Background Technique – Old paint layers

One of the things that make me swoon and inspire me to create are old buildings and signs with layer after layer of paint peeling away to show other colours underneath. With nothing but some acrylic paints, water and sandpaper we’ll create a well worn, shabby looking background without waiting for years for time to do it’s magic.

Start out by covering your background surface with one or two colours of acrylic paint. I’m working on a pre-cut ATC base by Scrapware.

You don’t need to be precious about how you apply the paint, just slap it on quickly – if you leave it thick it will take longer to dry, so because I’m impatient, I usually work with lots of thin layers. To start with I used a bright yellow and pink…

Once that’s dry, grab your next colour and give it another coat, not going quite all the way to the edges this time. I’ve used a watered down orange…

Then another quick coat of bright green…

See that little bit of crackle detail? An accidental product of impatience by heating the paint with an embossing gun to dry it quicker. We’ll go into crackle effects in another tutorial.

Once that’s all dry, add another colour. (Teal in this case) I applied this layer a little thicker than the others, and again, not quite all the way to the edges.

Extra tip – Uneven coats of paint create great textural effects. When an uneven coat of paint is partially dry, flip your card over onto a clean piece of paper. The not-quite-dry paint that was applied thicker should lift away in places revealing some of the colours from underneath.
This step isn’t essential for the technique, but can be fun to play around with.

Once the teal is dry, another coat of pink (which looks purple because of the teal underneath) goes on smoothly. Give it a few seconds to dry a little, then flick the painted surface with water. I like to do a series of small flicks from a paintbrush first, and then one medium sized ‘puddle’. Use a babywipe or paper towel in a dabbing motion to soak up the water (and wet paint). This will allow the colour to show through from underneath.

Once the last layer of paint is mostly dry, grab your sandpaper and sand through the layers of paint so that the underlying colours show through. It can be easier on your arms if you dampen either the painted surface or the sandpaper first, then you’ll need less pressure to get the paint up.

Now you’ll have a shabby, colourful, worn looking background ready to create on.

I used mine for this month’s ATC swap. The theme for November 09 is ‘layers & texture’.
If you’d like to join in, you can get all the details by looking here. I’ll upload the swaps and my creations at the beginning of December.