Residents learn new form of art

Residents at the Mission at Castle Rock Rehabilitation Center were learning a new type of art -- decoupage.

During the weekly Crafts with Kathy Elliott class Friday morning, those participating in the class were learning how to decoupage. Most of them hadn’t even heard of such a thing, but once they found out what it was, they were ready to give it a try.

Decoupage is nothing more than a slight of hand. When done correctly, it gives one the impression that something was hand painted, but in reality it’s glued on paper and sometimes coated with lacquer.

Before starting the project, Elliott handed out aprons and tube socks. The socks were cut open at the end so one could put their arm through it. The socks were used so residents wouldn’t get glue on them when they painted.

Once dressed properly for the crafting occasion, the ladies picked out which cardboard box they wanted to decoupage. They could chose from heart, square, circle or rectangle-shaped boxes. With boxes in hand, the crafters waited for their next set of instructions.

Elliott instructed the group to take a marker and draw a line around the bottom of the lid. She explained that if they wouldn’t do this step, they may decoupage too high and the lid, which was already a tight fit, would no longer fit on the box.

Next, the ladies tried to decide which kind of wrapping paper they wanted to decoupage with. They had paper of just about every color of the rainbow to choose from. Along with the colored paper, was shiny paper or paper with flowers or butterflies on it.

One lady picked out the butterfly paper and took care to cut out a butterfly for the top of her cardboard box.

Then, the ladies were told by Elliott to rip the paper into pieces. This confused the ladies, but she explained they would create all sorts of patterns when they glued the paper onto the boxes. Once the paper was torn to shreds, in some cases, Elliott told the ladies to find the edge pieces, just like they would if they were going to solve a jigsaw puzzle. They took these edge pieces and glued them on first. The edge pieces perfectly lined up with the line they drew on their boxes.

“Do not decoupage above the line,” Elliott reminded them.

The ladies just kept adding pieces of paper to their boxes until they were happy with the look. At the end of the project, they put a coat of paint over the entire box and they were impressed with what they had made.