Your painting has an entirely new presence with a frame painted with Americana Decor Color Stain®.

SUPPLIES

• water container
• palette or plastic plate
• paper towels
• damp rag
• X-Acto® knife
• 12" x 12" wooden frame
• foam core board
• paintbrushes
• clean rag

INSTRUCTIONS

NOTES:

Let dry completely between painting steps.

1. Paint Light Fern on the frame. Using a clean rag, wipe away the stain and push it into the grain. Use a damp rag to pick up the grain and stain even more to manipulate it further. (If desired, another layer could be added as well.)

2. Cut a piece of foam core down to size. (Or use the liner that came with the frame.) Mix Warm White with a touch of Red Violet and use to paint the entire foam board.

3. Mix (4) parts Red Violet with (2) parts Warm White. Use to paint two large flowers bleeding off the top right hand and bottom left hand corners. (See photo: These are very painterly flowers; they don't need to be perfectly even.) Mix (2) parts Sapphire Blue with (2) parts Phthalo Green-Blue and use to paint the leaf shapes and one skinny stem. Use Sapphire Blue with a touch of Warm White to paint the remaining "blob" shapes. Save both mixes for STEP 4.

4. Add a touch of Red Violet to the Red Violet mix from STEP 3 and a touch of Phthalo Green-Blue to the Sapphire Blue/Phthalo Green-Blue mix from STEP 3. Use new mixes to paint shadows onto the shapes. (See photo.) Using Phthalo Green-Blue, paint a stem reaching down from the top left toward the center of the image. Save new mixes for STEP 6.

5. Mix Light Pearl (Metallic) with 3 drops of water. Use this wash to glaze over all components of the image, omitting the areas that are the darkest (such as near the center of the flowers, the stem coming down from the top left, and the darkest parts of the leaves and blob shapes.)

6. Mix Light Violet with a touch of Red Violet to add the highlights back to the flowers, letting a little of the pearlescent layer peak through. Paint the shadows back on the flowers using Red Violet. Do the same thing for the leaves and blob shapes, using the lighter mixes from STEP 3 and the darker mixes from STEP FOUR. Again, allowing the pearlescent layer to peak through in areas.

7. Use Warm White to add the details to the center of the flowers with a small brush and strokes placed close together. Add highlights to the flowers and to the leaves and blob shapes with Warm White as well. (See photo.)

8. Add 24K Gold highlights to the center of the flowers and the petals. Paint in large and small circles in various spots along the stem that is coming down from the top left. Allow to dry completely. When dry, with a small brush and Phthalo Green-Blue, connect the circles to the stem with a thin line and a "v" shape right where the circle and the added line meet to create a botanical stem. (See final photo.) Let dry completely.

9. When dry, snap foam core board into the frame and hang.

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