Aged Gold, A DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylics Tutorial

Last month, when I was creating this Stampotique pocket watch card, I found a paint combination that looked like what I thought was tarnished gold. In talking to my husband, who is a chemist, I found out that gold does not tarnish because it is a Noble Metal, which means it doesn't oxidize, rust or tarnish. We ended up having a long discussion about how metals age and rust. It was an interesting conversation that made the car-drive-from-hell go relatively quickly. And I learned my new fact for the day.

So, here's a somewhat quick tutorial that shows how you can achieve an aged gold look using DecoArt's Media Fluid Acrylic paints.

1. You will need Carbon Black, Metallic Gold, Quinacridone Gold, and Interference Gold Media Fluid Acrylic paints (DecoArt), Cut n' Dry Foam (Ranger), a Rough Stippling Brush* (Art-C), a palette (I use an orphaned plastic food lid container), and heavy cardstock. (I prefer 140 Mixed Media cardstock (Strathmore).

2. Add a few drops of Carbon Black MFA paint to your palette.  Pounce a piece of Cut n' Dry Foam into the paint so the foam absorbs it. Sponge the paint onto the cardstock using circular motions to produce uneven coverage. Let it dry, though Media Fluid Acrylic paints dry really quickly.

3. Add Metallic Gold MFA paint to the palette. Pounce another piece of Cut n' Dry Foam into the Metallic Gold paint, then sponge the paint over the previous layer using similar circular movements.

 4. Repeat step #3 to increase the amount of gold paint. The black paint should still be somewhat visible.

5. Add Quinacridone Gold MFA paint to your palette. Pounce your Rough Stippling Tool into the paint to spread it out on the palette and to let it absorb into the tool.

 6. Pounce the Rough Stippling Tool with the Quinacridone Gold MFA paint over the cardstock. Use random motions, such as twirling the tool (as above), sweeping it, or just pouncing the tool vertically. Then immediately spread the paint with a horizontal movement of the tool.

 7. Repeat Step #6 until the entire sheet is covered with this combination and you are happy with coverage and appearance.

Come back tomorrow to see how I used the aged gold cardstock that I created in this tutorial!

*Art-C seems to have been absorbed by Momenta. However, you can still find the Rough Strippling Brush at Hobby Lobby, Michael's (was clearanced), and by doing a Google search. It's a great little tool, so if I were you, I'd buy a few.