Decoupage Quamut

“Quamut?” you ask. No, I haven’t misspelled “comet”; though I feel like I may have hitched my wagon to one. Tuesday I received a call from a senior editor at Barnes and Noble asking if I would be interested in writing a Quamut on decoupage.

Quamuts are comprehensive quick-reference how-to guides published online and in print. “Quamut” is from the Latin quam for “what” and ut for "to.") Quamut.com has an extensive section on Hobbies and Leisure; but, lucky for me, they don’t have anything on decoupage yet.

Decoupage started out as a small part of The Artful Crafter website four years ago. But, mainly in response to reader questions, it is now the largest category on site. The Artful Crafter was listed as one of the top three decoupage websites in the HGTV.com decoupage forum.

It seems many DIY-ers are frightened away from decoupage or try it once with unsatisfactory results and throw up their hands. I know this because nine out of ten questions we receive at The Artful Crafter relate to decoupage issues.

“Why is my ink bleeding?” “Why won’t my images stay down?” “How can I get rid of air bubbles?” “How can I decoupage a bar top for our sports bar?”

I’m here to tell you, decoupage is not rocket science. You just need a few basics to create your own professional-looking decoupage projects. If you can use scissors and glue, you can do decoupage.

I just shipped my decoupage Quamut proposal to Barnes and Noble by email. I’m so excited; I’m just about dancing on my chair! I’ll let you know their reaction next week.

Tags: Quamut, decoupage, The Artful Crafter, how-to guides, Barnes & Noble