Feeling Podgy

Do you know about Mod Podge? It is a somewhat miraculous Elmer's Glue-like substance that is made to satisfy all your decoupaging impulses. (I see on the web site that its inventor derived the name from the phrase "modern decoupage." Aha! Obvious as it now is, I would never have guessed.) I learned of it several years ago when our friend Suzanne sent us an invitation to a party in the form of this decoupaged Altoids tin. (For the record, it still contains its original mints, rattling around inside. I never did like Altoids much. They are, curiously, too strong.)

Suzanne recommends the matte-finish Podge, and after experimenting with the gloss as well as outdoor finishes, I have to concur. I find the glossy variety retains its tackiness even after it dries, and the texture of the brushstrokes once dried aren't as smooth and puddingy and painterly. I don't know, maybe I'm doing something wrong - I see a blogger by the name of Disgruntled Housewife disagrees.


Anyway, I don't care, I'm sold on the matte finish now. There was a review of the re-released movie "Double Life of Veronique" in the New Yorker recently, and while the accompanying illustration didn't look much like Irene Jacob to me, it did remind me a bit of Suzanne, and so, following her Mod Podge instructions, I made this post card for her.

A few unread New Yorker issues, an Anthropologie catalog or two, and a pot of Mod Podge, and you, too, could be making such masterpieces.