Decopatch tutorial

Now for anyone who may be interested in decopatch, but has never tried it, here's a little tutorial to let you see just how fun and simple it really is to do. To start the process, we have the object that we wish to decorate (a bangle on this occassion), our chosen paper/s, decopatch glue, some water to keep our brush clean along with some tissue to dry the brush and of course the brush itself. Now I do recommend that you use a proper decopatch brush as they are specially designed for this purpose but I had to donate mine to a workshop participant at the weekend and haven't had a chance to replace it yet... this brush I did use was actually too soft for the purpose and didn't iron out all the wrinkles properly... however, it will suffice for tutorial purposes on this occassion.

So now that you have everything in place, you want to tear up some of your paper as seen in the picture below. Adapt the size to the object you are working on. For large projects the recommended size is 3cm x 3cm. Smaller projects, simply use smaller pieces.

Once you have your paper ready, dip your brush into the glue and apply a thin layer to a space area of your project and whilst the glue is still wet, position your paper on top then working from the centre of the paper, work your brush outwards to remove as many creases as possible.

Now all you have to do is continue this process all over your project by slightly overlapping your papers by a few millimetres. The picture above shows where I placed my single piece in the beginning and the other end shows how it starts to look once you have applied more and more paper.

This bangle takes approx 30 mins to complete and is dry within another 5 mins max. The glue does dry clear and also contains a varnish which allows for decopatched objects to be washed etc such as kitchen trays.

Here is today's finished bangle but if it doesn't suit tomorrow's outfit... I'll quickly redecorate in a paper that matches my requirements... now that's what I call recycling and saving some pennies... altered jewellery in 30 mins and there is no limit to the amount of layers you can add.

Well I hope that some more of you crafters out there will give decopatch a go.. it's a very relaxing craft to do and means we can change the looks of our belongings for very little money indeed... and we all know just how thrifty us crafters can be.

Happy crafting

Lorraine xxx