Decoupage Tutorial...

Quote for the Day:

"Necessity is the mother of invention"

~unknown

When my son was young he was into collecting baseball cards and all things baseball!  I bought him a plain white plastic trashcan and he and I took some of the extra, worthless baseball cards he had and we decoupaged them onto the trashcan.   That was truly a one-of-a-kind trashcan that he had in his room!  :)

I like to use containers in my sewing room to help me organize my fabrics and projects, so I'm always looking for useful containers.  I use a lot of baskets, but I also use a lot of plastic containers of various sizes, too.

I had these two white plastic containers that some type of baby wipe or similar had come in.  I had been using them to hold the pieces to my latest quilt until I could get them sewn together.

They were useful...but plain and ugly looking!  :(

So yesterday I decided to "pretty" them up a little!  :)  I had a cute paper bag that looked like an old newspaper so I decided to cut it up and decoupage it to the plastic bins!  

If you've never tried decoupaging anything, you really must try it...it is INSANELY easy!  :)  I already had the bottle of Plaid Decoupage on hand, as well as a couple 1" sponge brushes.  (I like to stock up on them when ACMoore or Micheal's has them for 10 cents a piece.  They come in handy for quick paint touch-ups, etc.!  Just use and toss!)  You can apply paper or fabric using decoupage paste.

So....back to the project...
I started by cutting the bag into strips that would cover the sides of the containers.  Then I brushed the decoupage paste onto the backside of the paper strip, working in 6" sections at a time.

Working fairly quickly, I applied the strip to the side of the container.

Then I added paste to the next 6" of the paper... pressed it onto the container...and repeated this process till the paper was wrapped all the way around the box.  When the sides are done, just fold the bottom of the paper onto the bottom of the box, making sure to smooth out any air bubbles or wrinkles.

At this point, you now paint a thin layer of decoupage paste over the OUTSIDE of the paper, sealing it to the container and let dry for 20 minutes.

If the item is going to be subjected to a lot of heavy use, you should apply a second layer and let dry again.  When the second coat is thoroughly dry, you sand it lightly with #0000 steel wool.   Since these bins won't get that much rough usage, I didn't bother with the second coat.  With only one coat, I didn't think it needed sanding, either.  (When 2 coats are used, it looks kinda "dull", and the sanding brings out the gloss.)   When I decoupage light switches or other things that will get lots of use, I always add a second coat to help them hold up.

And now for the big reveal....TADA....

Quite an improvement over those bland, white containers, huh?   If you want to get REALLY fancy, you can add ribbon, etc., and really dress them up.  However, since I want to be able to stack mine when I'm not using them, I didn't want anything like that to get in the way.

Now how's that for fast, easy and fun???

So go and look around your house for things you can decoupage!  LOL

Loretta