dear arwenmh I wish it was as simple as described above. All kinds of paper are not good for decoupage. You need either very good quality of paper napkin or special decoupage paper. In case of napkin you need to pill off the extra layers and keep only the layer with the design. Then you need a surface that can me wood (preferably without pores that is a treated wood) or glass. There are everywhere glass transparent plates with very smooth surface on the back of the plate. You need now special glue for decoupage. It looks milky but it becomes transparent when it dries. You brush the surface you decided to decoupage with an even not thick layer of tha glue and you need very careful fingers to spread on it the napkin and use a dry brush to remove the airbubles brushing softly from the center to the edges. It's not easy and it needs practice. After it has almost dried you need to seal it with more layers of glue on the top of the napkin. You can use also various pieces of napking to make up your own scene but in order to practice it may be better to start with one piece of napkin. I dont promise you when but I will try to film and upload a sample for you. This is decoupage.......have fun.

You mix glue and water and "paint" over the paper and the surface you're applying it to.

Decoupage is where you, yes..cut paper with scossors...but then you glue the paper together onto a surface making sort of a huge collage of different pictures.

It's découpage, or paper cutting. You take scissors and paper, and you cut the paper with the scissors.