Hello and welcome.

Today I can show you how to glue large pieces of napkins without any wrinkles.
For this project I use large wooden board which I bought for couple of pounds in discount store. First I use thick sand paper to make the surface matt. This way my paint will stick to it better. I don’t care about the wording at this point as I will paint it later on.
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I need my back ground either white or cream as napkins are very thin and gluing on dark surfaces will show through it. I use flower white acrylic paint and synthetic brush. If you use sponges you will need less coats to cover wording on the board.

When my board is dry I can start preparing napkin by separating two white layers from top layer. Golden rule with napkin decoupage is using only coloured layer. I also use small brush and water to tear around edges so they blend more easily. Now I place my napkin face down on plastic sleeve and I pour water over it gently smoothing wrinkles with fan brush. You can see how paper expands under water. When I’m happy with my napkin I gently lift plastic sleeve to remove excess water.

I apply decoupage glue on my board then I position napkin on it and use brush to squeeze air from under it only then I take off my plastic foil. If you are using flat board this is super easy. I have some grooves in my board so I have to push some of the napkin inside causing it to tear in places. I will need to add paint to cover small holes inside of the groves later on.

Now the hardest part. I must paint the rest of my board with matching colours. I use black, brown, cream, green and grey paint and several decoupage sponges. You can see how little paint I apply on my sponge. If it gets to wet I change it for new one. This way we have more control of how much paint we apply on our board and we can always add another one on top of the first. I usually make edges darker to create "frame" effect around the picture. You can create darker shades in places but try to match paint as much as possible. This will take you some time so be patient and don’t give up.

When everything is dry I can use stencils. I use temporary glue to keep them in place. Spray your stencil from the distance and wait few seconds for glue to dry and becomes sticky. Then position your stencil on the board and apply structure paste with spatula. If you don’t have the spatula you can use credit card instead.
I’m not quite happy about my blending so I splash cream dots all over my board. I use flower white paint mixed with water and fan brush to splash plenty of small dots. I love this paint and use it everywhere.

You can finish at this point but why not to add more? Another stencil sprayed with temporary glue and the same paint tapped with stiff bristle brush. You could use sponges to apply paint but I want only shade of cream and I don’t want it applied to perfectly. I also add cream paint on letters as they lost its whiteness after drying. Make sure your brush is almost dry with only tiny bit of paint otherwise you will leave marks on the board between letters.

At the very end I apply several coats of matt acrylic varnish and my work is finished. After varnishing I also used golden wax paste in some places as well as on edges but guess what? I forgot to record it.

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