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Decoupage is the art of taking beautiful designs, pictures and/or paper and gluing them to a surface and then covering that surface with a layer of glue, polyurethane or some other medium. Collage is the are of arranging beautiful pictures or designs that are usually paper, but could be other mediums and gluing them down. The main difference between the two is that collage doesn't usually have another layer to preserve it for the future.

Decoupage tends to be wonderful for keepsakes, furniture, and gifts. Jewelery boxes, tables, and plaques were often covered with pictures and preserved. Collage tends to work best for class projects, temporary items, or placed in a frame with glass or Plexiglas over the top of it. If placed in a frame, they tended to last longer, but were still not as permanent.

Decoupage isn't mobile once it is set. There are now movable glues that could be used in collage to make things more movable. Even though collages usually have glue, sometimes they could be as simple as items glued to magnets. A collage could be made of pictures covered in plastic and glued to magnets, then they could be moved and rearranged for different affects on a metal surface.

An area where collage has really taken off as an art form is in scrapbooks. People who do scrapbooks tend to use collage, the arranging of pictures on their scrapbook pages. Then they tend to hold them down with static magnetic plastic or glue from behind. But some cover them with plastic that has a sticky side. Blurring the definition between decoupage and collage.

The biggest difference between the two is permanence. Decoupage tends to be a permanent decorative art form for tables, chairs, dressers, trunks and so on. Collage tends to be for projects that are either less enduring or more mobile. In many art classes, students are required to create collages until their sense of style, form, and so on have been perfected. Then they are given decoupage projects. In that case, collage is a precursor to or learning tool for decoupage. So collage can be a learning tool prior or a stepping stone to decoupage.

So if you have never done either art form, start with collage and move onto decoupage when you're ready. It's not so much one versus the other, it's where you're at and what you want to do with each of them. There are many fine collage and decoupage sites on the Internet. Do an internet search of whichever one you want inclding the words, "step-by-step instructions." Then you can try each one and see which one is right for you. Both types of art can make for wonderful craft projects.

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