31 Days of Things I've Been Wanting to Do, Day 25: Paint Technique

I read a 'how-to' blog on a distressing painting technique and fell in love with the layers of colors used and how she managed to make something new look so old.

Here's my finished project.....

What You'll Need:
Paint (Any combination of colors you like. I used white, pink and yellow.)
Paint Brush
An object to be painted (I used a wood letter 'R')
Sand Paper (I found the 'bar' type, shown in the picture below, worked better than the paper type)

And the most interesting thing you'll need.... soap!

(And yes, I pulled this out of the shower instead of wasting a newly opened bar!)

Here's How:
1. Paint your object the first layer of color and let it dry completely. (My letter R was already white so I got to skip this step.)

2. Rub the bar of soap after the first layer is dry. You'll want to rub the soap in the areas you want the 'distressed' to be. I was unsure of how it would turn out, so I soaped the whole thing the first time. Make sure you get a nice think layer- but don't leave chunks of soap behind!

3. Paint the second color. Yep, paint right over the soap. My second coat was pink. Let that dry completely.

4. Now the fun begins. :) Sand in the areas that you know soap is under your second color (pink). The second color (pink) should come off and reveal the first layer of color (white). Then back to soaping. (Soap the areas you didn't just sand)

5. Next, paint your third color (yellow) on the new soap layer, avoiding the areas you have already sanded. Let it dry.

(I ended up doing a second coat of yellow because it went on streaky and I didn't want that look.)

6. Last time sanding. It should remove the third layer (yellow), revealing your second color (pink).

7. Finished.. okay, not quite. I wasn't crazy about the big white spots. So, I painted some more yellow over them...
Then I put brown paint on a damp washcloth and wiped the edges to give it just an extra touch of 'old'...

And wha-la!!!

Fun way to distress don't you think?

It's fun to see things you love and think "I could do that!" Well, I just proved that you can do it! The best part of this project, there really is no wrong way to do it. It's not supposed to be perfect. If you like it, then it turned out good!



I found the idea here. Check out how her letter turned out!