Table Refurbish pt 2 - Decoupage!

Yesterday I posted the painting and distressing I did to refurbish an old wooden coffee table.  Well today I blasted through part 2 of the refurbish - a decoupage effect on the table top with anatomy sketches!

I won't bore you with tons of details, so without further ado - here's the progress!

I used just regular glossy Mod Podge from Michael's, glossy Minwax Polycrylic from Michael's, an art knife, soft-bristled paintbrushes (medium and wide), a scraper for flattening the pictures, a hand towel for wiping up excess liquids, an art book with large-scale hand-drawn sketches, and dark coffee for staining.

I have to start off by giving due props to Mr. Kate and her awesome idea for this :)

I started with the above human anatomy sketch book and got to work ripping out every cool sketch I could find. 

 Once I had all my sketches ripped out, I laid them out the way I wanted them (approximately) on the top of the table.

 

Once that was done I got to do the real work!  I started on the left and moved right in layers.

Each piece was dipped in a lasagna pan (you can use any wide, flat container) with about an inch of dark black coffee in it.  Don't dip the pieces for too long or they'll tear. 

Paint a layer of the Mod Podge in the spot you're going to lay your piece down once it's been dipped.  Lay the stained piece over the glue, and use the wallpaper scraper (or whatever flat surface you're using) to get out any air bubbles.  Gently mop up any excess coffee/glue then paint over the whole area again with the Mod Podge (you just don't want puddles of coffee everywhere).

Repeat till the whole table is covered. Once the pieces are all down, take your art knife and trim the excesses off the edges of the table.  Paint the whole area again with a thick layer of Mod Podge and let the whole thing dry (about 3 hours).  

Once that is dry, you can paint on a couple layers of the Polycrylic to seal everything in.

And here's it finished and sealed!