Antiquing with Colors - Great for Quick Holiday Projects & Money Maker for Crafters

Looking for a great fast finish & festive look for your upcoming holiday pieces? Have lots of gifts to make and not enough time? Try antiquing with Color!  Blues & Teal are beautiful winter colors and applying them as an antique creates a stunning effect in minutes. I used to do many holiday craft shows and had great success with lighted scenes, villages, churches, trees and more painted this way and because they were beautiful and fast to paint, I sold many!  I had several different shade options and they sold like hotcakes!  Especially nice for villages and scenery that could otherwise be tedious and these are very festive and beautiful when lit. 

It's Quick & easy.  
1.  Simply base coat the piece in a light color - white is perfect, but you can branch out and try other pastel shades like light gray, powder blue, etc. and get many different looks. 

2. Paint on your antique and wipe it off with a clean dry rag or soft paper towel like Viva. 

3.  Highlight - If using an oil based antique (which I prefer, you can wipe back further while still damp, with a little mineral spirits on a rag or soft paper towel for additional highlight on areas like snow, windows, etc. Also use this to wipe back any streaky areas and to clean your brush. If you are using a water based product you can use water on your towel the same way.  Oil wipes off smoother in my opinion but if you are using a water based product just be sure to paint smaller areas and wipe each off while they are pretty wet before moving on. 

I wiped the snowflakes on the tree pictured above almost back to white to add highlight and contrast from the rest of the tree.  The two scenes pictured - all the snow was wiped back Also use this  to remove any streaks or uneven areas and to clean your brush.  If you are using a water based product you can do this with water on your towel.

4.  Shading - you can shade in some darker areas like rivers, mountains, trees, roof tops etc with darker shades of blue or teal or even a little green as long as it is in a matching shade.  You can do this with any translucent product (Paintstiks, Fashenhues, Kimple Intense translucents, Even use a wash of acrylics or chalk if you allow any oil based antique product to dry completely first.) I used Blue PaintStiks in the river of the church scene and just applied the antique a little heavier to the trees in the middle scene.  I added pink hats and scarfs with acrylics to the tree on the right just to give some accents. On the middle scene, I would usually add a teal green to the trees and various shades of darker blue to the buildings - not a lot, just enough to give it some interest.
If you want to know more about using Translucents I have a "How to Use Translucents (or Fashenhues) Technique Downloadable PDF Packet  and "How To Use PaintStiks (Oil Sticks) in my online store.  Both product lines are great to use with this technique.  Take a look!

5.  Embellish & Accent - Spray your piece with a matte sealer, then Add No fire Snow and glitter for final touches to create further bright white contrast and and texture with the snow, and glitz with the glitter.  (I always spray before glitter so it doesn't dull the shine.)  You can put the clean multi color diamond glitter on the whole thing, or just on the snow areas.  You can also use other colored glitters like blue, gold and silver and green to accent.  


The tree has gold and turquoise glitters on the snowflakes. The scene on the left has a fine diamond glitter on everything, which doesn't show up well in the picture, but is beautiful in person. The middle scene has no fire snow and glitter on the snow areas.  You can even add some pearl white or pearl blue in areas to spruce it up.  Have fun and experiment! 
Depending not the piece, add light and maybe bulbs or glue on a ribbon or add a holiday floral pick from the craft store and walah! you have a beautiful piece that was fast and easy!  If you are a crafter, this is a money making technique. 

Oil based translucent stains used to be plentiful and many companies had a variety of color options, but now are a little more challenging to find.  Kimple's Shimmering Blue Paste antique is one of my favorites to use as it has little flecks of sparkle in it. Dona makes a great Blue antique.


Doc Holliday makes a product called "Antique It".  You can mix this 50/50 with any acrylic to turn it into an antique or less acrylic to keep the shade more translucent.  I prefer oil based antiques because they wipe off smoother and cleaner, but if you can't find the color you want this is a great option.  Just be sure to only paint a small area at a time wiping each section off while it's still very wet.  Oil based products are becoming more and more difficult to find, so keeping some of this Specialty product on hand is a great idea. 


Other colors work great as well.  I have a nice plum color which works great at Valentines and I have used it for Christmas and easter as well. 

Have fun experimenting & Happy Painting!