Decoupage Day - Lessons Learned

Alright, I've been productive this morning with my chores: cleaned the shower, bathed the dog (see fur pile),

did some laundry and there's a dishwasher load running, I even cleared off some space on my craft worktable (pic is before the cleanup).

Normally I work in the 6 inches in front of and 12 inches to the side of my keyboard despite the fact that I have a whole table to work on.
Now it's time to get crafty. I wanted to work on my decoupage comic book bangle bracelets today. I have images cut for Hellboy, Teen Titans, and Sandman Endless bracelets.

These sold like crazy at Heroes Con this year.

I had never really decoupaged before but I had some Martha Stewart Crafts Decoupage Glue and Sealer

 

leftover from some project years ago that I used for my first batch of bracelets. This product worked really well, it's thick and clear so it holds onto the paper and lets you manipulate it without soaking through and tearing it - this is REALLY important for folding the paper around the bangle. It's also really glossy and there's a bristle brush included in the bottle. However, I was running low and decided to try a different product. I bought a good size bottle of Collage Pauge (Aleene's)

at Hobby Lobby with a coupon (40% off - sign up for their emails!). I DON'T LIKE IT! It's very thin and soaks through the paper quickly, which means it tears easily, which means it doesn't work very well on the bangles. The instructions say to dip your finger in water and smooth out the wrinkles; this made the paper even more apt to tear. It also seems to dry very quickly once you spread it on and it gets all flaky on my fingers and does not wash off easily (yuck). Looks like I'm headed to Michaels today to stock up on the Martha Stewart goop. And it looks like the Hellboy bracelet will be a discount item since the wrinkles look not so pretty.

I'll use the Martha Stewart product on the Teen Titans and Sandman Endless bracelets that are up next.

(bracelets are drying)

By the way, I got the basics for these bracelets from this great video series on YouTube. The instructions are with tissue paper (which I've used) but I had to do something with comics, so voila!