Sealing/covering collage

[BoBoo]

Hello all

I don't really have the crafting vocabulary to describe what I want to do, but I have a box that I want to cover with different pictures and am wondering how I would then cover or treat the pictures to make it usable. Does that make sense?

The only thing I can think of at the moment is that kind of clear plastic you can buy to cover books with, but not sure how good a result that would give. Any other ideas?

How big is the box?

A shoe box

At school we used to use a liquid glue that dried clear to decorate like this, Copydex I think but probably any glue that dries clear would do if you just stuck the pieces down and then brushed a layer over the top. Wouldnt be waterproof though.

A clear varnish might work but pricier. On American crafting blogs they talk about a product called Mod Podge which seems to do a similar thing but with more of a texture.

Ooooh - that looks perfect and they have some on ebay. Thanks for the suggestion.

You can mix normal upva glue with water and use it as a varnish.

"Decoupage" is the technique you are thinking of, have a google and you will see what it is all about! You put multiple layers of varish over the collage (letting each one dry first) until it looks seamless.
Hope this helps!

You can buy special glue/varnishes for decoupage/decoupatch but a PVA mixture would be fine for most surfaces.

I made a HUGE giraffe and I used a matt varnish on that.