Easter Door Plaque Using Iron Orchid Designs Primitive Mould

Woo hoo, I've got a new Easter plaque for my front door ..........

I usually have a wreath, but this year I thought I'd try something different .......

...... especially after I found this wooden blank in The Works for £4, thinking I could do something with it using my Iron Orchid Designs "primitive" mould.

I started by painting the plaque white (I don't know why), before giving it two coats of yellow emulsion.

While the paint was drying, I got out the mould and a pack of Crayola Model Magic ........

...... and proceeded to make a pile of impressions. After a good dusting of cornflour they all came out of the mould pretty easily, except for the hares, mainly due of the delicacy of their legs, but I got there in the end.

I then set about arranging the impressions on the plaque, before gluing them securely using Hard As Nails.  To be honest I was at a bit of a loss as to how to arrange them, so I copied a design I'd seen done by Made By Marley on a pair of bedside cabinets using the same mould.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=O8NUzbckvR4

I was then ready to get painting .............

I gingerly used acrylic paint and a pretty fine paint brush. It was a bit fiddly, so next time, since the surface I was using was flat, I wondered about painting all the parts first before sticking them down?  

When I thought I was done, I quickly dry brushed the edges and in between the shapes with shades of brown to give everything the appearance of a gentle aging.  

However, I have to admit to being a bit fuddled again when it came to sealing/ varnishing stage, as I've found that the acrylic paint tends to bleed into the varnish, what can I do to stop it?  Should I make my own chalk paint (adding a little made up plaster of Paris) to alleviate the problem or invest in a "proper" acrylic sealer?    Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

But when the varnish was dry, I messed some more as it still didn't look quite right, painting over some of the parts again, this time with emulsion paint and then drying brushing in white, but not varnishing over it this time.

After that I knew I had to stop fiddle farting as I was in real danger of ruining it completely, if I wasn't careful.

Despite all these trails and tribulations I am really chuffed with the end results.  I like the aged look, but there again I think it would look just as effective if simply left with the colours popping, but using a satin finish (if varnished), rather than a glossy overall look, but whatever I decide I need to pop to The Works first  to see if I can find some more of the plaques!