TILE MOSAIC PROJECTS

Since Katy gave us a set of coasters she'd made from tiles for Christmas, I keep getting ideas for things to do with plain white tiles. I printed out some of my paintings, put them on tiles with mat medium, and sprayed them with acrylic to seal them. The second picture is an example of some I've done. You might recognize some of the paintings.

The first painting I printed out as a 5 x 7 picture, cut into small squares, and with mat medium, I applied the squares to a piece of watercolor paper that had an ugly painting underneath. I wanted to see what would happen if I printed out a large painting, cut into 3 5/8 inch squares, and applied those to white 4" tiles. I am seriously thinking of trying that, now that I see how it might look.

Problems: When I print on plain paper, sometimes the ink smears when I put a layer of mat medium over it. (It doesn't smear on the layer that I use to glue it to the tile.) This is fine for soft edged things, like the birds. But on some paintings, especially those with white backgrounds, it is too obviously a smear. This smear problem doesn't exist with, say, magazine pages. Just those I've printed on plain paper in my printer.

Problem #2: How can I put the overcoat of mat medium on without the paintbrush strokes showing? I have tried buffing them out when they are dry with a piece of steel wool....too much work, and not too effective. I haven't tried rolling with a breyer yet because I am afraid of smearing the ink more.