Decoupage switchboard

I love the simplicity of tearing or cutting pieces of  paper and sticking them in a deliberately random fashion - that's decoupage in all its simplicity. Here is a switch panel which I did about 6 years ago in what was my daughter's room (now it's my son's room and I probably have to redo it!). It still attracts a lot of attention....

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It's got the distressed look of things that have aged gracefully, but it's young! You can do this too! Just get some gift wrapping paper and a pair of sharp scissors and get cutting. Here are a few pointers to get you started...

• Choose papers that have some common colours or belong to the same family of colours, some words, writing in different languages or even some plain paper. 
• For starters, keep to the same type of paper. For instance, if you add newsprint to this collage, it will look different as it is much thinner than gift wrapping paper. Once you have done a few, you can experiment with different types of paper. 
• Use fevicol to stick the paper and clean the panel well and wipe it dry before starting. It doesn't matter if paper overlaps a bit. You can also tear some of the paper. Once everything is stuck, paint or spray two coats of clear varnish. Let the surface dry between coats.