Decoupage Postcard – playing with napkins

There are SO many different ways you could create a handmade postcard, right? You can experiment with materials, tools, layers, words and images, applications and styles – in infinitum. Personally it’s one of the things I love most about art. No matter how you try to do something on repeat – it will turn out differently every time and surprise you. There is always new ways to explore and put down your mediums on a canvas. More techniques to learn about and ideas to try out. I love that.

So even now that I have been creating mail art postcards for over 15 years I am always learning new things and want to continue to experiment with my materials. For example, how about a decoupage postcard, playing with thin napkins on a mixed media surface? I want to see if that works and how it might look, so of course I had to try the idea out.

I decided to start on a mixed media surface. I covered a few cardstock pieces with text to create a white-ish surface, then I painted them with white gesso to mute that layer, so that I could paint on top of the text without seeing to much of it. Some of those postcard grounds I only gessoed, because I knew I’d want to paint on top of them with covering acrylic paint.

Then I pulled from my napkin stash and started working using matte medium as my glue. I used some fun napkins and made a little paper patchwork on a postcard surface. Watch the video to see how it came together and let me know if this is and idea that inspires you to try something similar.

Let’s hop to it.

Video: Decoupage Postcard Idea

Here’s the finished result:

Flourish again! Pink roses, flower patterns and a cute bunny. It felt fitting as I created this last spring…

Yes, last year I wanted to create a few different videos demonstrating 10 ideas that you could take and run with when it comes to creating your own DIY Postcards, but as usual I did run out of time even with my own deadline. I did, however manage to film three videos and to edit and post (!) two of those, and that’s not bad either. In the first one, Go with the flow, I used images from a unused planner. Then I also created this decoupage postcard, since I was into using tissue papers & napkins at the time.

I never created a corresponding blog post though, so you might have missed it even if you’re subscribed to my YouTube Channel… That’s why I’m posting this here today. I hope you don’t mind. I’ll also get to sharing last year’s video and a new one I made this year as blog posts, but they’re already up on the tubes in case you want to check them out.

By the way: You can still sign up for the DIY Postcard Swap – don’t be like me and miss the deadline!

The DIY Postcard Swap is closed at the moment. If you would like to be notified about the spring 2026 swap, make sure that you are subscribed to the newsletter. Thanks.

Current status of the swap: Closed. All address lists have been emailed out. Open the email account that you registered with to find it, and if it’s not there also check your spam folder. I did send it. If you can’t find it I will resend it when you let me know. If you still can’t see it, contact me from another email.

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