Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Decoupage (General)

Decoupage, derived from the French word decouper, meaning to cut out, is the creative art of assembling, pasting and varnishing paper cut-outs for decorating objects.

The decoupage artist is limited only by his or her imagination. Anyone who can use scissors and glue can do decoupage! With time, education and experience the decoupeur will progress from simple designs to complex works of art.

Here are some examples:









Wouldn't the end table (below) be pretty made with Holy cards?

Thrift store items are great to work with because you can give new style and virve to an object with your creativity and some simple supplies.


Fabric Bags

These are so cool that people starting pre-ordering them from my youngest. (8 years old @ the time). He turned a very nice (and well earned) profit last Christmas! And we had some great built in math, business and economics lessons.

Here are the details:
We limit ourselves to the $1.00 a yar
d fabric.
You can get 2 to 4 small to medium size bags from a yard, so that makes these bags more affordable than even the least expensive purchased gift bags!


Ribbon closes the bags. Spools @ Michaels are ~ 3 for $1.00 (on sale) and the spools last a long time! We have ~40 bags that we use year after year @ Christmas .
( 10 per person. Our kids definitely don't get 10 gifts per year, but this allows plenty of different sizes to be used as needed.)
Another bonus of using fabric gift bags for Christmas is that all gifts can be wrapped in about 30 minutes!

We also use these for birthdays and gifts for friends. Sometimes friends are more excited about the fabric gift bag than many of the actual gifts they receive!


Here are the instructions:
  • Cut 2 equal size pieces of fabric and place right sides together. (Or, if you want the same design on each side, fold a longer piece of fabric in half - right sides together)
  • Cut a piece of ribbon long enough close the bag. (Approximately 24 inches for most bags.)
  • Fold the piece of ribbon in half and pin to the inside of the fabric about 3 inches from & parallel to the top. (At this point your ribbon will be on the inside of the bag laying parallel to the top of your bag.)
  • Sew all sides together except the top. Sew over the folded end of the ribbon. Be careful not to sew the opposite end of the ribbon into the other side seam.
  • Turn right side out.
  • Use pinking shears to cut the top so there is no need to hem. Note: Felt and flannel do not fray.
  • Easy, easy, easy.... So start having fun making bags! Re-use them. Say goodbye to wrapping paper waste (and expense).