Since I know there are so many people out there reading these entries and I also know you are on the edge of your seat about the kitchen refresh... (whew, I am funny ;) Anyway, here's a status update:
As with all good plans, some things got in the way of finished the kitchen earlier in the week. The paint is complete, however. It looks good. It's received two thumbs from everyone who has been in to see it. Even in it's disorganized I'm working on it and need all this stuff all over every surface; it's been a week and we need to make food - what happened to the bread, peanut butter, or pans; there aren't any coat hooks and I can't figure out what to do with my coat or lunch bag or purse, kind of way.
The glitter switch plates tickle me. Seriously, get some mod podge and put some stuff on your switch plates. You will A) not believe how easy it is and B) how much you will love it.
Never decoupaged anything? Don't know what to do? It goes like this: you will need the thing you are going to decorate (ie switch plate), mod podge, throw away foam brush, whatever you are going to to put on your thing to decorate (ie glitter). Put a piece of wax paper or parchment paper on the surface you are working on - this piece you will be working over. If you are working with glitter, you will want to try your darnedest not to get any glue on this surface. You will also want a piece of wax or parchment paper for setting your piece on to dry.
I'm going to assume you are glittering a switch plate for these directions because you've seen the potential in the pictures below, so: Holding your plate, squeeze some mod podge on, start small because you can always add more, but it's tricky to impossible to remove excess. You want to cover the plate with a good layer of podge, but you do not want the podge to drip off. Once it is fully covered, open the glitter and sprinkle away making sure you are over the parchment so any over-sprinkle has a safe place to land. . When you feel like there is glitter on all of the surface, turn it over and tap on the back with your foam brush handle, letting the glitter fall onto the parchment. Take a look at the surface, think you've missed a spot, sprinkle on more glitter. Now, take a good look at the edges. How's the coverage? If need be, press the edges into the glitter on the parchment, just be careful not to put glue on the parchment. If you gather up the glitter in a pile, you'll be fine.
Set your piece aside to dry. If your piece has mod podge on the edge that is touching the paper, you will want to move it after about 10 minutes, cause it's going to want to stick. Rinse out your foam brush and allow it to dry. Use the parchment to put the excess glitter back into the bottle. I read about another crafter who uses a paper plate under her glitter projects so she can just fold the plate in half to return the unused glitter to the bottle. It isn't enough space for me cause I'm a little messy, but I mention it in case it would work for you.
Now, you are definitely going to want to put a coat of mod podge over the glitter, otherwise every time you touch it, some will come off, but you can't apply it immediately because it will just smoosh around and mess up the first layer of glitter. So we wait. Allow it to dry for at least 30 minutes. Take a good look at it and see if it needs another coat of glitter. It just depends on what you are covering and what color the glitter is and how you feel about it. Either way, squeeze on mod podge and begin covering the glitter using the foam brush (it's okay if it's still damp, just not dripping). Don't be surprised, but it will take more podge to cover this layer. If you have decided on more glitter, just repeat what we did earlier, sprinkle, sprinkle, check the edges-dipping as needed into the excess glitter on the parchment and then set it aside to dry. After 30 minutes, apply a top coat of mod podge. When you've put the top layer of mod podge on, you will want to let this dry for several hours - I left mine overnight. Then just put those switch plates up. OOOOOOOHHH, I forgot to mention the screws. You will want to glitter those babies! Just dip in mod podge and then in glitter, allow to dry for 30 minutes and dip in podge again for a top layer. I haven't needed a second coat on any I've done, but check yours and decide.
Let's just say glitter isn't your thing. What else could you put on your switch plate? Paper, fabric, stickers, photo, ribbon, silk flowers, real flowers, confetti... It's basically the same operation, mod podge - decoration - mod podge. The only difference between glitter and these other things is that you won't need to let these other things dry before putting on the top layer of mod podge. We wait for the glitter because is smooshes around and we have no way of holding it in place. The paper or the photos can be done in one piece or torn and applied in bits and pieces. Both are cool options.
The beauty of enhancing a switch plate is you can buy the very basic model for a single switch for 20 cents. If you don't like how it turned out, whip out two dimes and buy another! Course with decoupage you can just add another layer, too!
Now, my feelings on mod podge and other decoupage options... I've tried lots of them. My Aunt taught me to decoupage in the 70's. I have really tried a lot of different things. Mod Podge is the best. It is consistently good, with good results. You can have a bottle in a drawer for a year and pull it out and still get good results (not that I've done that... Oh, yes I have). In a week, a month or three years from now, your decoupaged item will still look good. Those are just my thoughts and you are welcome to ignore them. :)
just found this quote and wanted to share: “Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea.” ― Robert A. Heinlein
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Thank you for sharing your kind thoughts!