New Decoupage: Transforming Your Home with Paper, Glue, and Scissors

If all craft books were as attractive, brilliantly conceived, and downright amusing as this one, the craft world would be a better place. Glorious projects, beautiful photos, thorough instructions, and terrific coverage of all the groundwork make for lovely viewing, enjoyable reading, and endless inspiration.

Master decoupeur Durwin Rice is not only a true artist with scissors and glue, he's a lively writer whose sense of humor and deft handling of the subject makes even the most mundane tasks (like surface preparation or sealing a finished piece) sound like fun. He debunks the obsessiveness with which "Old Decoupage" was created and which still puts off some would-be decoupeurs today, such as the tendency to apply 30 or more coats of sealant ("You want to protect your work from scratches--not Hurricane Andrew") or the inclination for fanatical cutting ("You are master of the image, not the image of you"). He covers all manner and size of objects with his wondrous creations: plates, vases, trays, eggs, tables, cabinets, walls, ceilings, even the refrigerator. Clearly this is a man obsessed, not with the needlessly labor-intensive approach of yesteryear, but with the urge to decoupage the world. This is not only a lesson on how to create spectacular decoupage; it's a lesson on how to produce a masterful craft book. --Amy Handy