Decoupage - Our Lady of Guadalupe

Decoupage has its origin in the French word "découper", which means to cut out. It consists of decorating surfaces (of all kinds, from ceramic, wood, cardboard and even soaps or candles) with cut-out paper or fabric images that are fixed to the surface that you want to decorate with a Glue. The final result has to be very similar to as if we had done it with paint and a brush.

Plaster figure of our lady of Guadalupe

Printed napkin

Glue or Mod Podge

Brushes

Grip 180

Carving tools

Liquid gilding gold

White acrylic paint, rose gold

pearl yellow acrylic paint

Having a blessed virgin at home or in this case Our Lady of Guadalupe is something traditional in some homes of Latin American families, especially this religious figure is very traditional in Mexico.
For many devotees, Our Lady of Guadalupe is Miraculous, protector, helps the sick among other prayers

Often the plaster figures come with some imperfect, so we need to sand gently until the surface is smoother, then carve, to highlight some parts to give a better finish

When the figure of Our Lady of Guadalupe is completely sanded, we proceed to shake off the excess dust, when it is ready to apply two or three layers of white acrylic paint, this step will seal the plaster and give it a layer of protection.

Let dry for 10 minutes

Apply two or three layers of pearl yellow acrylic, this color is really beautiful and subtle, this type of acrylic gives different all depending on the angle of light

For this project I chose a decoupage napkin stamped with pink flowers.

The napkin has 3 layers, very carefully remove the first two white layers and leave the layer that has the pattern.

Once the Napkin is chosen and it is ready without the two layers, apply the glue to the entire back of Our Lady of Guadalupe with a flat brush.

Note: if the glue is too thick, reduce it with water to obtain a light glue.

Let it dry for approximately 3 minutes so it will be easier to place the napkin and be able to start molding it on the figure.

I wanted the napkin to cover the whole back so I put half of the napkin and started to gently mold it with a brush putting more glue on top of the napkin, this is how we seal the napkin

Remove the leftover Napkin

For the front we will begin to tear the decoupage napkin with our hands, this will make the edges irregular and it will look more natural when gluing the napkin

Note: it could be done with scissors but to my liking it is better to tear it with our hands

When some pieces of Napkin have been chosen for decoupage, we begin to apply Glue in the parts where we will put the napkin, this will be to our liking, let it dry for 5 minutes

place the napkin and apply more glue on top, gently with a brush to accommodate the napkin, I chose to also cover the entire front part.

This part of Our Lady of Guadalupe represents rays that surround her in the shape of a halo or aura. She means that she is the Mother of Light.

Finishing this process with the napkin we must let it dry for 8 hours since it is very delicate and breaks easily

Apply the golden liquid gold on the edge of the mantle, on the bow, on the wings of the angel, on the base of the virgin, and some brushstrokes on the part of the dress, all this is optional, since if you want you can place the gold liquid gold where you like it.

Decoupage can be made of various materials: ceramic, wood, porcelain, metal, glass, cardboard and even materials such as soaps or candles.

I chose a candle and decorated it with the decoupage napkin, in the same way that I did with the plaster figure, since I want the candle to match the one with the blessed virgin.

Decoupage is a really beautiful, cheap and easy technique, it leaves a special finish to our projects imitating hand painted.

This technique applied to religious images such as Our Lady of Guadalupe makes it look modern and with a delicate touch, this project is a perfect gift for our grandmothers and mothers since many of them are very devout.