Altered Mounting Board

Yesterday I rummaged through my store of mounting board which I bought many years ago when I thought I might do the framing for my hubby's watercolour paintings. (This proved a lot more difficult, and a lot less fun than I thought, so I didn't pursue it. After all, our creativity is supposed to be Fun, isn't it??) I had thought of giving it all away, but I have been told that it makes a very good firm substrate for all sorts of surface treatment, while being easy to cut, so I thought I'd give it a whirl.

My first attempt is on dark brown, which perhaps wasn't the easiest choice. I decided to use my new Tim Holtz mask (the large swirl) but wanted it in white, so against his advice to throw away the background sheet when you push the mask out for first use, I thought I'd try using it as a stencil. It was rather difficult to get it to lie flat as it was pretty unstable, and I had to rescue one or two "floating" bits to complete the design. I'm not sure I shall do this again, but I've kept the piece just in case.

I went over the stencil with a white acrylic paint dauber from Tim Holtz's range, and was quite pleased with the result. I then spent the rest of the evening messing about trying to get the effect I wanted - with varying degrees of success!

First of all, I chose a few background texture stamps and stamped randomly over the background using Ranger Archival Ink in black. I included the image when I stamped with my "cracked" effect stamp.

I then worked with the felt applicators, building up layers of Distress Inks in various colours.

These are the colours I used:

I added a bit more stamping using the Archival Ink, and finally I sprayed it with DIY glimmer mist made from Perfect Pearls (Perfect Pearl colour) mixed with Wild Honey and Pumice Stone Re-Inkers respectively, and this had the effect of diluting what I'd already done with the Distress Inks, so I went over it again after the Glimmer Mist was dry.

I'm still not entirely satisfied that this is the look that I want. I think it needs more ink.

I'm also not sure what I'm going to do with it. I could keep it uncut, and build up some surface decoration with texture and embellishments, or I could cut it into smaller pieces to make ATCs, which I would then likewise decorate. To do the latter, I have made a small "window" the size of an ATC, cut from a scrap of mounting board, which I can move over the surface of a larger piece, to isolate the piece(s) which look best for an ATC - I can then draw round the window and cut them out.

Any suggestions would be welcome!