Make Your Own Vintage Art ... With Nail Polish Remover!

I know I left you all hanging on Wednesday when I said that I was working on transforming the framed art below with my {not so secret} secret ingredient - nail polish remover! Acetone, to be exact. I'd like to show you how I did it, but be forewarned - it may take some practice and several attempts for results that are truly pleasing to you. Still curious as to what in the world you would need acetone for? Well, let's get started!

For this particular art project, I started with a Goodwill find that was ripe for a transformation. It had a nice frame and the art itself looked like a canvas piece though it was just a print. Good bones as we like to say! I liked the fact that it was perfectly square, too.


I began by painting the entire piece. I used some wall paint I had, Valspar's "Malted Milk".


If our walls weren't already this color, I would have kept the frame just as it was! I just love that creamy off white. My intention was to provide a basecoat just in case I decided to distress the frame after the top coat was applied, but in the end, I decided not to distress.


I chose Rustoleum's Oil Rubbed Bronze spray paint for the topcoat. I love it! I first covered the center part of the art with paper, taping the papers at the seams so that overspray wouldn't make it's way under.


It's already looking like a completely different piece at this point.


Now it's time to pull out the acetone/nail polish remover! {Instead of acetone, you may also try Citra-solv Natural Cleaner & Degreaser as used here or a Chartpak Blender Pen like what is used here. I had heard that acetone also works so I wanted to give it a try.}


You will also need an image printed out in reverse from a printer that uses toner. You will be transferring the image from the paper to another surface, and laser printed images will not transfer. {I tried!} Toner is basically powdered ink, so it transfers more easily. You may have to shop around for a place that prints with toner. Staples didn't work for me but hub's office printer did. You might check your grocery store or library. Another tip: Make several copies of the same image to have on hand for practice or "extras" just in case certain areas don't transfer well the first time.

By the way, I got my favorite bird image from The Graphics Fairy and you can find it here.


Take your printed image and if you like, trim away the excess. I didn't. You may also tape down your image but my paint was fairly fresh and I didn't want to risk peeling it, so I opted not to tape.


Next, take a couple of cotton balls and saturate them with the acetone. {I apologize for dirty fingers...I accidentally spray painted them brown when I was painting the frame and couldn't get all the paint off!}


Starting at the center of the image, swipe your saturated cotton ball across the paper from the center outward. You may need to saturate some more cotton balls and go over the paper a couple of times. The acetone will reactivate the ink on the paper, causing it to transfer.


Try rubbing the edge of a spatula across the image, burnishing it to ensure that it has transferring completely. Gently peel the edges of the paper back to check your results.


When I peeled the paper off, my image was covered in paper residue and I thought I had really messed up. But I found that by gently rubbing the paper with my finger, it peeled up fine as long as the paper was a little moist. If the paper dries completely, you can very lightly dampen it with a moist cloth and continue rubbing the paper off with your finger. You can see the remaining bits of paper below before I removed it all.


I wasn't quite happy with this area on the bird's tail where the ink just wouldn't transfer. I later just lightly filled it in a bit with a Sharpie and it looked fine.



It's hard to see in this photo, but it looked like the acetone slightly discolored the area around the bird. I'm really not sure if it was the acetone or a little ink residue from my rubbing the image, but I was able to touch it up with some more of the cream colored paint.


My vintage bird art needed something more to fill the space in the frame, so I decided to paint the year "1893" on the bottom. I chose that particular year because it was exactly 100 years before hubs and I were married - 100 years before I set up housekeeping!

You can use any font you like {on any kind of printer}. I chose the font called Georgia sized at 500. I printed it in blue because I'm out of black ink, but really, you should print yours in another color besides black, too. I'll tell you why in a moment. Print it out normally, not backwards. If it prints in multiple sheets, just tape then together making sure you don't tape over the letters or numbers.


Turn the paper over and with a lead pencil, scribble firmly over the back of the numbers. You are in essence making your own carbon paper layer here.


Turn the paper back over and tape into place. Now, carefully and with pressure, outline the numbers with a pen or pencil. This is why it is better to print your text in a color other than black - it's much easier to see where you are outlining!


Remove the paper and you will see the outline of your text on the surface. It's hard to see in this photo but it was much more visible in reality.


Here's another tip for you: If you are painting your text a darker color, outline your pencil marks with a Sharpie first. This makes it soooo much easier to paint and really defines the edges well and makes them look nice and crisp.


Now, with a small stiff angled brush, you can fill in the white area with paint. I used a dark brown that I had on hand.


A couple of coats should do it!


After the numbers dried, my next step was to antique the piece by using glaze. I didn't have any brown glaze on hand so I made my own. I just used a small glob of the brown paint about the size of a nickel and added water to make it really fluid. It should look like muddy rain water and be just as thin. {This photo was taken after I had used the glaze...I had a little more to begin with, but not much more!}


You'll also need a couple of old brushes: One to lightly apply the glaze and a dry brush to blend it in.


Glazing/antiquing always gives me a headache because it never seems quite "perfect" for me...one area looks too contrived, another area looks too dark, another too light...and I end up driving myself crazy wiping off what I just did and starting all over. So it was with this project. But the basic technique is to dip your brush gently into the glaze, brush most of it off onto a dry towel, and apply the rest to your art piece {practically dry brushing} in a criss-cross pattern. Then blend it all in with your dry brush. After about an hour of working on the glazing, I finally achieved a finish that I loved.





I'm not sure where my "new" vintage bird art will reside, but for now, she's proudly perched on our mantel. I'm really pleased with how this project turned out and I'm eager to do something similar really soon!





I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial and if you have any questions, please let me know! Oh, and do you remember this post that contained the lettered dishes? Many of you asked me how I did that...


Yep, you guess it! Nail polish remover! {Dishes are for decorative use only...the print *will* come off if you scrub it hard enough and you wouldn't want to use them for food.}

This weekend, hubs and I will be working on more beadboard installation! Can't wait!

Have a beautiful weekend, everyone!

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This week, I'm linking up to:
Funky Junk's Saturday Night Special
Metamorphosis Monday
Make Your Monday
Make it for Monday
Brag Monday
DIY Day

Be sure to check out the other creative projects posted there!