Geek Chic gets crafty! Ive made no secret of how much I love seeing repurposed, recycled and upcycled products here on Geek Chic so this week I was inspired by a creative project one of the BGCP team members did recently using a technique that I have used once or twice myself. Were talking Comic Book Decoupage, or more specifically revamping furniture using this method! Weve all been in that situation where weve either moved house and had no furniture to fill the new home with or simply grown bored of our existing furniture but we just dont have enough spare cash to get fancy new stuff that meets our tastes. Now you could just make do with whatever hand me downs you can get from friends, family or from the kindness of strangers through things like freecycle or freegle online locally. Or you could get creative and with a little effort and not very much money you can have a unique piece or set of furniture that suits your geeky style and that everyone will talk about when they come to visit. I know there will be some comic book collectors out there thinking that Im the worlds worst person for even daring to suggest cutting up comic books for a craft project, but unless you really want to, this project doesnt have to use anything expensive. With the incredibly large number of copies of comic books being printed every week globally there are actually that many copies of things that its highly unlikely that most modern comics (with the exception of special edition covers or controversial storylines) will actually be missed if used for projects like this and comic book stores know this and will inevitably have a corner of the shop filled with all sorts of bargain comics from as little as 10p-50p a copy. What do you need to do this sort of thing, lets build a checklist. Furniture (or something else to decorate) – This could be something old you already have, something free or cheap from freecycle or gumtree, or even something cheap and plain from somewhere like Ikea. Many vintage pieces such as dressing tables, coffee tables and dressers will come with a protective glass layer for the top of the furniture, this is ideal for this kind of craft project as it makes the finished piece even more durable. Ikea also has several modern styles of furniture that also comes with glass tops if you prefer a clean modern look but like the sound of glass to protect your hard work. Comic books – as I already mentioned, check your local comic book store for bargain comics or look on eBay for cheap bulk boxes of comics. You never know what you might find! It can also be useful to plan ahead and collect cheap copies of a certain hero/villain as you find them if you want to go for a certain theme like Spider-man or Wonder Woman only. Another option is to go for a certain colour scheme and only include characters that wear red, white and blue, or only use comics that are in black and white – the options are endless and entirely up to your own tastes or imagination. Glue - Youll also some sort of clear glue, for most projects you could use either Wallpaper paste, PVA glue or a similar to PVA style glue product called Mod Podge, this comes in a few different varieties that will give you a different finish like matt or gloss, but there are other options for getting a different surface finish too. Varnish - An optional finish depending on the type of glue you choose to work with is to use some sort of clear varnish on your finished furniture, either spray or normal brush on varieties will work well. Make sure you choose a non yellowing varnish though unless you are ok with it losing its crystal clear look as it ages, although the yellowed look of old varnish might actually suit some older styles of furniture better and add to the look you are trying to achieve. You can even get speciality varnishes that give a fantastic crackle glaze appearance which is great for giving crafty furniture projects like this a faux antique look. For more information on these sorts of products ask for recommendations in your local hardware or craft stores as some products like this may have to be ordered in specially. Once you have everything you need it really is as simple as cutting out and sticking it on. Take your time though and dont rush, you dont want to have wrinkles or air bubbles getting trapped under the paper. There are two main ways to approach this kind of decoupage, option one is to cut out the pages and use them either whole or cut up into larger square/straight edged sections such as the separate panels on each page. This method probably works best on large pieces of furniture, like desks or wardrobes where you have large flat surfaces and you can make use or larger images a little better. For smaller projects it might be easier to tear up the pages into smaller pieces that highlight things like faces or sound effect graphics from fight scenes. But dont feel restricted by these suggestions and go with whatever way you think looks best for both your own taste and the particular piece you are decorating, maybe a mixture of styles would work best for your design. Hopefully some of the images included here will inspire you to try this on your own and if you do wed love to see photos of your geeky creations. If you arent very creative or you struggle with do it yourself projects like this, dont despair because there are lots of fantastic vendors out there using this technique to make some amazing items that are available for you to buy ready made online or maybe even at one of our events. So there is absolutely no reason why you cant use geeky decoupaged items to impress everyone. As always wed love to hear your thoughts in the comments below. (Roostarr)
Posted on: Tue, 29 Jul 2014 10:00:00 +0000
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