Personalised stuff with decoupage

Heyho!
Yesterday I saw Romans brushboxproject over at Massive Voodoo ( http://massivevoodoo.blogspot.com/2012/01/start-of-mv-brushbox.html ) and once more I thought about getting such a thing.
The internet revealed that the store which sells them has an own shop here at my city...well now I don't have money left, but am happy :)

The box itself isn't that expenisve, you can get them here:
http://www.boesner.com/boesner/servlet/frontend/articleDetail.html?btUid=bt_Article&iDf_id=c0a8736c:ae3da8:fd09f42bac:5993&2ndKeywordOID=7f001:-47182655:11957deff1b:7f57&showAll=true&1stKeywordOID=7f001:-47182655:11957deff1b:7ddf

I wanted something personal, for I don't want to copy other persons ideas or articles, when it gets to write something down here at our place. (I also suck at freehand painting anyways)

So what to do with it? During last christmas days I remembered a technique I learned years back at some artistic convention. It is called decoupage, and its about paper, glue and some things to change.
A few presents later (with some big fails, but more about this later) I was in love again.
It is cheap, fast and you can do tons of cool things with it.

So I thought I should write a short article about it and here we go:

The things you really will need:

Some decoupage paper (got mine for 1 Euro per page at local hobby store) and maybe small things you want to add. Something to cut on is really good too, if you don't like scratches at your table.
You can also use napkins (just take the layer which holds the picture/color).

 Some stuff you would like to change. You can do this on every material I think, and possibilities are unlimited. (I used it on boxes, books, shelves, bags...whatever). Just coat it with some varnish if you plan to use it outside.

The decoupage glue. You can get it at hobby stores, just ask the nice salesgirl for glue and a date, if she is sweet :) If not, more time to glue stuff. I didn't try other glues, because I got this big package since a few years (it lasts really, really long).

And here is stuff you won't need, but it makes life more comfortable.
strawberries, a biiiig  cup of cacao and Southpark.
Just take things you like.

Well there are no pictures of the actual process...because I don't know what to show.
You cut out the paper you need (in my case I cut the little lizard and measured how much paper the box would need) take a good amount of glue and brush it directly to the surface you want to cover.
You can paint it before that step (if you have a dark surface or edges, like the lizard does) but it will also work without.
After glueing, you put the paper/napkin to the surface, now you could do the following things:
- take a flat iron and smooth the surface, so that all bubbles are gone (put baking paper between the iron and your surface)
- just let it dry (dull finish)
-brush another layer of glue to it (glossy finish, more resistent)

There is one thing you always should have in mind: LET IT DRY
This may sound simple...it isn't if you are as impatient as me :)
I made a jewelry box for christmas, thought it was dry and closed it...a few days later the damn thing was glued together and now nobody can open it.
At my brushbox I touched the paper and ripped off a little bit of it, the lizard covers it but it is really bad if you don't plan to put such a thing on your surface.
If you do boxes, things with hinges etc you have to dismantle them first, as I did with the brush box.

And here we go wip and ready:

I often walk through stores and see people buy stuff with such patterns as my shelveboxes for incredible high prices, with a little time and happyness you can make them all alone.
I'am also planning to use this at some miniature related projects, cover sockets with patterns or effects like the old color effect at the first shelvebox or make some wallpapers for little scenes.
Hope anyone can use this, have fun while trying :)