Painting raised/embossed/relief lettering?

These are very thin metal foils (like a thin aluminum foil) that have an adhesive on back.  You cut pieces oversize, apply, then trim extra with an X-acto knife.

Sounds good! I'll get going on it! and thanks again to all!

It will work for acrylics.  To make it easier to remove the top layer, spray a layer of clear gloss between the 2 colored layers.  The "smoothness" of the gloss will make it easier to remove the top layer.

for raised detail I have used fisket film before.  cut a piece the size of the plaque, stick it on, and using a new blade, carefully cut around the raised lettering.  Depending on how you plan to paint you can remove the letters, or the surrounding, leaving the mask in place.

Another idea is to paint the plaque, then use a firm sponge to apply paint to the raised lettering surface only (tray with paper towel might work too).

Personally I like the idea of doing a bare metal foiling, the cutting would be the same as if you were masking with fisket.

As far as acrylics, it is certainly OK to layer.  the rule of thumb I hear a lot is that you can lay additional coats within 3 hours of each other, or after waiting 24 hours.  I dunno on your hairspray idea (I have seen this used to help in weathering, but not the way you are describing).  There are also liquid masks that you can use to paint them on.  Usually they are a latex base.  I have used one called MicroMask, but it doesn't seem to react well to my can-spray primer, I have a lot of trouble removing it.  There is another one, a white bush on frisket, think it's made by a company called Graphix or something similar to that.  I hear good things about it, and plan to test it out...

I'll give that a try. I use acrylics - is that OK to layer? And is there anything I could put over the light layer on the letters that would release easier? I think I've read about hair spray being used for something like that.?

Paint the stand the lighter color first, then paint the darker color.  Gently scrape the raised letters with a sharp flat blade.  This will remove the darker color from the raised letters and expose the lighter color.

I'm not sure my hands are stable enuf to do that! LOL....Can you elaborate on bare metal foil?

You can paint or stain the stand, then pick out the raised lettering with a small brush.   Embossed lettering is much harder. Or, you can use Bare Metal Foil on the raised lettering.