Découpage, the English Dictionary tells us, is the art or process of decorating a surface with shapes or illustrations cut from paper or card, and that it is anything produced by this technique. The actual process, however, is more complicated than this definition would lead one to believe.

The word comes from the twentieth century from the French, découper meaning to cut out. There are many forms of découpage. One form is where shapes, flowers, pictures in general, are cut out and glued onto a wooden surface for example, and then lacquered many times over, and rubbed down until a high gloss is obtained. This is highly decorative, and very effective giving the item an almost Japanned appearance.

With a greetings card, the process also includes gluing, but as it has several layers it obtains a three dimensional appearance to great effect. Pre-printed sheets of card can be purchased for the hobbyist, whereby all that needs to be done is press out the die-cut shapes and glue onto the card in the designated order. Great effects can be achieved by this process, but one is limited to the die-cuts one has purchased. The traditional way to découpage is to have as many as three, four or even five pictures of the same subject, and cut out the images that is required for the finished item, and gradually build the picture up layer by layer. The cutting out has to be precise, and the best way is with découpage scissors, which are curved, making it easier to go around the shapes, and because there is no reliance on die-cut pictures, many different parts of the main picture can be cut out to give multi-layering to several areas of the main picture. It is addictive work, and very time consuming.

Layering a découpage picture involves applying a special silicone adhesive to the reverse of each cut-out, in small pea size dots to give height to the layer. Equally, there are double sided sticky foam pads which will achieve the same result, but there is more control with the silicone glue. The picture is then layered up piece by piece until it is complete. There are techniques where curling the cut-outs with the back of a knife add more dimensionality to the picture, giving it a roundness, and thus improving the look of the layering.

Photographs of family and family pets can be perfect subjects for découpage, even buildings, beach scenes; in fact any picture can be a good subject for découpage, and the only limit is the imagination.