Lessons

Lesson Info

Decoupaging the Base

So the first thing we're going to do is we're gonna start deco pausing so for everybody here maybe clear everything out of your way other than your vintage papers I'm just using you got like these little sheets like this in there that's what I'm using but feel free to use whatever is in the kit you khun makes the match the one thing I always tell students is I'm going to show you how to do this but at the end of the day this is going to your house not to my house so I want you to be happy with it um because it's not going to hang on my wall it's going on yours so pick what you like and then we're just going to rip it into little pieces so I just kind of started tearing mine apart you can use your scissors if you want a little bit more of a clean edge I like a nice messy edge but feel free to start ripping up and make yourself a nice pile of paper. Well, you guys are doing that I'm going to get set up. You guys have little trays over there the I'm a big fan of the dollar store and so th...

ese air always what I use for palette, so this is going to be your palate for today um open our deco pies I'm using collage, posh from I love to create. They were nice enough to donate this to the class today, and this is I love this stuff if they ever stop making it, I'm goingto not know what to do with myself. Um, but that's, what we're going to use today so I'm just gonna put a nice big amount on my tray, and the trick with decco pies is you always put your houston, you're adhesive down first, then you're gonna let your paper and then seal it in. So you always wanna have a layer below and a player on top as you're going, so I'm going to start working on that while you guys are ripping your papers and it doesn't have to be perfect that's the nice thing I like about mixed media is everything that we're going to dio is either fixable or you can cover it up with an extra little bit of paint so that I think that helped when doing these things, but I think people get very concerned about it, looking a specific way or messing it up and with the nice thing about mixed media is you can't mess it up, you can just adjust it, I have lots of happy little accident, so when I'm working, should we talk about the button? The button and the way you talk about the buttons, you see, not on this project, which they actually asked me about yesterday, when we were setting up, but if you see a lot of buttons on something, I did more than likely there's anoop standard me on, and I just decided to cover it up with some really pretty bling that's just how I roll, because I would rather have it look pretty and covered up. I don't want to ever take something. I've been working hours, I'm and toss it out, and I think people sometimes think that they've ruined something and you don't ruin it don't toss it out, just find a pretty way or a different way to cover it up or just throw a new layer of paint over it and just start again. So I am just going to keep adding here. How are you guys doing out there? Your giggle? So, like, cheated? I had already torn mine up, so I did that whole tv magic thing to cover every bit of it up. I do, okay, but you don't have to if you like having no gaps of white and there I would get doc oh, pas on the whole thing, though, okay, even if you don't cover it all just so that you've got a consistent um media base so they don't have gaps of canvas that doesn't have it and then sections that do because when we start toe add the paint we wanted to kind of all flow and it will react differently to the canvas if it's not if it doesn't have the deco posher than it well, if the canvas does have the deck a posh I didn't for this when you can ah lot of times what I do is I cheat and then when I'm done I just paint the just black and cover up everything but I also like that because if you're using a deep canvas like this one um when you go to hang it it just kind of gives it a nice little frame, but a lot of times I'll leave the edges playing teo but decomposing on the sites can get a little tricky doesn't matter how like thick or thin we do that I usually do it fairly thin um just because of the drying time and so we're just gonna add keep adding it on I'm kind of in constant motion when I do it so and then we're gonna cheat and use the heat guns to dry it so that we can move faster I'll be curious to see we were tearing the paper yesterday and one of them was a big article because this is old this is from like the nineteen twenty two magazine or something and it was had this huge lake if you have black head, I was like, oh, nice let's put that right smack in the middle of mine if you have kids, here's what you need to do but things haven't changed much and this one says banish wrinkles let's just throw that one on there because read my free offer about things in terms of advertising has not changed much in one hundred years weii just have clear pore strips now instead, I, um I know some people are always wondering where I get all this stuff. I just I'm a huge thrift store person, and so I got I get stuff from thrift stores all the time you'll find really random things or I've gotten whole dictionaries and encyclopedias for two dollars. You can just take the pages out of that. I kind of am sack religious that way and totally destroy books but it's for a good cause otherwise they would have gotten recycled some other way. So and then I had a friend clean out. She is a choir director and she cleaned out a whole bunch of old um little magazine kind of things that's what they look like, they're like monthly mailers that they got what they had songs in them that came from some ups, some group that they subscribed to for years and I got two huge copy boxes of nothing but sheet music she's like I don't know what to do with this I'm like I d'oh it is and I was like I knew exactly what to do with that so if you want to bring it to my house I'm gonna I will take care of that for you in a heartbeat sorry it's getting destroyed but that's okay because again they were just gonna throw in the garbage so I figured we could put to good use okay, I'm gonna try toe, finish this up here quick and then get drying so you guys have the heat guns at your spots um just keep those in constant motion. I'm I'm going to guess that you guys have used them but for people who haven't they look like a hair dryer. They're not a hair dryer there much hotter if you tried to dry your hair you would singe it, so don't do that they're playing with them here and there like hole that's a little harder than I expected, so okay, we're almost there no need to worry about bubbles I don't if you don't like bubbles, you can just kind of use your finger and push it down we're gonna add jessa and other things to get some texture on here, so I just kind of let the bubbles happen unless they're huge then I'll go in and flatten him out that little ripples here in their part of that's just how much deco pas you're using are not using the main thing is just that it's all in here down so if you got a huge bubble definitely push it down and make sure you have enough adhesive underneath but if it's just a little crease or a little bubble than I usually leave it alone but that's the big thing is just making sure you've got a good solid it he's in going with your project k like a race my husband's always like how do you go through so much of that? Because I'll go I have to go to the store and I'll be like for what I'm like deco posh why? Because I eat it for breakfast and lunch and dinner I think he thinks that I'm ingesting it or something I just really used a lot of it okay? I'm almost done so I will start heat drying mine quick these are pretty quiet so hopefully they're not too crazy loud for you guys and you guys can keep working if I'm moving ahead just we'll make it work I promise I'll be honest if I wasn't home, I'd be reading half of these going do I want to use the site or that today I'm like just I do tend to cheat and use the good edges on the corners and on the top of the bottom someone who'll flat edge that goes there like building a puzzle sometimes where I'm you always start from the border in I will do that with this a little bit wait talked a little bit about the difference between decomp, aj, but what specifically is the difference between that bottled stuff and homemade dig upa version for those that are out there at home wondering you know what to substitute with and I'm I'm kind of a purist when it comes the deco posh and I like I said very often times I'll use lots of different brands for stuff low I have tons of other kinds of paints at home and things like that, but when I'm darko passing, I've tried every brand out there I've done the homemade stuff and I always come back to this one just because I like the tackiness level that it has sticks good but it's not overly tacky and it drives really fast and I think that you just had to be careful when you're doing the homemade version um it just sometimes it just isn't nearly as good when you're doing something like this when you're doing art projects and and things and I just always want to make sure that when I'm working I'm working with a material that I know what I'm going to get from a result depending on how you store it depending on how what you use exactly you can get a varying level and if it sits too long the composition may change a little bit too so I like to stick with something when I know right and use it that way so I'm and I'm you said at home obviously restoring it the texture might change is that still a good alternatives that something that you would suggest for anyone that's at home that maybe doesn't have they can you know and I think it's one those things just know that you may not get the same results every time so just something to be aware of and things so I most things I'm like go ahead and try the ninety nine cent version beckham posh is one where I'm a little bit less like that but that's just because I use it so much that I want to know exactly what's going on what's gonna happen okay I'm gonna go and dry and if you put it on sent enough where you started it's probably already two thirds strife anyway you got lumps I go through with my this is why I have an apron because I do that I go through and I grabbed like the big lumps and drips off the side and then I just wipe it here I'm a massive crafter I'm going to add in on a couple spots here and cover it up because I know I said you couldn't leave open spots I'm just not an open spot person myself, so go back and and cover it up I thought I could do it then I realised kidding myself. Sorry, you guys do it okay out there, you're still quiet your intent, like you're like I am at home, where it's each piece everybody is already, yeah already that's one of my favorite things about teaching classes and I'll look around the room and I'll be like, okay, here's, what we're starting with and everybody gets the same pile of supplies and even the same list of clothes, but it always comes out so different, so personal for each person I'm just filling in my gaps, and then I'll hit this again with the heat gone here, and then when I always find is who I was going to just cover this little tiny spot right there with you and edges, and I'm like, oh, but that's a pretty picture, so I'm gonna just use the whole thing's so anymore can get caught up in some of these vintage ads and stuff just in the photography sunrise from online who's asking stephanie, can you, diego paz with fabric and or mixed paper, you can when I do fabric, you just want to do like a test piece with the fabric to see how it's going to react to the deco pies because depending on the type of deck apology use and the fabric it can either be a really opaque result like you're getting here or it can actually make it very crystal clear depending on the type of fabric that you're using so I would just do a test piece to make sure you like the end result before you do a whole piece with it and we have this question come up earlier well, I had this question earlier before the cameras started rolling can you substitute for a hair try when you're using the heat gun you can you just take you longer to dry okay, so if you don't have a heat gun, you definitely can use a hair dryer just make sure that you're using it on the hottest setting so that you're not just sitting there for a very long time. Have you ever used a hair dryer before? Yeah with tio when I was first starting out and I've been known to do this in a hotel room before like just decides I'm gonna make something I carry an art journal everywhere so I don't normally carry money he tools with me so I've I've done a little you know, late night bathroom crafting and hotel from before so I have it just takes takes a little longer. That's all okay, let me get my grips here. And we have robert wondering, can you use jess so as an alternative to posh? If you're using clear just so you can it's going to be grittier in your result and this is a glossy, so I like the glossy finish, which is why I picked this one, but you you can as just one it's more expensive. So you just know that when you buy it, you're spending more to do that, um and it's just going to a different texture when you're done, okay, I'm gonna finish drying way had someone from online wondering what about different textures of dick akash medium doesn't matter? No, I think it's that for me is more personal preference so you can get matt, you can get glossy, you can get something has glitter mixed in those kinds of things there's even another brand makes a chalkboard finished so if you wanted to deck a posh something and use that and then when you're all said and done, you've got a chalkboard you can you can use it that way, it just really when the finnish comes down to is personal preference and then what? Your end result, what you wanted to use it for, morgan anything and just falling upon that one? How layered is the default pods? Are you just putting one layer down? Or do you get different effects with heavier layers of paper for fabric? Yes, I work is doing one on this. Basically, I've got some overlaps a little bit, but for the most part, it's basically one layer if you wanted to, you could keep adding layers and have different textural effects. Um and do like a chunk in a corner and just keep layering and layering and layering. You just know that you need to dry each layer all the way before you add the next one. Got it? Because I find what I don't dry it all the way. It doesn't seem to be as sturdy and stable as it is if you make sure that everything's nice and dry ok, we're getting there, guys, you guys are making good progress to get that it's fun. It is fun to see everybody's different results out there. Got music paper going? I've got book paper going okay, how long before you start adding another layer in between? You've already heat gunned it. I would start right now. You starting now? Yeah, so if it's dry, go ahead and start adding your next layer if you want and I would just say, make sure that whatever you're using on your bottom layers you don't care about. So if you're going to do something where you're stacking lots of layers, I would even just you could even use, like white copy paper just to build it up. So that you're not wasting vintage papers or decorative papers. Um, on those layers. So you can cheat a little bit that way, too.