Art Trash Mixed Media Plaque - Tutorial

Hi,

Here's the tutorial for Art Trash. I forgot to take photos at every stage, so there will be parts missing, so please bear with my explanations. Hopefully, it will make some semblance of sense.

Art Trash

Part One - Prepping the Wood

The first part of the project was to prep and finish the wood plank itself. At this point, I still wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do to it, but I knew I wanted to give it this weather-worn look.

1. Prep the board by sanding down any sharp edges or splinters.
2. Paint on a couple of layers of gesso. Let dry.

3. Paint on a nice, thick layer of crackle medium. Let dry. Best to let this dry naturally to get the best crackles.

4. After the crackles appear and set, blot on distress stains and inks, buffing as you go so the inks will seep into the cracks. A lot of the colour will rub off as you go, so you may have to add lots to get the effect you want.

5. Add a bit more distress inks to the edges and corners. I buffed on Walnut Stain to it more definition.

Part Two - Decorating your Surface

Here comes the fun part. Decorating your burgeoning piece of art. Sorry I don't have photos for steps 6-8.

6.  Cut a piece of gauze a little larger than the plank. Stretch and tear it before sticking it to the surface with strong glue.

7. Cut pieces of burlap and layer that on top in random areas.

8. In other areas, I glued on pieces of corrugated cardboard. All three of these elements act as my base for all the 'junk' to sit on.

 9. Now it's time to raid your stash and bring out all those little trinkets, flowers and other bits and bobs that you won't be using anymore. For this part, I basically just started sticking things down willy-nilly - no real thought process went into this on placement. I did leave a space for a title, where I used some different fonts and textures.  I actually quite liked it like this and debated leaving it as is, but, I had more planned.

 10. Get out your gesso again and start painting it on. You may need more than one coat to cover up some surfaces, especially metals and plastics. Let dry.

11. For this next step, I recommend using acrylic paints rather than sprays - it just sticks better. I used Luminarte Silks Acrylic Glaze. I just love the colours and how well it goes on. So smooth, like silk. (even I cringed at that one). Make sure you get the paint into all the nooks and crannies to cover up the white gesso. Pretty bright at this stage. Let dry.

12. Using black spray ink (I used Dylusions), spritz over all the colour, darker in some places and lighter in others. It will look pretty dark, but don't worry. Once it dries, it will lighten in colour and you will be able to see some of the paint colours come through. Again, let this dry.

13. For the last stage, I used my finger to rub in a little iridescent bronze acrylic paint on the tips and edges of the trinkets to highlight each piece and to add definition. It really makes everything pop.

Products Used

Gesso by Golden

Clear Rock Candy Distress Crackle Paint from Tim Holtz for Ranger Inks

Distress Stains in Peeled Paint, Vintage Photo and Broken China from Tim Holtz for Ranger Inks

Distress Inks in Walnut Stain and Vintage Photo from Tim Holtz for Ranger Inks

Acrylic Glaze in Honey Amber, Pink Azalea, Teal Zircon, Ginger Peach and Sky Blue from Luminarte Silks

Black Marble Spray Ink by Dylusions for Ranger Inks

Iridescent Bronze Acrylic Paint by Golden

I'm quite happy with it the way it is, but I also want to be able to hang it up, so I'll be getting some screw eye hooks and chain to do that.

There you go. I was able to get rid of some of the stuff lurking at the bottom of my stash drawers and make something cool.

Thanks for dropping by and hope you'll give it a go too.

One's Trash, Is Another One's Art

Hi there,

A few weeks ago, we were given a piece or two of old wood planks by Belly of HKMC and told to do whatever we wanted with it. What an out-of-the-box, but interesting thing to do. After I finished scratching my head on what she meant, I started to think. It's supposed to be an upcycle project of some sort, so why not put a lot of old stash items that haven't seen daylight for a long, long time? Make it look really old and weather worn. This project is also inspired by the talented Anna Dabrowska aka Finnabair, who does the most amazing art pieces.

'Art Trash' Mixed Media Upcycle Project

We were given a blank wooden plank like the one behind my project. The one I used measures 28cm x 10cm (11" x 4")

 Here's the back of the board, which I distressed with lots of crackle medium, inks and paints

 I really like the different fonts and textures of the title.

Can you spot the owl? The zip was from one of Miss C's hoodies which broke, so I had that in my stash.

Lots of flowers I don't use and buttons that have been gathering dust were all thrown in.

Can you spot an ink nib?

In the end, I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. There were a few instances where I wasn't quite sure how it would look, but I really love it the more I look at it. I still need to add some hooks and chain to turn it into a hanging plaque, and that, unfortunately, is not in my stash, so I'll have to go find that on Monday.

My next post, I'll be posting a tutorial on how I did this. I did miss out on photographing a few stages, but hopefully, I'll be able to explain the techniques I used.

Thanks for looking,