Grungeboard-Not Just for Distressing

I have seen my friends, Jeanne and Sherry use Tim Holtz’s Grungeboard on several wonderful projects but haven’t tried it myself.  Sherry uses it to create wonderful distressed cards and journals and I love how they turn out.  I just had to get some and try my hand with it.  I doubt Tim Holtz had scenery in mind when he created this product but I decided it would be fun to give it a whirl. First, I stamped the Rubbernecker Safari elephant head on a small corner of plain Grungeboard with Versafine black ink.  Hey….it stamps OK.  I tested cutting it with my scissors to see if I could cut out an image easily or if it would be difficult.  Cutting with scissors works great. Everything with the Grungeboard seemed easy to do so I decided to go full force and create a scene. 

I stamped the elephant on a piece of watercolor paper with the Versafine.  I painted with Adirondack Slate reinker to match the grey of the Grungeboard.  I painted the head of the elephant lightly with the reinker as well just to make the two match.  I sponged color around the base of the card and used my fern stamp to add some background texture. I sponged the sky with yellow and blue. I cut two strips of Grungeboard with my deckle scissors to create layers of jungle grass.  I cut lots of weed type sprigs along the top of both layers and cut chunks out of the pieces to look uneven and wild.  I took my brand new Tim Holtz Texture hammer and pounded the layers to add some dimension and then painted with a Lettus Acrylic Dabber. I heated the paint to dry it and then ran Distress Vintage Photo ink pad across the layers to add a little depth and "dirt". Wow!  This grass turned out great.  I wonder how leaves would turn out with Grungeboard? I used a daisy foliage leaf from the Rubbernecker Flower Collection, dabbed the Lettus dabber directly on the image and stamped several on the Grungeboard. I used a little of the acrylic paint mixed with water to paint the leaves, dried them with my heat gun and cut them out. I stamped many more leaves on the watercolor paper with the Lettus acrylic paint as I wanted to create a large growth of what is commonly known in the south as "elephant ears".  I wanted the elephant to be in a large patch of greenery snacking away. I layered my leaves on the scene with dimensional and glue dots. I decided I wanted the ivory tusks to pop in this scene as they were muted and didn’t show that well.  I painted then with vanilla craft ink and embossed with vanilla embossing powder. I used dimensional to attach the head to the scene and love the way the trunk and ears look alive and dimensional like the leaves. I created shine to the leaves and grass springs by layering them with Diamond Glaze.  The leaves really came alive.  I added a touch to the tusks and the elephant eye as well. I attached the base grass layers and felt it was a little to much green along the base of the scene with not much interest so I created a snake skin looking piece to add to the bottom and to pull out the brown layer used under the watercolor paper.  I really love how this turned out.  I feel like I could walk right into the elephant ears and touch the big elephant.

I took a couple of closeup photos of the leaves and grass made with the grungeboard. It cuts so easily and paints easily, too. 

You can watch a great YouTube presentation by Tim Holtz on Grungeboard basis by clicking here.

Stamps:  Rubbernecker Safari and Flower Collection, Watercolor Minis

Paper:  Olive, Chocolate Chip, Watercolor

Ink:  Versafine Black, Distress Vintage Photo, Shabby Shutters, Scattered Straw, Adirondack Slate,Cloudy Blue, Craft Vanilla

Accessories:  Tim Holtz Grungeboard and Texture Hammer, Diamond Glaze, Vanilla Embossing Powder, Sponge Dabuers, Adirondack Acrylic Paint Dabber, Snips, Heat Gun, Dimensionals, Glue Dots, Cuttlebug, Deckle Scissors