Super Easy D.I.Y. Furniture Applique Technique

This is so easy! And inexpensive! You just need clay from any craft shop, mine cost about €3.00, pick the design you want to use as your mould and follow the steps  and photos below..
This is the table before all the palaver of painting and waxing etc. It's quite cracked in places and a lot of the veneer has chipped off so overall it's a good candidate for a makeover. Notice that at this point it has no decorative detail on the legs.

Below are some close up 'after' shots of the table after I applied and painted over the Appliques.

I took my table outside to get much better lighting given that it was such a beautiful day and ended up getting some great company to boot..

Here's some close ups of  the clay appliques during the process of testing out what shades of blue or green I wanted this piece to be.





Here's what I used to get this 'Carved Wood Effect'. One pack of wet clay (from any art and craft store).A rolling pin. Annie Sloan Chalk Paint. I used the graphite colour (for my base coat) I used Annie Sloan Persian Green mixed with other artists paints I had on hand to get the final colour I wanted but you can use any colour you like. Some wood glue. And for the design motif I used a decorative framed mirror to 'lift' the design for my carved wood look.  
Roll out a thick strip of the clay and flatten it with the rolling pin. 

You'll need something to get your 'carved wood effect look from'. I used the detailing from this little mirror I already had. It's curved so I had to straighten my applique out and patch pieces together to get the length I needed but this was easy enough as the clay is so malleable at this point.

I pressed the strip of clay firmly but gently onto the design and lifted it off carefully and slowly and then applied it to the legs of the table using the glue. 
And that's it. ( I know it's a completely different colour in the photo below because I used a light green colour on this table first but then completely changed my mind and went for the darker green colour. 

The clay is still soft at this point so I just carefully pressed the damp clay applique onto the wood and then worked the edges with my fingers into the sides of the leg of the table to make it look like it was 'carved' into the table. I then trimmed off any excess with a knife 

When it was dry I painted over the whole thing with the darker Annie Sloan Persian Green Colour and then gave it two coats of Annie Sloan Clear Wax. 

I dry brushed on some gold colour very lightly  for an extra touch using a gilding wax called 'Cire A Dorer' (see photo below)

Myrtle & Buttercup :-)

Thanks for reading and if you would like any more information you can contact me here.
You can use any paint you prefer with this project but I use Annie Sloan Chalk Paint as my base coat because you do not need to sand your piece first when using Annie Sloan paint. And the 'no sanding part' makes me very happy.  I then custom mix what ever colours I want after that and wax the piece all over with any good quality wax. But if you don't want to custom mix everything then just apply your clay design as above, paint with two coats of Annie Sloan chalk Paint and wax with Annie Sloan Wax for durability and shine and your done.
and that's it..
Cheers..
Marie

Before..

After..