Supplies:

1. Acrylic paint. I used mostly apple barrel acrylic paint.
2. Pouring median. I tried the one from Dollar Tree.
3. Item to pour on. Typically, a canvas is used, but I decided to use a ceramic elephant I got from Dollar Tree.
4. Small cups to mix paint in.
5. Larger cup to layer paint colors into.
6. Something to mix paints and pouring median together.
7. Optional: a sealer
8. Optional: something to cover your work surface and/or to place your piece on top of as it dries.

Steps:

1. Prepare work surface by laying down some paper or something to protect your work surface. I also placed my piece on a plastic lid so I could easily move it to a shelf to dry when it was finished.
2. Pour each color into a separate cup along with your pouring median. The amount of pouring median will depend on what type you are using, but if it does not say, then try about a 1 part pouring median to 3 part paint. It should be a thin honey consistency, except when working with the Dollar Tree brand I used. The Dollar Tree pour median will actually make your paint thicker. Then mix the pouring median and the acrylic paint together well.

3. Once all paint and pour median are mixed together well, start to pour/layer your different mixtures/colors into your larger cup. Do not mix the layers together.

4. Pour layered paint over your piece. Make sure to cover all areas of your piece, bout try not to touch your piece too much with your hands or you will remove some of the paint. I knew it would be difficult to cover the bottom of my elephant. So, I started with the bottom of my elephant, then flipped it right side up and finished pouring my paint over it.

5. Let your piece dry. I needed to occasionally wipe the drips of paint off of the trunk of my elephant as it dried. I did not want it to dry like that. You may need to do this on the edges of a canvas or other item depending on it’s shape.

6. Apply a sealer over your piece if needed. I do not think I added enough of my pouring median, so my piece was not very shiny, which I ended up liking a lot better than I expected too. I still added a sealer, which all of the ones I had on hand were shiny, because I did not want the paint to scratch off of the silky ceramic surface. (The picture below is before a sealer was applied)

The gold seemed to get lost, so I added touches of it at the end, which worked well. Next time I might just wait till the end to add my gold or try adding even more gold to my layers. I really like how this piece turned out. It was a lot of fun to make as well. Let me know if you would like to see more projects like this. Have you tried paint and pour before?