poor man's marquetry: or: cheap and easy wood stain

Step 6 Coat it with a finish

If you try prismacolor pens, shellac acts like paint thinner on the prismacolor marker ink and tends to blend out any stroke marks created by the pen.

I like the warming effect the shellac has on the color. There are other finishes that won't add a color cast. I was thinking of trying acrylic floor polish maybe.

Paint the bottom of the thing first. The shellac will cause the ink to come up, so put down some paper first. Then turn it over and shellac the other side.

The hard part for me is getting the shellac on evenly. I don't seem to have the hang of that yet. Also, it's pretty smelly stuff. I might prefer to use some sort of spray on finish, but then, that costs quite a bit more.