Then it was done.. Time to throw it in the trash.. As a last ditch experiment, I decided to cut it back a little.

At first I felt like I was doing something terribly wrong, but in the aftermath, I see if really did help the look overall..So at this point it just looked like a scratched up, slightly lighter-colored 1993 brass door knob..

I read somewhere that heating the brass up with a flame would help it tarnish quickly..I grabbed my candle lighter and got to firing that brass knob.. At a certain point it occurred to me that what I was actually doing was holding a flame up to a part of my beloved house and heating that part up more and more.. Um, no.. As usual, I didn’t want to wait to see the results of the natural tarnishing so I grabbed my trusty dollar store craft paints and did a little faux magic, instead of you know, setting my house aflame.. -Wipe on a dab of black everywhere, including in the nooks and crannies.Wipe off.. -Wipe on a dab of burnt umber everywhere.

Wipe off.. -Wipe on a dab of gold.Wipe off a little bit, but leave it on mostly..

So that got it half-way there.

Over the next couple of days, the natural tarnish filled in and the fake and the real came together in perfect harmony..Thanks so much to CIL for sponsoring this post, challenging me to create this project, and for inviting me to join them on stage this Saturday.

I was compensated for my time in writing this post, however all thoughts, opinions, and over-zealous enthusiasm for the upcoming summer season are all my own!I wanted to take a minute to let you all know about a new book coming out next Tuesday (March 22, 2016) that I think a lot of you will really be inspired by called.“Crafting With Nature”.

It’s written by my friend Amy Renea who you might know from the blog.A Nest For All Seasons.