I am not crafty. In fact, up until a few weeks ago, I didn’t even know how to spell decoupage, much less know what it was. But as I perused the Internet looking for ways to utilize leftover Christmas cards, I found a number of decoupage projects that looked interesting.

Decoupage is a way of decorating a myriad of different items with paper cutouts and protecting it with a layer of some sort of varnish. I tried a couple different techniques for a couple different projects and definitely found that Mod Podge works the best. Mod Podge is great because it’s non-toxic (making it cool for kids to use), it can be used both an adhesive and clear coat (it’s white in the bottle, but dries clear), and it is really easy to apply and clean up (soap and warm water).

As for projects, you can decoupage just about anything. Picture frames, light switch plates, flower pots, doors, furniture, books — just about anything with a smoothish, solid surface can be covered in photographs, magazine cutouts, tissue paper, images and words you print out from your computer. And because it’s really easy to do, decoupage is a cool project for an older child’s birthday party project or a gift for the fam. Beware: Images printed on an inkjet printer tend to smudge or bleed and go dark once wet with Mod Podge — photographs, magazine images, and a heavier weight of paper used with a laser printer do better in a decoupage project.

Here are the projects I tried:

Switch plates and outlet covers
I printed out a single image of Rosie the Riveter and placed her on a plain switch plate with spray adhesive. I super glued the edges down and left enough extra to tuck on the back of the plate. Then I did one thick coat of Mod Podge. For the other switch plates, I printed out a background image (grass for one, clouds for another) and a picture of my daughter, and then slapped on some stickers of things she likes. I finished it with several coats of Mod Podge.

Picture frames
I bunched up tissue paper and glued it on an old frame I was going to throw out because it was all scratched up. Once that coat dried, I used more Mod Podge to affix images I printed out from the computer. I finished it off with a few more coats of Mod Podge as a top coat (if you let it dry between coats, it will build up to a thick, shiny gloss).

Necklace pendants
You can get flat, clear marbles from Michael’s and other craft stores. You can cut out an image (and in 12-point font, fit about a four-letter word) and affix it to the flat part of the marble. Twist a loop of wire and hot glue it to the back of the marble after the image you’ve affixed has dried. Finally, adhere a piece of felt cut to fit the back of the marble. This was pretty easy and quick — would make a neat souvenir for a party for tweens or older.

Altered books
Type “altered books” into Google and you quickly discover it’s not a craft — it’s practically a religion. Incredibly complex creations by altered book artists sell for bazillions of dollars, but that’s not what I made. We have a bunch of board books our daughter doesn’t read: duplicated, some that come in the kids’ meals, damaged ones. I traced the book on construction paper and Mod Podged a piece of paper over each page. Then I cut out pictures and text from the computer and made a story. After everything dried, I put several copies of Mod Podge over each page to protect them. It’s not fancy, but now I have some cool books that our daughter loves.

There are lots of great ideas on the Mod Podge website.

Happy decoupaging!