My First Masterboard–Circles and Swirls

Long post, picture rich!

For some time now I have been fascinated by Angela’s masterboards. At first I had no idea what they were, but reading her posts, I learnt that a masterboard is a large sheet of paper or card covered with layers of inking, stamping, stencilling, etc. etc., forming a background sheet that can then be cut up and used for projects. I think this is a totally brilliant idea – why buy expensive papers when you can create your own? You can tailor the design to suit your particular projects, and all the while, practise different techniques and explore different colour combinations. It doesn’t matter if “mistakes” occur (is there such a thing as a mistake in this sort of work? I’ve read that in mixed media, there are no mistakes, only more layers!!) – they can be covered up with more embellishment, or strategically placed on the project where they are going to be covered up with something else.

I have a large pack of A3 paper – not brilliant quality, just your basic office paper. Since I am going to be using mostly distress inks to start with, and the work isn’t going to get terribly wet, I thought this would be good enough at least for now.

My first masterboard was made with my recycled mini-album in view, and I hoped to make a nice dark grungey brown one, but it took a great deal of work to get there, and on the way, a lot of the effects I added were obliterated by subsequent layers. However, this was a learning curve for me; looking back, I think I would have done well to stop about half way through as I’d got a really nice masterboard, which could have been used for other purposes! For the album, I would have done better to use darker paper to start with, but you live and learn.

Here are some of the materials I used. I also used clear embossing powder as a resist.

Nearly out of shot to the right is my sepia archival ink which should have been in the photo. At the back you can see some of the distress inks used, and a roll of baking parchment for ironing off the embossing resist. At the end of the project I also used distress stains.

Unfortunately I didn’t remember to take any photos until I’d got fairly well on with it, and have grabbed a few frames from the video I made of the first half of the project.

I began by inking all over the sheet with a mixture of Old Paper and Antique Linen distress inks, blending them well with my Inkylicious Ink Dusters.

At this point, I stamped with a text stamp from Creative Expressions (Umount “Textures” set):

using Pumice Stone distress ink, but as the project progressed, this stamping was obliterated. I did not use an acrylic block with this stamp as I wanted a rough, less than perfect result. This is a great technique I learnt fairly recently on Youtube.

After this, I added further distress ink in Dried Marigold.

I then used a small swirl stamp (CFLR 0211 from The Stamp Barn) to apply Versamark, and added clear embossing powder.Once this had been heated, it acted as a resist to further inking.

Once this was done, I inked over the swirls resist with Aged Mahogany distress ink, and wiped the ink off the resist with some kitchen paper.

Then I inked through some sequin waste with Tea Dye distress ink, but again, most of this subsequently got obliterated by further layers being added.

It was at this stage that I think I could have stopped, but I was determined to get it good and grungey for my album. Further inking and clear embossing resist followed, the latter being done with my large bubble wrap stamping block – I made this from a wooden stamp block that I’d removed the rubber stamp from, in order to use it unmounted, and I glued a piece of bubble wrap onto the block.

Unfortunately the circles it generated were larger than I really wanted – I would have done better to use my small bubble wrap block.

I emphasised the circles with more distress ink, this time in Vintage Photo.

Because the circles were so big, the sheet ended up with a very plasticky feel with all the clear embossing on it, and if I was going to add any further interest to the lighter-coloured circles, this would have to go.

It took me quite a while, but I managed to iron off most of the embossing, by placing the sheet face-down onto another sheet and sandwiching the whole thing between non-stick baking parchment and applying a hot iron.

I tried to keep the blotting-off sheet lined up with the masterboard as much as possible and avoided moving it, so that the transferred embossing might make a useable pattern on the second sheet. I have done this before – the definition is not as clear, but the results can be quite interesting, and it acts as a resist as before.

I had to use a second sheet just to mop up any remaining embossing, and while this did not leave such a clear pattern, it has made some interesting marks that may respond well to further inking. I wasn’t so careful about keeping it in one place so the effect is more random, especially as much of the embossing had already been removed onto the first sheet.

Here is the masterboard at this stage, just after the removal of the embossing.

The paper has a soft, slightly waxy feel to it. I hoped I had removed sufficient embossing to allow further inking. Like waxed paper, it behaves differently when viewed with a light behind, and this is what it looks like:

The colour has completely disappeared from the embossed parts!

The blotting off sheets appear very different when viewed with a light behind, too.

You can see that whereas the circles appear dark on the normal view, and the untreated paper appears white, in the second picture this is reversed.

As far as the main sheet is concerned, I re-stamped the script background, but it didn’t show up sufficiently, and nor did an attempt at stencilling with first Black Soot Distress Ink and then black archival ink – not a great success! The masterboard still wasn’t dark and grungey enough to be used in my mini-album so I had to get drastic with it.

First of all, I inked it all over with Dusty Concord Distress Ink, using an Inkylicious Ink Duster. Sometimes purple will dull down whatever’s underneath, and while this did have that effect to a slight degree, it wasn’t enough. Time to unleash the Distress Stains. I went over the whole thing with Pumice Stone but again, although it dulled it down a little, it was still not dark enough, so I used Gathered Twigs all over, and blotted it with a piece of kitchen paper to reduce the streaks, and then added Dusty Concord on the large circles. I blotted them a bit, and then did a splat on the circles with the Dusty Concord and dried it with my heat gun (it took ages). I then re-splatted most of the circles and left it to dry. This is the final result.

It is now really quite dark and grungey, and definitely useable for the mini-album. What a sweat, though, getting it to this stage!!

I am having great success with the blotting off sheets, and shall do a blog post about those in due course.

Video to follow.

Outing to Dawlish

We are both so busy at the moment with our impending house move and there’s always something needing doing, but the weather was so lovely today that after lunch my hubby said, “Do you want to go out?” We decided to let all the work go hang for an afternoon, and set off to the seaside, ending up in Dawlish, where I took some of my best seaside photos a while back – that time was a mid-winter visit – really my favourite time to visit the sea.

Armed with my camera, we set forth and I got some more photos of nice old boats and ropes and grungey rust – I was in my element!

Wonderful encrustations of rust. The rust had even stained the stones underneath the metal railings. Also, I love the heavy duty wire netting holding the stones in place beside the railway.

The rust in the next picture reminds me of a contour map. Look at those gorgeous colours…

Boat decay… The underside of this upturned boat was worn away and you could see the layers of colour of the different paint layers it had received over the years.

Boat lines. Again, I love how the red paint has worn away.

Boat stacks. I love the faded colours – the once bright paint has weathered down to subtle shades as a result of exposure to salt, sun and wind.

The subtly coloured brick wall is a perfect foil for the lobster pots.

One of my favourite shots from today – ropes and floats.

Giant lobster pot. I love the rings around the top, made from bits of old tyre.

Lobster pots en masse. Gorgeous subtle shades, and lots of texture.

A mist of fishing net. I love how the faded turquoise floats are partially covered with the layers of net.

Fishing net ropes. Lovely textures and subtle shades again.

This heap of boat pennants, floats and ropes reminds me of part of a stage set for the American Civil War… battle pennants and canon balls!

More delicious rust. I love how the rust interacts with the remnants of paint, and how the surface has bubbled up, revealing more layers of rust beneath.

Steampunk decay. Fabulous heavy gearwheels and flaking rust. (I think I’m a rust junkie…)

Rust acne? Eruptions of rust!

Even the landscape in Dawlish is rusty. It is surrounded by red sandstone cliffs and the railway tunnels its way through. I love the strata and the weathered shapes, and the texture of the larger stones in amongst the layers.

Out of this barren rock, amazing to find small plants appearing to thrive! In this picture, I also love the pebbles embedded in concrete – the decaying remnants of some man-made structure.

In a world of entropy and decay, beauty is all around us. Even things falling into decay and oblivion can be beautiful, if we only open our eyes and look.

A life on the ocean wave – and a life on the edge!

I love the beautiful lines of this boat – irresistible.

Returning to the car, along the sea front wall beside the railway, as the sea made the sound of thunder as it collided with the undercut of the sea wall, the afternoon sun cast interesting shadows.

What I love about the seaside is not sun and sand and bathing, and all the conventional things people love about it, but the juxtaposition of the man-made and the natural, and the effects of natural forces of erosion, wind, water and salt on everything. The colours become muted and outlines become softened. Objects are redolent of earlier industry which is also now decaying and in decline – there’s a nostalgia about it all, and visions of personal struggle against the elements in boat, net, pot and winch. Most people observing these things tend to think they are old and ugly, if they even notice them at all.

Steampunk Clock Face

Today I worked on some clock face pieces to embellish my steampunk mirror. I made some out of shrink plastic (not photographed yet) which came out quite small – with the shrink plastic only being 8 inches wide, you are limited as to how large you can make things. I wanted some clock face pieces which were quite large, and which would blend in with the rusty background of the frame, between which I could adhere my various gears, screw heads, clock hands, etc.

I decided to make a clock face from chipboard (I used the back of an old cereal packet) and cut this on Jiminy Cricut, at 8 inches in diameter, and then proceeded to colour and distress it.

I’ve been longing to try my new Tim Holtz Distress Stains that I got at the craft show recently, and also the Distress Embossing Powders – I have already tried the Black Soot one with my shrink plastic gear wheels, but today I wanted to use the other one I’ve got, which is Vintage Photo.

The first step was to coat the clock face all over with Walnut Stain Distress Stain, and then to daub on Vintage Photo randomly. Finally I daubed on Black Soot randomly, rubbing it off with a paper towel to make it subtle.

Then I stamped it randomly, using three different Tim Holtz grunge stamps, using archival black ink. In this photo, I’ve left the ink on the stamps to show up their design better.

The next step was to add the Vintage Photo Distress Embossing Powder. To apply this, I stamped with another Tim Holtz grunge stamp with Versamark, and then added the embossing powder and zapped it with the heat gun. For this photo, so that the stamp design would show up, I have applied some Black Soot Distress Ink to the stamp.

This distress embossing powder gives a lovely rusty effect. This particular stamp gives just the blotchy, spotted effect I wanted.

To add a bit of shine, I daubed on some Tim Holtz Distress Crackle Paint in Rock Crystal (the clear, colourless one), randomly here and there around the clock face. Unfortunately this doesn’t show up too well on the photo – it’s pretty subtle anyway, and it’s always hard to catch sparkly, shiny or iridescent surfaces on camera.

The clock face is now getting a lovely rusty, weathered look which will go well on my project. The final step was to ink the edges with Tim Holtz Distress Inks, first Vintage Photo, and then a little Black Soot around the edges.

I’ve now got most of the embellishments ready to start working on the frame itself. It is already painted with black gesso and the green acrylic paint mix that I prepared as a verdigris layer.

Today I also rubbed some patina Rub’n Buff onto the Friendly Plastic embellishments I made the other day and this is a pretty close match to my paint mix. Once I’ve finished painting the rust effect onto the frame I can start sticking everything down and adding rust to the clock parts, screw heads, etc. and add a bit of chain and one of the charms I’ve made.

Watch this space! I am also going to do a steampunk mirror with panels of embossed metal with alcohol ink and maybe a bit more rust, and perhaps repeat the idea on my original rust ATC. I like the idea of embossing metal, colouring it with alcohol inks and cutting bits out.