Now you'll have a nice elevated piece to add spice to your games. Remember to keep the scraps. The scraps can be glued to the bottoms of other terrain pieces so they don't scrape on tables and such, and it prevents them from sliding so badly. Bigger and Better Terrain One you commit to spending a little money, you'd be surprised how cheaply you can make some nice pieces. Start thinking about what you want to make, and then what to make it from.
Basic painting is fairly cheap as there are many easy things to do.
I'll cover your painting options first, then we'll get back to building things. One of the basic rules of painting is prime the object first. This is basically a first layer of a paint. I recommend white, black, grey and brown. An easy time saver is to prime the object using the color that the object should be.