How to Decoupage on Tiles

I've had a few requests on how to make the Decoupaged Tiles so I'll attempt to explain it - sorry I don't have time to put together a tutorial right now!

The first step is to prepare your glazed tile to accept various mediums for antiquing and staining.

1. Take a plain white glazed tile and apply a thin coat of white glue to the surface.

2. Adhere a piece of solid coloured tissue paper (cut to size close to the tile size) in a light neutral colour - I like to use vanilla.

3. Gently press out the bumps and air pockets of glue being careful not to tear or "smoosh" the tissue too much.

4. Allow to dry completely.

5. Trim off excess tissue using an exacto and/or a fine sanding block.

Now it's time to decorate your tile. I like to use designer paper napkins that are 3 ply or printed tissue paper to add images to the tiles.

1. Prepare your design by trimming out images from printed tissue paper or designer paper napkins (if using 3 ply separate plys after you have trimmed the images).

2. Apply glue to area of PREPARED TILE (one that already has a layer of tissue paper on it!) and then apply the trimmed images from step 1.

3. Press out air bubbles being careful not to tear or "smoosh" the images.

4. Continue with step 2 until your design is complete.

5. For borders I like to piece together greetings and/or smaller images from other napkins or tissue paper. However you could add stamped greetings when the tile is DRY. Do not stamp into wet/gluey tissue.

6. Allow glued images and entire tile to dry completely.

7. Complete your tile by adding metallic accents or borders using KRYLON markers or acrylic paint and adding colour washes using ink refills or acrylic paint (thinned out with water).

8. Allow to dry again and then coat with spray on Krylon sealon or applying coats of Modge Podge or Anita's Polyurethane Water Based Sealer.

9. Allow to dry from sealer step 8 and then add cork feet or a hanger clip (using E6000 glue).

There you have it! It's very easy once you get used to the process of working with tissue and glue and the results are amazing!

The Art of Decoupage

Years ago I was really into Decoupage. I used to teach ALL DAY classes in my home on how to make Decoupage Under Glass.

Decoupage is the art of cutting and pasting. You can use this technique to decorate and embellish a lot of items.

I taught my customers how to decoupage glass dinner plates, glass fruit bowls, wooden serving trays and tiles.

Here is one of my favourite pieces. I donated it to a charity auction and it went for over $300 (yes I got a tax receipt for the entire amount!). This piece is a large glass fruit bowl (about 14 inches in diameter) that I picked up at IKEA for under $10.

The fruit images come from tissue paper that I bought at Michaels. I cut out each image with precision scissors. Then they're carefully glued onto the back side of the glass with white glue (Elmers). The gold background is a layer of gold tissue paper. The final step is to spray paint the entire back side with an enamel gold spray paint.


It is food friendly in that you can use it as a cold serving piece but you CANNOT put these pieces in the dishwasher or into water.

These next 2 pieces are trays (again from IKEA). The images come from paper napkins or printed tissue paper.

I have donated a lot of my decoupaged pieces to charity and school fundraiser auctions. There is a school fundraiser coming up and I've been asked to donate something. I haven't decoupaged in years but I may just pull out all my supplies and make a few pieces for the school.

Don't worry I haven't given all of my decoupage away. This last one is another fruit bowl made with images from napkins. I really love it and it's one that I'm going to keep!