Decoupage

Stop by and wish a happy birthday to Mrs Pao!

Ok, a show of hands – who remembers using Mod Podge for an exciting decoupage project as a child? (Gold leaf optional.) Well, AlterKnits has a clever grown-up take on that childhood decoupage using your yarn labels. Anyone remember Boobzilla? (One of the pictures in that post is messed up – click on it to see the larger, not messed up picture.) Boobzilla was purchased for the AlterKnits decoupage project, but I decided that she was too curvy for the yarn labels I have and I picked up a book-shaped box instead.

So last Wednesday, Jeanne came over with plenty of newspaper, Mod Podge, a box, and her yarn labels. As usual, we were so not prepared for the amount of work involved.

Wine purists might want to brace themselves – we had to switch to plastic glasses for our pinot noir (upper right, above), due to the amount of gooey glue coating our hands.

Here’s Jeanne, very focused on decoupaging (with our original “wine glasses” – I go with funky pottery that can’t be easily tipped over by a cat):

After much whining and a bit of cussing and a great deal of fussing about why I hadn’t saved certain particularly lovely yarn labels, I ended up with this:

Verdict: More work than we expected, but we were pleased with the final products. Layering is critical. Must keep saving yarn labels…

So where was Chaos during all of this? Fortunately, he was prevented from jumping on the table into a plate of glue. Still, he felt thwarted, so he took it out on Jeanne’s felted bag. (Fun fact – I knitted and felted this bag for Jeanne long, long ago, from some of the first yarn I ever dyed.)

“Hee hee – you are covered with glue, so there is little you can do to prevent my mischief!”
*sniff sniff* “Hmm, this smells like the oh-so-cute Kreature!”
“Mmmmm…. Kreature….”

37 thoughts on “Decoupage”

  1. Wine labels would be cool too. Alot of them are really pretty.

    Good call on the pottery glasses. Knocking a glass off the table was my old cats favorite game!

  2. Sounds like fun. I have been saving yarn labels for a similar project, which will probably be a gift for my knitting MIL. (And yes, my mom still has the box that I mod-podged for her as a young teen. It was covered with “antique” images from National Geographics. Some people thought it was a crime that I was allowed to slice and dice the high school art room’s collection of NGs.)

  3. I have wanted to do that mod podge project from Alterknits too! It looks great, I like the book idea. And yes, I’ve been saving labels….

    I love bad Chaos. 🙂

  4. That’s a great idea, and I can be kind of obsessive about saving yarn labels. I like how the box turned out. It looks like it was a fun night!

  5. Any cat hair in the final product? Cool idea. Yarn labels, wine labels, beer labels…. th possibilities are endless!

  6. You need to add some Regia Silk yarn labels to that project…and guess who has some for you, with the yarn too,of course!!!

  7. I went through gallons of that stuff in art school. I’ve been saving my labels ever since I saw that book! I’ve been waiting for a dress form though. Those suckers are expensive!

  8. ohh we have boobzilla at work and everytime I do recovery and see it I think of you and Chaos. That post about boobzilla was one of the first of yours that I ever read.
    Your yarn box turned out great 🙂

  9. I looooove decoupage. I saw Rosie O’donnell on Martha a few years ago doing decoupage. After that I wanted to glue paper on everything.

  10. You are so crafty.

    My mom used to save wine labels and decoupage things with them. It was so cool. I got the decoupage bug from her — I love decoupaging…er, I should say *loved*…I don’t have the time for that right now. But in about six months, it will be a great art project for Julia and I do do.

    I bought my mom a decoupage kit full of Victorian images to use and she decoupaged the first jewelry box she ever bought with it and gave it to me on a significant day — either a big birthday (like 18 or 10) or when I first moved out on my own. I use it all the time.

  11. hehe looks like a great time for all of you – crafts and kitties – (love the little pottery cups too!)

    Good thwart on the glue plate! I’m sure a picture of Chaos ala yarnlabel paws wouldn’t have surprised anybody here, after all, he is Chaotic! 😉

  12. Poor thwarted Chaos. He never gets to have any fun. (I bet he wouldn’t think it was too much fun right afterwards though.)

    Yes! Mod Podge! I can’t believe the stuff is still around. I Mod Podged a Starsky & Hutch poster for my best friend.

    Julia at Knitting History laminates yarn labels for bookmarks too.

    So many fun things to do with them. Good thing I keep everything.

  13. I’ve never done decoupage to my knowledge, but I don’t think I’d be very good at it. I flunked cutting on the lines in kindergarten.

  14. I KNEW!! I was saving all those yarn labels for something!! I’m gonna have to channel my inner child some day and do that!

  15. Thank you! I’ve had the most wonderful day and the package was amazing!!

    I love the decoupage project. I’ve been making a yarn journal which I’ll show you when I’ve actually got more than half a dozen entries!

    I love that colour next to Chaos. He was only playing with it because it shows off his eyes.

  16. GAAAH! I just had a mental picture of Chaos hurtling around the room after landing squarely in the glue dish…..

    Must start saving yarn labels…..

  17. I’ve been saving my yarn labels too! My mom used to LOVE to do collages – we made them for both grandmas and all sorts of other things. Her special touch was a little glitter in any blank spaces. I think I’ll leave the glitter off my yarn label collage, though.

  18. What a cool collage project! I save my yarn labels like a crazy woman . . . I’m not particularly organized in any OTHER area of my life, but my yarn labels are organized. I fear that I couldn’t collage with them because I’d have some sort of OCD moment.

  19. Now there’s a flashback for you. We used to burn the edges of some of the pictures and tear others. Your box looks great. I can also envision adding the occasional chocolate bar label as well.

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