Today I wanted to share with you how I altered an inexpensive clip board and added a vintage illustration to make a decorative wall art piece. Altering clip boards is all the rage right now. They have that vintage feel and really dress up any altering or art you add to them. I wanted to keep mine simple and when I found illustrations from a 1921 German agricultural textbook, I knew they would work perfectly. I like sets of three, so I made them from different prints and different backgrounds.
- I started by staining the drab silver clip with Alcohol Inks. I did this first so that I would not spill the ink on my finished piece (which I have done before). I just taped off the board to keep over-spills to a minimum.
- Next I painted the board white (I used up some old white paint, but white gesso would work too). I also painted the edges of the back of the board white. Depending on how you are altering the board, you may not have to pre-paint it white. But I wanted a really crisp white background so that the tissue paper I use next would stand out and be a nice contrast to the print.
3. Once the paint dried, I decoupaged on some of Tim Holtz tissue paper, using a different background for each of the three prints I did. I made sure to have enough to overlap a bit on the back edges of the board. I prefer to have both sides of my art pieces to looked finished if I can. I stained the edges with Vintage Photo Ranger Distress Ink. I love the weathered aged look that distressing the edges with brown stain creates.
4. I created a background layer of green card stock for the illustration to go on. The edges were torn and inked to give it a distressed look. To adhere the illustration to the board I used gel medium.
4. To finish the back of the board, I cut a piece of card stock so that the tissue edges could still be seen. I wanted to share a little history of where the illustrations came from, so I wrote a little note to explain. I also photocopied the inside cover of the German agricultural textbook to give it some authenticity.
5. Here are the three finished pieces. All different, but I think they coordinate nicely. Bye for now…
