2nd November 2024

3d Decoupage for Beginners

3d Decoupage for Beginners
3d Decoupage for Beginners

Well here in the UK we simply call it decoupage. Whilst in the US they tend to call it 3D Decoupage as they use the term Decoupage on its own for something completely different. (what we here in the UK call Decopatch). Unfortunately many card making books / videos and demonstrations will assume you already know what decoupage is and how to do it. Anyway here is a guide to 3d decoupage for beginners.

No matter what you choose to call it, decoupage is a basic technique in card making and something all paper crafters could do with knowing. It is in fact a craft in it’s own right, whilst no longer common you will still see the occasional large framed picture made from this technique. Many years ago when I used to do Rainbow Craft Fairs there was a gentleman who produced the most stunning Decoupage pictures. They would be large complicated images such as the Charge of the Light Brigade. Each piece would take him a couple of weeks to make! Decoupaged images are made up of layers with objects in the front of the images on the top layers. There is no set number of layer and you are free to use, or not used, each layer as you wish. Sometimes a pre-made sheet will give you more layers than you really want and you are free to leave out whatever you wish.

 

3d Decoupage for Beginners
3d Decoupage for Beginners
A guide to 3d Decoupage
A guide to 3d Decoupage

Decoupage designs come in two main types. One where you get each section of the decoupage to cut out (or press out) and one where you get several copies of the same image and it is left up to you to decide what should be cut out of each one. You do this simply by deciding what is in the foreground and what is in the background. The decoupage design we have used in this example is of the first type. It is fairly straight forward without too many fiddlely bits.

Decoupage designs come in two main types. One where you get each section of the decoupage to cut out (or press out) and one where you get several copies of the same image and it is left up to you to decide what should be cut out of each one. You do this simply by deciding what is in the foreground and what is in the background. The decoupage design we have used in this example is of the first type. It is fairly straight forward without too many fiddlely bits.

So I printed off the designwhich you can find here. I printed it onto a thick glossy photo papers which I find thick enough to hold it’s shape but not so thick that I can’t cut it easily. I also like the finish which the gloss paper gives. This is the smallest version of the design so all the bits come on one sheet. After that I cut out each of the elements carefully using scissors and a sharp craft knife / scalpel.

Next came the assembly. I use double sided sticky pads for this, others choose to use a silicone glue ( in blobs to give the space. I find the double sided pads cleaner to use but they don’t allow for repositioning once you have joined the two pieces together. With glue you do get a little while to reposition the pieces if you make a mistake.

3d Decoupage for Beginners
3d Decoupage for Beginners

Once I had complete the 3 part piece of decoupage I then cut a piece of thicker card double it’s size so I could fold it over and make a nice little landscape card. If you want, the decoupage can just form part of a larger card but personally I think it stands well enough on its own.

There are 1,000 and 1,000 of sheets of decoupage available either to buy or to download for free on the internet. Here on Free Craft downloads we have hundred to cover almost any occasion in our dedicated section. The best thing to do, as with any craft, is to download some sheets and have a go. If you have difficulty in cutting the pieces out ( you will at first but hopefully it will come with a bit of practice) then you have 3 choices. You can stick to the simpler designs, you can buy the pre-cut sheets where you just push the pieces out or you can try pyramid sheets instead where the cutting is much more straightforward. We hope you found this guide to 3d Decoupage for Beginners useful.

How to do 3d Decoupage
How to do 3d Decoupage

 

3d Decoupage for Beginners

Authored By: Bob Prentice

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