Wanderlust: Altered picture frame and coasters

Last week's Wanderlust lesson came from Andy Skinner! I was really looking forward to this lesson - in fact it was one of the deciding factors for me to sign up for this mixed media course. I love Andy's grungy, weathered, rusty projects and his lesson didn't disappoint!

He showed us how to texturize and colour a box frame and make it look yummy! His method included stamping into moulding paste to create a lovely surface texture. It took me a quite a few attempts to get this right. I think the key is to use only a thin layer of texture paste and wait until it reaches just the right level of dryness - when it's already dry on top, but still mouldable underneath. It's not as easy as it sounds - very much a matter of trial and error.

Once the texture paste had set, the colouring was a fun process and luckily, I had all the colours Andy recommended: prussian blue, paynes gray, transparent yellow iron oxide and quinacridone gold. I think these colours - especially the quin gold - are crucial to achieving that rusty look. I didn't have the right kind of crackle paste to complete the process, but I'm quite happy with my interim results and pronounce them ready for now!

I alerted two bog standard chipboard coasters and a cheapo picture frame to experiment with. I messed up the stampin on the picture frame, so I just reverted to the usual stencil+texture paste method on that one, but the coasters are stamped. The good thing about the picture frame is that I can slide the backing sheet of an A4 watercolour pad in it and it fits perfectly. For now, I'll just show you the empty frame.

And here are a few shots of the coasters using the stamping method:

I'll get some crackle paste and finish them later, though I quite like how they look already. If I could seal them with some sort waterproof, non-stick varnish, I could even used them as coasters on my desk.