Debbie's How To Decoupage Anything Post

If you've been around here long, you might have noticed that I'll decoupage just about anything.

Coasters...Cabinet handles...tools and scissors...Sand pails...concrete yard chickens...waste baskets...

And then, of course, there are the eggs. 

The eggs are actually the reason for this post. I decoupaged some for our most recent tablescape challenge, and I'm still getting emails with questions about them. I figured since I really don't have anything else to yak about right now, I might as well answer the questions and give some tips for decoupaging eggs and other odd shaped things. Let's face it: If you can decoupage a hollowed out egg, you can decoupage just about anything.

Which answers Question #1

Yes. I  used real (blown) eggs, but you could use faux ones. I just wouldn't try it with those plastic two piece numbers.

Question #2:

  The pattern came from some wrapping paper that I got at Hobby Lobby after Christmas.  

I  did some similar (blue) ones last year using a paper napkin.

 I did it the same way I do all  odd shaped objects. 

I used a cut and piece method.

First,  find paper in simple patterns on solid backgrounds.  White backgrounds are the easiest for obvious reasons.

 Then,  paint the piece to match the background color. 

A recent candlestick project...

Paint

Cut 

and Piece 

***OK, here's where I part company with the Mod Podge mavens. Classically, you're supposed to just hold it on with  water. Go ahead and do that if you want, but I'm not a fan, especially if the paper is really thin. Water, hormones, and thin pieces of paper just don't play well together.  Generally speaking, I hold mine on with a glue stick applied very lightly to the base piece.  

Then, Mod Podge over the whole shebang
with a soft brush, and smooth it out with your fingers.

(I sprayed these candlesticks with a little clear, glossy, finish too.)

And  then, of course, use it somewhere.

It's kind of a waste of time if you don't use it. 

That's about all from me.
I'm still trying to catch up from being out of town this weekend.

Plus, I'm busy with a little project for an upcoming post.
I'm calling it deco-flage,
and I'm blaming it on the Newlywed Niece.

Stay tuned.
*****

Debbie's Eggcellent Adventure

...Or How to Blow an Entire Afternoon
and two dozen eggs.

Has everyone seen the newest tomfoolery on the internet about which we now have to warn our impressionable children?

It's something called The Cinnamon Challenge. Apparently Einsteins of all ages are attempting to swallow a tablespoon full of cinnamon whilst chronicling it on the world wide web.

Knuckleheads...  

At least that's what I was muttering as I watched the reports of teens being taken to the emergency room for collapsed lungs and worse just because they had seen something on the internet and felt the need to try it themselves. 

But here's the thing:

Do you want to know what I was doing as I watched the reports of said Cinnamon Challenge? 

I was trying to decoupage an Easter egg. 

And do you know why I was trying to decoupage an Easter egg?

Because some really cool bloggers were doing it on the internet,
and I wanted to do it too. 

Knucklehead. 

Now, I don't know how many of you have tried to decoupage an entire egg, but I must warn you that it can make you very cranky. No matter how many tips you try, you still end up with hot mess that sticks to your fingers as you attempt to smooth away wrinkles that will not smooth. The decopushers won't tell you that, but it's true.  An egg, you see, is what they call egg shaped. And egg shaped items just don't want to have little wet  pieces of tissue glued to them. If they did,  they would be square.

Hot mess

If the other little bloggers jumped off a bridge, would you jump off too?

Yeah, well, maybe. 

It probably wouldn't have been so impossible had I not been determined to blow out my own Easter eggs first. Yes, I'm well aware that you can purchase ready -to-decorate eggs for about a buck a bag,  but I thought it would be thriftier to do it the old fashioned way.

Eggs are around $2.00 a dozen here.

Blonde knucklehead.

I blew, and I blew, and I blew until I was dizzier than usual and kind of grossed out to boot. Let's face it. No matter how hard you scrub an egg, you just can't remove its rite of passage.  And don't tell me to use a straw. That's how I broke the first dozen.  

So I finally had a bowl full of egg shells and tried every blog tip in the book to get rid of the wrinkled, sticky finger look. I am convinced it really can't be done. It's kind of like the Cinnamon Challenge.

The only way you can decoupage an egg is with the cut and paste method. 

Just cut out the pattern and paste it.
I used a glue stick 

before I covered over it with the Mod Podge. 

.

That's how I got this look.  

I did a grand total of five of them. 

I'm using the rest of them to make an egg bouquet for the table. 

I'm not finished yet, but I felt like posting now anyway.

I just (sponge) painted them and then used my paper punch to punch out polka dots. 

 It's not hard. I was just tired from all that blowing.

Then, I set them in some mini tulip liners
from Hobby Lobby

And stuck a painted wooden skewer through the whole thing. 

That green striped one in the back was a blog post all on its own. I don't even want to tell you how I did it, because I don't want to contribute to the delinquency of a blogger.

And that's how I spent my afternoon.

So tell me, how did you spend yours?
And does anyone have a recipe for a 24 egg omelet? 

Sharing at Inspiration Friday

ETA:
UGH! 
Is anyone else having trouble commenting today?
Driving me crrrazy. 

The Simplest Makeover On Earth

Have you ever done a little project that you just loved for the simplicity of the thing? That's how I feel about the easy peasy project that I did over the weekend for my kitchen.

Actually, I not only love it for the simplicity, I love it because it was so cheap it was almost free and  because, well.. I just love the way it looks on the wall.

I mentioned on my last post that I am changing out my kitchen accessories from red to Granny Smith green for the spring.  I needed to replace the red and white plates that hang over my kitchen table.

lousy picture

  I have been eyeing some black and white ones in different patterns at Hobby Lobby for months now, but I'm really too cheap to pay ten bucks apiece for a decorative plate.

Instead,  I made some of my own. I used those square plates from the Dollar Tree that I had on my St.Patrick's Day table and some tissue paper that I had around the house.

I realize that Mod Podge is crafting for dummies,
 but I'll walk through the steps just in case anyone is interested.


First, spray the plate with primer. It works better on a painted surface.

Then, just spray the tissue in place with spray adhesive

(These are decorative wall plates and not for eating so they go face up 
on the front of the plate and not the back. )

Press the paper into every nook and cranny with your fingers. Nearly all wrinkles and air bubbles can be pushed smooth if you're just patient.

Crease the edges

Cut away the excess. 

Then brush on the Mod Podge with a large foam brush. 

I used the glossy Mod Podge for this one because plates are shiny. 

I push it around the edges with my fingers. 

Let it dry...

I never use scissors for decoupage because you can't get a good edge.

 However, my exacto blades are kind of dull right now. 

Some of the edges were a raggedy mess

But even they shaved away really easily with a good, sharp kitchen knife.

(Which then needed to be resharpened, of course...)

Just carefully shave away uneven edges 

with the side of the blade after it's dry but before it has set too long.

And Ta Da! 

Total cost for four plates was $4.00 for the plates

since I had every bit of that tissue paper around the house.

Here they are next to Paddy O'Pauper's table.

(Those red and white plates are the ones that were hanging there.)

I'll be changing out the table and the rest of the accessories 

to Granny Smith green this week, 

but I wanted to share the simplest makeover ever right now.

And that's how I spent my St. Patrick's Day...

Gluing old tissue paper to cheap plates. 

Kind of pathetic, isn't it?

So, what did you do over the weekend?

*****
Sharing this on Met Monday

Mod Podge Monday

With everything that I need to be doing around here, I chose to spend time crafting an inane little valentine craft instead. It's nothing much to yak about, but that has never stopped me before.

I had hoarded these little cubes which came as packing with some curtain rods last fall, and I wanted to use them.

I decoupaged them with some Valentine-ish tissue paper 

Then added some wooden hugs and kisses

What I'll do with them, I do not know. 

I was thinking maybe a cloche

Maybe some candlesticks

I haven't decided.

In other news,
 apparently, I'm psychic.

Remember my beautiful Japanese magnolias from Friday?

I had no sooner predicted an arctic blast
when The Duchess informed me that one such blast 

was on the way.

Well, of course...

She suggested that I bring in a few blooms if I wanted to save them.

I woke to a temperature of 29 degrees this morning.

Yep.

Always listen to your mother...

... but they didn't steal my JOY!

Ever have one of those days?

I woke up with a mission to begin the Christmasification of the old homestead... 

First, I couldn't find  the little apron I made to camouflage my simmer pot last year....

I looked for more of that wrapping paper to make a new one, 

but there was none to be found...  

In fact, there wasn't a single snowman left in the wrapping box. I had to use this one.   I'm calling those stripes candy canes. Don't debate me.

Then, I made my Christmas simmer scent with too much clove and forgot the cinnamon completely. For the record, simmer spices without cinnamon just make the house smell like a baked ham.

Baked ham does not make you feel Christmasy;
 it just makes you feel a little queasy. 


It gets worse. 

I headed to my least favorite Superstore for a few groceries but ended up with an entire load of  magical cart leapers.

The lines were long and the cashier was grumpy.  Then, I pushed that cart up and down three rows before I remembered that I had parked Ebenezer clear across the lot at the other entrance. When I opened the back to load him up, an autumn plate abiding there for who knows what reason fell to the asphalt and shattered into 400 pieces.

When I picked it up, I cut my finger. 

I had absolutely nothing to sop up the bleeding except the Walmart receipt so I pressed it between my fingers and loaded with my one good hand. That's when I discovered a rebellious little pair of scissors which had tried to escape the store without going through the scanner.

I headed back inside and got back in line to pay for the scissors where I waited behind a woman who  can't count.  Bless her heart...

Done.

I headed to Hobby Lobby for exactly three items and came out with a bag in each hand and three rolls of wrapping paper tucked under my arm.

My keys were cowering as usual in the corner of my purse so I rested one bag on the trash can to better retrieve them. I still couldn't find them so I sat down on the bench next to it.

It was a wet bench. You just can't make this stuff up, folks.

I found my keys and took my wet tail to the car.  I headed home and unpacked the goods.

That's when I discovered that those three things I had headed to Hobby Lobby to get in the first place were located in that little bag.

You know the one... the one I had left sitting on top of the trashcan.

I sort of cried a little; I admit it,

 but The Practical One is an optimist. 

They'll be there, she said.

 I really didn't believe her, but she's a pushy optimist 

so off we went to Hobby Lobby.

I was a good thirty yards away from the store

 when I saw it. 

 Wooohooo!

I unbuckled right there and made like a Leaping Lord through the parking lot. I didn't care who saw me. I didn't care who saw me take this picture, either, 'cause I'm a blogger.

Yes indeed. I might have had a lousy day, but they didn't steal my JOY.

See?

'Cause this is what was in that bag.  

Waiting to be decopaged 

with this wrapping paper...

...to hang over my old pine table...

...which is where I put my nativity scene.

The one with the Dollar Tree Jesus.

But wait!

There's already a part two to Sunday's story

 about the Dollar Tree Jesus, 

but it will have to wait for another day.

Maybe tomorrow...

So how's your decorating going?