LAYING OUT THE DESIGN

When laying out your design it is helpful to draw the shape of your object on a piece of paper so that you can arrange your prints before actually gluing them to the object.

I use a spray-on adhesive to hold them in place temporarily. I spray it on to the paper (the scrap paper I am using to plan the design on) and I allow the adhesive to dry to the point that it is only slightly tacky. Just tacky enough to hold my prints in place with a temporary bond. Your spray on adhesive should have instructions on the label on how to create a temporary bond. You do not need to be too precise with the layout, but you should try to work to a theme of either colour or type (for instance either Victorian, or hand painted flower prints, faces, Reds with Grey, or Totally Pink etc,)

The prints can be overlapped if you wish. When planning a design for a box, it sometimes looks nice to have the prints reach over the edges. When placing a print that overlaps both the lid and the box, glue the whole print across both pieces first with the lid shut and when the glued print is completely dry, slit the print where the cover meets the box. That way you will have a perfect match where the two pieces meet.

Another way to plan the design is to hold the pieces in place directly on the object with blue tac, then you can mark the outline of each cut piece with dots made with a soft pencil or with chalk.

You can also mark the position by placing small pieces of blue tac at particular points just outside the edge of the cut print to remind you where it is going to go. That way when you remove it from the object to put the glue on you will remember where to put it back. You will naturally have to do them one at a time.

Everything in decoupage takes time. I once did a decoupage on a blanket box or trunk, or chest (depending on which country you live in) It took me a period of two weeks of fixing and changing a bit every day before I was happy enough to proceed with gluing on my prints. What I am saying is, do not rush. You are going to have to live with the design for a long long time so make sure you are happy with it.