Have you ever poured a painting that’s pretty, but not mind-blowing? Many of us have a stash of pours that we can’t seem to part with…pours that are good, but not “great”.
Luckily, this is art we’re talking about! Just because you don’t love a pour doesn’t mean you can’t still use it for other projects. In this article, we’ll talk about five ways you can embellish a boring pour.
There are a few different ways you can create a geode pour; you can either pour with the intent to create a geode, or use an already cured piece as the base for a finished geode. We’ll be talking about finishing a cured piece to look like a geode.
If you’re not familiar with geode pours, they’re one of the most popular kinds of embellished pours out there! Geode pours have unique lines of crushed glass, glitter, and even crushed crystals. Typically, geode pours are finished with resin to give them the high shine finish of a polished mineral.
Here are some supplies you’ll need in order to create a stunning geode embellished pour:
You can be an incredible fluid artist and really bad at painting freehand! If you still want to paint something over your pour but aren’t great at painting, stenciling on a cured acrylic pour is an easy way to get the finished product you’d like.
There are two ways you can stencil on an acrylic pour painting:
Either of these methods will result in a beautiful piece. For beautiful depth and a glass-like finish, follow these steps:
Stenciling on an acrylic pour in layers will create depth by creating some shadowing underneath the raised stenciled design!
Do you have a blue pour laying around? Let’s turn it into an abstract beach!
You can buy crafting sand or reptile/terrarium sand at any local Walmart, craft store, or pet store, and usually in a variety of colors. Seashells are also pretty easy to find, even if you don’t live anywhere near an ocean! Amazon, Etsy, Michael’s and other stores that carry crafting supplies all have bulk seashells in various sizes you can buy.
You can embellish you piece two different ways with seashells and sand to create a unique beach acrylic pour.
You can create an abstract, yet semi-realistic ocean scene by building a beach out of sand mixed with resin in the corner of your painting, decorating it with seashells that you an affix either with super glue or resin, and then adding a flood coat of resin with white “waves”.
Here are the supplies you’ll need for this technique:
Here are the steps to follow to create a unique resin beach acrylic pour:
Creating a beautiful resin beach piece out of an already cured pour requires a bit of preparation and patience, but the results are absolutely worth it!
You don’t necessarily have to invest in resin in order to make a beautiful beach piece. You can use the same supplies from above minus the resin to create the same type of beach, just without the same depth of the resin.
If you use a sealant like Polycrylic in order to seal the piece, you won’t be able to make waves; you can use a fine tip white paint pen to make subtle lines after the piece has cured however, or skip the waves altogether and let the pour be an abstract ocean.
Pours that aren’t as busy work really well as backgrounds for quotes! It’s extremely easy to embellish a pour in this way.
You can order custom vinyl cutouts from Etsy, and even some local automotive supply stores (usually small businesses) will do custom vinyl.
One thing you’ll want to consider when using vinyl is how you’ll adhere the vinyl to the painting. You will need to use transfer tape in order to affix the vinyl. If you have a lot of small letters with punctuation, that can be extremely frustrating since those little pieces don’t always want to come off of the vinyl!
Transfer tape can also be pretty strong; make sure your piece is completely and totally cured before trying to adhere vinyl, or seal it with a coat of Polycrylic or resin before applying the lettering.
And of course…make sure you double-check the spelling before you put the vinyl on! Once it’s on, it’s not coming off.
If you’ve got a steady hand, a paint pen and good handwriting, you don’t need vinyl to embellish your acrylic pour with lettering!
If you choose to go the hand-lettering route, place reference lines on your piece using a light, but still visible, watercolor pencil. Watercolor pencil can be washed off after the lettering has completely dried, and won’t show up on your final piece.
Drawing reference lines will help you keep those letters nice and straight, and exactly where you want them to be!
Finally, we come to one of the most interesting embellishments on this list; using a product like Mod Podge to embellish a pour with pictures!
Mod Podge is a magical, versatile crafting tool that works as a sealant and a glue. It comes in a lot of different types, but the standard Mod Podge works best for this kind of project.
First, you’ll need to figure out what image you want to place on the pour. Then, cut around the image as close as you can to avoid any white or blank areas that will show up when it’s affixed to the pour.
After you’ve trimmed the image, seal both the front and back with Mod Podge, and allow it to cure completely. If your image curls, you can place it between two sheets of parchment paper in a heavy book to flatten it back out, but make sure you wait until after the Mod Podge has completely cured.
Once your image is cured, you can attach it to your pour either by sealing with a sealant like Kamar or Polycrylic and placing the image on the wet surface, or super gluing it; just make sure that the edges are completely sealed to the painting.
Then, finish your painting with another coat of sealant over the top of the image and the pour, or a flood coat of resin for extra depth.
It’s that simple! You can use this for many different image types. You can also laminate pictures before sealing them onto the pour to give them extra protection.
Look at your stash of boring pours; after all of these ideas, they don’t look so boring anymore, do they? Pick up one of those pieces, grab some glitter and make something beautiful! Make sure you show us what you’ve created in our Facebook Group so we can admire your work.
Master the Basis of Color Theory for Harmonious Pours
Embellishing an Acrylic Pour with Lanterns
Best Heat Resistant Sealing Finishes for Tiles and Coasters
Sara Wagner is an author and artist from Upstate New York. She is the owner of Studio Blackwater and can typically be found covered in paint, cats, or her two young daughters. You can find her on Facebook and Instagram as @studioblackwater.
Pin120Share Post navigation ← Previous PostNext Post →
Ms. Sara, I was wondering about those quotes on vinyl from hobby lobby. You peel them off the main piece and stick it on your wall. Smooth out with a credit card. I’ve got several in my home. That might work also. Some quotes are from the Bible and some just random sayings like “don’t touch my coffee cup”. They are better then that. Lol. I look forward to these emails as I learn a lot. Thank you.
Hi Sara, I am wondering why a mini blowtorch is recommended to bring out cells and not a heat gun?
Very smooth and simple explanation, great website for learning. Penkraft is a great place to learn everything about art and craft. you can become a penkraft certified teacher. Penkraft provides you Handwriting Improvement, Calligraphy, ethnic art, modern art, phonic abacus, and vedic art.
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *
Name*
Email*
Website
Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() );
Our Facebook Group is the largest in the world with over 95,000 fluid artists. If you have questions, we have answers! Join us to connect with fellow pourers, get beginners tips, giveaways and more
Join Acrylic Pouring Facebook Group
Acrylic Pouring is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com, Endless.com, MYHABIT.com, SmallParts.com, or AmazonWireless.com. Amazon, the Amazon logo, AmazonSupply, and the AmazonSupply logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates.