From new to old with DecoArt

Good afternoon friends.

I thought you may enjoy a little tutorial today on transforming something new to something old?

 This was my starting point. My wife was given these candle holders and though she liked them they didn't go with our house decor and style so she handed them over to me with the instructions "do something with these for me please!" So I did......the first thing was to cover everything with a coat of gesso to get rid of the smooth surface and to give some "tooth" for the paint.

 When that had dried I then took DecoArt Americana Deep Midnight blue and painted everything. If you miss bits it's no biggie as there is more paint to come.

 Once everything is covered I then added DecoArt Traditions Transparent Red Oxide to the mix and dabbed it over randomly. The trick is not to cover everything so aim for all the white bits and some of the blue.

 Once you've added that, then repeat the process with Americana Raw Umber. The key is to dab with your brush rather than brush it on and don't overload the brush with paint. Once you've done that, set it aside to dry which will then give you this finish.

 I liked this effect but felt it was a little too dark for me still so I popped some Americana Raw Umber and some Americana Slate Grey onto my craft sheet and mixed them together to give me a pretty "muddy" grey and brushed that over the whole thing, again, don't overload your paint brush, less is more. Once that was done I used a wet wipe to remove a lot of the surface colour to reveal the underneath. The end result is this...

 Two gorgeous "Vintage Shabby" aged candle holders. You'd pay good money for these in one of those fancy interior shops and all it takes is a bit of paint and time and it's enjoyable too. I love the way the last layer lightens everything up, keeps the aged feel and you can still see the darker tones underneath, giving a lovely depth of tone!

Hope you are inspired to give it a go. If you are, this is what you need....

Your object, which can be anything, though I think that things with lots of details like these work really well.

DecoArt products :
Gesso
Americana Acrylic - Deep Midnight Blue, Raw Umber and Slate Grey
Americana Traditions - Transparent Red Oxide

Other products :
 Paint brush (Stiff bristle works best)
Wet wipe.

Hope you all have a good afternoon.