Decoupage Virgin
I bought one of those $3.99 wood hinged boxes from Michael's the other day as well as some really cute old fashioned fairy decoupage papers and decoupage glue. I decided to stain the box first because of the colors of my fairies and then glued down the papers where I needed them to be. I think I'm on my 4th coat at this point and this box just seems to be sucking the glue in. It's a thin, cheap box! How the heck can it hold so much glue???
I looked it up online since I've never done this before but it said that it's sealed enough when you can run your hand over it and not feel where the papers/pictures/etc are glued down. While the wood is FINALLY getting a bit of that feel to it, the papers are definitely still noticeable. I just keep adding a new coat when I pass through the room and see the previous one has been dried. I'm nearly halfway through the bottle of decoupage finish. (It's a nice satin finish and not too shiny so I really like it.)
Should I have polyeurethaned (sp?) it first to seal in the wood before adding the papers? There has to be a better way of doing this. I'm using a makeup wedge sponge to apply the glue so it's going on fairly nice and thick and very even. My papers also started to bubble too as they got wet with the 1st few topcoats which sucks because they were about 99.9% flat prior to that. The first two topcoats I brushed on with a tiny paintbrush. I was worried that if I went too thick and too wet they'd pull up or bubble pretty bad. Now I'm wondering if I should have just gone thick to start?
Any suggestions out there? It's a fun thing to do and I've really enjoyed myself. I'd like to continue it but not if I have to purchase a whole bottle of glue/finish every time I do a 5x7 box.
I looked it up online since I've never done this before but it said that it's sealed enough when you can run your hand over it and not feel where the papers/pictures/etc are glued down. While the wood is FINALLY getting a bit of that feel to it, the papers are definitely still noticeable. I just keep adding a new coat when I pass through the room and see the previous one has been dried. I'm nearly halfway through the bottle of decoupage finish. (It's a nice satin finish and not too shiny so I really like it.)
Should I have polyeurethaned (sp?) it first to seal in the wood before adding the papers? There has to be a better way of doing this. I'm using a makeup wedge sponge to apply the glue so it's going on fairly nice and thick and very even. My papers also started to bubble too as they got wet with the 1st few topcoats which sucks because they were about 99.9% flat prior to that. The first two topcoats I brushed on with a tiny paintbrush. I was worried that if I went too thick and too wet they'd pull up or bubble pretty bad. Now I'm wondering if I should have just gone thick to start?
Any suggestions out there? It's a fun thing to do and I've really enjoyed myself. I'd like to continue it but not if I have to purchase a whole bottle of glue/finish every time I do a 5x7 box.