This is a continuation of yesterday’s post on making a paper mosaic from leftover Christmas card pieces, which you’ll have plenty of once you’ve done some of the other Christmas card projects on Old Father Christmas (Christmas Card Door Hanger, Pyramidal Christmas Trees, Woven Ornaments, 20-sided Sphere Ornaments). Yesterday, I said that my choice of illustration board as a background for the mosaic was a big MISTAKE! Let me explain now: after I had painted the illustration board with a mixture of acrylic and gesso and left it to dry, it curled up and would not uncurl. I should have primed the board with something first, but who wants to go to that trouble? So I grabbed a canvas art board (which is pre-primed) and started over. I wasn’t happy with the color of green anyway. So this time around I mixed gold acrylic paint with black gesso on the canvas board (for a not completely mixed effect). This was a much richer and inviting looking surface.

With a new surface to work on, I set about transferring the basic pattern of tiles that I had worked on the day before over to the acrylic-coated canvas board; one piece at a time. Each tile was secured in place by a small amount of Elmer’s glue (which, if you make a mistake, it not that hard to remove from the acrylic surface - I only had to do this once though). Once the basic pattern was in, then came the time consuming task of filling in the rest of the spaces. I used scissors, an exacto knife and my squarish punch to create custom fitting tiles to fill the space. If you look at my design below, you can see that I included many irregular-shaped cutouts and circles. The more of these you add, the more custom tiles you’ll have to cut to fit around them.

So, here it is (or view a large version):

Even though the design is finished, I would not consider the project finished until it was sealed somehow. I have not yet decided if I am going to use Mod Podge, gloss clear coat (as is used on faux-tile projects), or several layers of varnish. When I get to it I may post again with the finished project . . . UPDATE! I decided to go with Mod Podge for a sealer-coat. I poured it on and used a foam brush to spread it evenly over the surface:

It took overnight for it to dry completely, but it dried clear and well-sealed:

I plan to put an epoxy clear coat over this to make it look like tile, but that is for another post . . . Hope you enjoyed this.

Update: Read about finishing with an epoxy resin!