Poor Woman's Crackle

Hi everyone while looking through a library mixed media book I saw the glue crackle technique I had tried years ago and discovered why it had not worked out with metallic paint.

While unpacking stamps I found this La Blanche stamp which a friend had bought for me. The funny thing was I discovered later that I had from Dover a digital image of this stamp.

I know stop the yammering and show the finished card. Be prepared to be blown away. This card exceeded my original expectations. I love when that happens.

I realized my black card stock was too lightweight so I used my airbrush with a black marker on my 110 weight white card stock. Before I owned a airbrush I painted the card stock with black paint. Of course if you have heavy weight color card stock you can use that. Be aware there may be some curling. Georgia Pacific 110 card stock doesn't appear to curl as much as other brands I have used in the past.

With a clean dry brush heavily brush white glue on your card stock. I use Elmer's glue but other brands of white glue may work.  With another clean brush brush your choice of paint so that it is just floating on the glue. If you overwork the paint it will not work. The resulting pattern will depend on what direction you apply the paint. In this case I did sort of a wavy vertical direction.

It took two days for the glue to dry. I did once a skin had formed took my hair dryer. I still had some stubborn areas and the hair dryer caused some curling. I went ahead since it was not tacky at this point and placed it under my airbrush machine. A pile of books would work.

After stamping my image with Ranger archival ink I rubbed Tea Dye Distress ink with a sponge dauber everywhere but the face area. I used my finger picking up flesh color soft pastel I had scribbled on a scrap of paper to do her face. Then took a Tombow marker to color the lips. It doesn't really show in the photo but the spades are outlined with a Jellyroll clear glitter pen.

I used my regular tape runner to adhere my stamped image to the mat. Then brushed heavy gel on the back of the mat. I placed my finished card under a pile of books to make sure that the mat adhered tightly.

Hopefully I will eventually get better lighting in my playroom and can start taking photos of  my experimenting or different techniques I use.

Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!