Decoupage in card making is the cutting out and  building up of a 3D picture using foam pads or silicon glue.  For the advantages and disadvantages of both types of glue see the article on Foam pads v Silicon glue.

3D decoupage for card making usually comes on A4 sheets with anything from 1 to 5 different decoupage designs on a sheet.  It also now comes in either A4 decoupage sheets where you cut out the designs using scissors or a craft knife or sheets already die cut that you just press out and build up.  Strictly speaking, die cut decoupage isn’t decoupage as it is not the building up of the picture but the cutting out that the word decoupage refers – from the French meaning “of the cutting”.  A word about the pronunciation: it is French so it is pronounced de-coop-age and not the deck-up-arge uttered  by certain TV presenters.

Decoupage was very popular in Victorian times where it was used not  for cards but to decorate furniture.  This was not 3D decoupage but a single layer that was cut out and used for decoration.

Many of the decoupage sheets available for card making have the pieces numbered so beginners know which layer to put on next in the sequence but even if it isn’t numbered it is an easy to follow rule: one starts with the largest piece and keeps adding the next largest and so on with the smallest piece going on last.  Each piece needs to be carefully lined up with the design on the previous layer.

A recent addition to decoupage for card making is pyramid decoupage so called because it’s built up like a pyramid and the shapes are geometrical: squares, circles, or rectangles mainly although star shapes and hexagons are not unknown.  Pyramid decoupage also needs to be carefully lined up as the picture is built – again working from the largest piece on the bottom layer to the smallest piece on the top layer.  Pyramid decoupage is also available in both sheets one needs to cut out and die cut versions.

For the more adventurous card maker there is twisted pyramid decoupage where each layer needs to be twisted slightly to line up the pattern with the previous layer.

Whichever form is chosen decoupage remains probably the most popular of all card making techniques.