Finally, the medallion tutorial

Remember this medallion?

 I think I promised to show you how I did it weeks ago. Then life just got crazy

(a new grand baby,  away helping with new grandbaby, 2 new staging jobs, a project at church, hubby broke his leg, a baby shower at our home for new grand baby, hubby's 98 yr old granny passed away....)  I'm sure you get the picture. "Life" has been happening around here. 

All that to say, here I am finally getting around to the tutorial.

      I picked up this grecian looking medallion at Lowe's

I knew that I wanted to do something different than the "norm" with it. Often times they are finished to look like plaster work or left as is. I wanted it to look more like the chandelier, to fit the style of our dining room which is more traditional.

So I took some of my favorite paints:

Oil rubbed bronze spray paint, Folk Art acrylic paints in burnt umber and antique gold and my favorite foam brush and stencil brush.

Here's where it gets tricky, meaning I have no "during pictures" so I will do my best with a good description from here.

I took the medallion and sprayed it all over with oil rubbed bronze paint.

After letting it dry for about 10 minutes (cuz I just couldn't wait) I took my stencil brush and dipped it into the antique gold paint and stippled it all over the medallion. I then took the cloth and wiped it off leaving only the gold in the cracks and crevices. I  excitedly took it out to the dining room and held it up to the chandy and ... I didn't like it. It just wasn't quite the best match. Since I am a bit of a perfectionist, I had to keep working to get it right.... enter burnt umber folk art paint. I tried stippling that into the cracks and crevices but ... didn't like that either... so I combined the two colors as shown here the antique gold mixed with the burnt umber

to get the color on the right

I used the foam brush and brushed it over the entire medallion and wiped it off with the cloth leaving the new color in all of the cracks and the end result....Perfection ( at least to me : )

I just love how it turned out! Though it sounds like it was a lengthy process, it took maybe a half an hour from start to finish.

I just kept thinking while I was experimenting to get the color right, that the worst that could happen was I would have to repaint with oil rubbed bronze and start all over. This thought helped me lose the fear of "messing it up" and just be creative. So I guess that is the lesson today... 

Where there is fear, there is no creativity!!

                         

Linking up to Metamorphasis Monday over at between naps on the porch and to sunday showcase party at "under the table and dreaming"