I used post cards & mod podge on a table top. some ends are curling & can feel the edge thickness.. help?

Question

I used post cards & mod podge on a table top. some ends are curling & can feel the edge thickness.. help?

Answer 1

You need to put on several more coats of the decoupage medium, letting them thorougly dry between coats.  You can also use varnish or laquer.  It may well take six to twelve coats to get the right depth.That will build it up to over the thickness of the postcards, and prevent them from curling up. It will also help protect the tabletop.

Answer 2

As mentioned, you just didn't use enough coats of the decoupage medium.  

Before you add more coats, since you said the curling areas are on the *edge* of the table instead of just on the top, I'd suggest you first sand down the edges of the postcards where they're curling (you can just use ordinary sandpaper... perhaps beginning with a coarse grit like 220, or starting with 400 if only a little sanding is needed --don't worry that this will make it look "white-ish"...wipe that down to remove any loose powder, etc, then when you add more decoupage medium, it'll turn clear again).

That should make any further coats able to be applied over a fairly even surface, rather than having to fill in all the lower areas around the raised postcard edges in the normal way.  

If you decoupage thick items like postcards again, try to pull off just the top layer to make them thinner (or you can instead photocopy them, or print them out on an inkjet printer but then you'll need to use a spray acrylic sealer on them before the decoupage medium to avoid bleeding).

P.S. If you had used a 2-part epoxy resin instead of the decoupage medium (or a polyurethane, etc), it's very thick so needs only one "coat" or pouring.   This type of resin is also known as "bartop" resin --you may have seen examples of it used on bartops.  

If you ever do want to try epoxy resin, you can buy large containers of itn fairly inexpensively at HomeDepot, for example, where one brand is Glaze Coat (by Famowood, Eclectic)... or you can buy smaller amounts of it at craft and hobby stores (brands would be Envirotex Lite, Ultra Glo, etc --but not Cast 'N Craft which is a different type of 2 pt resin and wouldn't work well for this).

HTH,

Diane B.