How To Decoupage

Hi! Today I have a pretty fun craft project. It’s one part collaging and one part home-décor and is perfect for getting yourself organized for back to school. One of the biggest tips I have for being organized is to have a place for everything and to do your best to keep things where they go.

I absolutely adore these boxes from the craft store which are usually around $4-5, but frequently go on sale for as low as $1.50 each, and I stock up on them. Unfortunately, they can be kind of plain and need to be jazzed up. So today, I’m going to show you my favorite way to do it.

For this project, you need some magazines to cut up. You can also use other pictures, cutouts, stickers, etc, but magazines are fun to cut up. You also need some Mod Podge (I like using the one specifically for paper), and a foam brush.

If you plan to cover the whole box, draw a line around where the lid goes. You don’t want to put any pictures under the lid because you won’t see them anyway, and also it’ll make the lid hard to get on and off.

Once you’ve done that and gathered up a whole bunch of things to decopauge, its time to get going.

You want to put a thin THIN layer of Mod Podge on the back of each piece of paper, and stick it down, trying to work in small sections at a time. Make sure you’re overlapping and covering the top and sides of the lid, plus whatever of the box you want to do.

I like starting in one corner and working over and up so that things layer nicely, but another cool strategy is to start in the middle and work out, or on the edges and spiral in.

Once you have everything covered, you can add special pictures you want to stand out, stickers or words like I did here. If you do it in the middle, they might blend in too much, so by doing at the end, you let them stand out.

The final step is to take your Mod Podge and brush and put 2-3 thin layers of Mod Podge over the whole thing. Let each layer dry for about 10-15 minutes before adding the next and be extra sure you’re using only a very thin layer. Too much gooping will lead to bubbles in your images- definitely not what you want!

And that’s all there is to it. Just make sure everything dries completely before you use them or try to stack them. To see a video of two VERY different boxes being made, check it out on youtube.

If you do one of these, you should totally show me! Send it to me on twitter or instagram @techni_moments.

stay crafty, bitches.