Laughngypsy: Easy Background Tutorial for Altered Art or Mixed Media

Easy Background Tutorial

I thought I would share a technique with you that I did on a box I got from the Goodwill. The box reminded me of a box my mother might have had when she was younger, it just looked vintage to me so I picked it up for $1.99.
The first thing I did besides pat myself on the back for a bargain buy was to Gesso the box. I have to say that there are different kinds of Gesso and I recommend the Bob Ross Gesso, it seems to adhere better than the cheap ones and has better "tooth" that which hold the paint on the surface of your project.

Box before Gesso

Box after Gesso, notice its all white and you can still see part of the box pattern? Thats ok because we want a little extra pattern.

This is the inside of the box, I don't know what I am going to do inside but I thought it would make a good trinket box for all the little goodies I pick up.

Next take some regular white tissue paper and rubber stamp all over it with your favorite stamps. I used a mix of different French stamps on mine. I also used stazon jet black ink.

I love the way the stamping came out on the tissue paper. After it dried I then crinkled the tissue paper up some, not to much but enough to give you some good texture on you adhere it.

I tried a new product on this box its Collage Decoupage by Alieens. Just use a little bit so as not to tear the tissue paper and adhere the paper to the box, make sure you get the lip part of the box.

Once it dried (I hate waiting for it to dry, no patience I guess lol) I then took some dabs of Gesso and blotted it on the cover to give it some tooth because some paints and watercolors won't stick to Decoupage.

Now Its time to use one of my favorite tools, water color crayons. These are so fun to play with and mix colors with.Today I am going to use Ocher and Brown. The great thing about water color is you can dilute it to be very transparent or use full strength and have more opaque color.

Just like grade school, scribble over the top cover with the crayons or just paint wherever and how much you like for your project.

Now paint with some water and voila instant color! Awesome, right?

see how intense this color is? Not to worry, I will tone it down later.

Blot off excess water and color and then let dry

this is what it looked like when dry

It was to yellow for me and I also wanted more texture so I lightly painted with picket fence, just enough so when it dried I could add in some distress ink into the cracks for dimension

I chose worn lipstick, just a very light coating. I added more paint and ink here and there until I liked the outcome.

Now I want one of the top and bottom corners to be more white than pink so I added a little distress stain picket fence, it tones down the paint and ink but adds no texture. this i dried with my heat gun.

I didn't add to much and it dries very light even though it looks like I covered it up

This is one of my favorite things to do to my projects. it adds texture and color. you take some versamark watermark ink and just rub here and there on your work. if you get a spot you don't like rub it off with your fingers or a paper towel before you add the embossing powder and heat set. When you have your ink where you want it add the embossing powder, you can add or remove whatever you don't like, just be sure to do it before you heat set it.

This is what mine looked like. I see its kind of square shaped but thats okay I am going to fill up the corners and the middle to tone down some of the gold and make it look more shabby chic I used my snow cap paint dabber, just dabbing here and there until I liked the way it looked.

I also used my favorite tool, my fingers lol to rub in the dabber paint. Now you can use whatever colors you want on your project. I was going for shabby chic with white and pink for my piece.