glycerin - If you have trouble finding glycerin, try a drugstore's skin care aisle, or a cake-decorating store.
(Since I don't have this handy, I skipped it because I checked the Ponds sachet and it already has glycerin)
1 cup cornstarch, plus additional for dusting your hands

Assemble everything before you begin.
These are non-toxic though but I would highly suggest you use your old pan and wooden spoon for this. Don't use your best kitchen utensils as cold porcelain can be sticky.

Steps:

 Mix the white glue, water, cold cream, and glycerin in a saucepan over medium heat until it's smooth.

When it is nice and smooth add the cup of cornstarch and begin stirring continuously, you will see the mixture rapidly become stiff.

When you mix in the cornstarch it will look like cottage cheese

Then it will quickly stiffen into something that resembles mashed potatoes.

When it forms one clump and pulled away from the sides of the pan, it's done. 

Since the clay is still very hot at this point.

Get a clean, wet dish towel over a plate and put the clay on it.

While this cools off a bit, gather the utensils used and run it with hot, soapy water.

Wash them later on. You can now knead through the clay over the wet towel.

Pause every once in a while, pulling the towel from the clay.

Dust a bit of cornstarch as you knead to avoid sticking.

When the clay is cool enough to handle, continue kneading with your hands.

Dusting with cornstarch every now and then so it doesn't stick in your hands.

You may also dust your work surface with cornstarch as needed.

After a few minutes of kneading, your clay will no longer be sticky but instead will become elastic, just like a Play-Doh clay.

If you want to add color to your clay, knead in a little acrylic or oil paint at this point. If you add the acrylic into your clay before sculpting it, it will give a more vibrant color. You can also opt for painting it all later, depending on how creative you want to be.

Place your cold porcelain clay in an airtight container (I use Reynolds ziplock plastic bags) while you proceed to wash your utensils.

One of the many projects you can do with Cold Porcelain Clay.

These wonderfully crafted pieces are hand sculpted by Ibenia C.

These may take up to several days to dry depending on the thickness of your sculpture.

Others also encountered problems with getting cracks in their clay, some have tried excluding water in their ingredient. While some people just filled the cracks with clay (if you just want to get it done and your not after an über perfect porcelain).

(Source: Coldporcelaindesigns, Craftstylish)