Tando Creative: Mixed Media Boards

Friday 19 November 2021

Mixed Media Boards - by Zoë Sanderson

Hi, You will have heard this before and doubtless will again. Tando Grey Board will take just about anything you throw at it. Which is what happened this time.

I really enjoy experimenting with different mediums finding new ways to use them. Tando mixed media boards are a great surface to work on. Playing with Mixed Media offers so many ideas and opportunities it can be a battle sometimes to edit them down into a cohesive piece. Another reason to use this little Tando Mixed Media boards big enough to work on but small enough to restrict the number techniques used.

Here are three boards that I've recently thrown all sorts of paints, pastes, glue and things at. First they were all given a base coat of white gesso.

First the Blue Birds. This board had a range of Distress Inks blended over with the lightest colours in the middle working out to darker shades around the edge. Then water hand splattered over it. My favourite world is Laugh and it is on an old stencil, tried to use it here with DecoArt Crackle Paste, but this did not work out so well, tried it again with Cosmic Shimmer Lava Paste. This paste sucks up the colour but only with the parts not expanded by heating. A while ago the waste from a die was saved and then used on another project as masks. Those pieces we then added to this project using mat gel medium as the adhesive.

As birds were to be the common theme with these boards Whimsical Birds provided the pair for this board. These birds are great fun as you get various bodies different sets of eyes as well as wings and legs. You get to decide how your birds will look. Kept things fairly simple this time just painting bases Blue and Yellow then colouring the eyes white and gluing them on.

The next board was an experiment with Brusho's Aquawax. This interesting fluid will take colour with Brusho pigment allowing you to extend these, it will also act as a resist. Having given the base a colour wash various marks were made with a brush and the Aquawax. More paint added then baby wiped over, makes for an interesting mottled background. When dry a Tando Stencil Mish Mash laid over the board and an embossing fixative pushed through, the EP is an old stone effect one from my stash. More of the die waste dropped on randomly.

The birds this time are from the Tando Mini's Owls 2. The owls come in parts that you colour and build up. Once again my Acrylic paints were put to work topped off with gilding wax.

For the third, and final for now, board the Aquawax was put to use again. This time the fluid was tinted with Brusho pigment and then brushed over the entire surface. While it was still wet more Brusho sprinkled over it although a squirt of water was needed to activate the powder.

The stencil this time was Dotstream and a different crackle/embossing paste. This paste also sucked up the colour and left to dry. A section of the board swiped with a pallet knife and some DecoArt Crackle Paste. I wanted to see how the two crackle pastes would interact the glossy paste filled the area between the stencilled dots but that was all. When everything was dry the previously painted Tando Mini's Owls were added.