Decoupage (or
découpage) is the
art of
decorating an object by
gluing colored
paper cutouts onto it in combination with special
paint effects,
gold leaf and so on. Commonly an object like a small box or an item of furniture is covered by cutouts from magazines or from purpose-manufactured papers. Each layer is sealed with
varnishes (often multiple coats) until the "stuck on" appearance disappears and the result looks like
painting or
inlay work. The traditional technique used 30 to 40 layers of varnish which were then sanded to a polished finish.