Decoupage: Gluing Crap to Other Crap

What's the strangest thing you've ever done for craft supplies?

Last month I spent two hours taking part in a music opinion research poll that contained way too much Linkin Park for anyone to remain sane and that's coming from someone who is well aware of their terrible taste in music. By the end of the survey, I'd started listing buildings in my hometown with rooftops high enough to properly leap from.

Is it obvious that I'm not much of a Linkin Park fan? Sorry, boys (I'm sure their hearts are just ripping at the seams), but you've still got hubster's joyous vote of "meh". At least there's that.

Anyway, the point is that in return for two hours of borderline musical torture, I got $100 worth of Amazon rewards. Worth it? Well, I'm broke, so I'm gonna go with a hearty hell yes!

The first thing I did was pre-order season 4 of True Blood... Don't judge me! With my lust for blonde vikings sated After that was out of the way, I remembered that I was running dangerously low on glue. I mean, my last little bottle was making horrible gasping sounds. Now, decoupage is my favorite form of art (or crafts, whatever your opinion may be) and an empty bottle of glue just wouldn't do. To the search bar I went and that's when my whole life changed, because it never before occurred to me that glue was sold by the gallon. By the gallon, people!

Yeah, that's right, I'm the kind of girl that gets excited over mass quantities of glue.

Just look at that sexy beast!

Let's talk more about glue, shall we? Shut up, you know you want to.

I know there are other kinds of glue out there besides plain old school glue. There's even fancy, specialty glues just for decoupage, but you know what? They all suck. At least to me, anyway. They can be kind of pricey and I run through glue way too quickly to spend that much and in the past, every time I've tried using something other than plain glue, I end up getting everything all gooped up. My paper tears. It dries funny. I can't get an even coat. Of course, there's a very good chance that all I am is a bull in a china shop and it isn't really the special glue's fault, but I prefer to blame it all on the glue. Stupid, fancy glue! No, nothing works quite as well for me as plain, old, watered down glue.

Have I said glue enough yet? Too bad.

Yes, plain, old, watered down GLUE! That's where the smaller milk bottle comes in.

I fully admit to being a little on the lazy side, so I don't like measuring stuff unless I have to. That's the beauty of this DIY decoupage glue. As long as it still makes stuff stick, it doesn't matter! Just mix the glue and water to whatever consistency you feel comfortable with.

And there you have it!

Now, before I show you a few projects I've finished with this very same glue, I want to give a shout out to my favorite place to get most of the rest of my supplies. SCRAP Denton. It's a reuse store where everyone can buy and donate leftover art supplies and other odds and ends. The second I started shopping there, my imagination exploded like never before! I'm telling you, I haven't been to a regular craft store in months! Shops like these should be everywhere.

Okay, so here's a few examples of what I've created with watered down glue and SCRAP on my side: