Review and Tutorial : go create crackle coating

Today I'd like to show you some great stuff we found in a big hobby store.
It is called go create crackle coating and is an acrylic painting medium to achieve an old, used look of color.
Many of  you will know the Tim Holtz Distress Crackle Paint, which was shown in a great tutorial over at Massive Voodoo : http://massivevoodoo.blogspot.de/2011/03/tutorial-working-with-crackel-medium.html

The stuff we are talking about today is really different, other ways to use it, other results and other possible scales.
I'll begin with a short introduction of the product it self, how it is used, what should be known about it...and so on. The second part of todays post will show a little project I am working on right now.

Part One - The medium

As I said, the medium is acrylic based, so it can be thinned with water (I didn't try how this affects the results yet) and you can clean your brush with water and soap after applying it.

We bought that stuff at Boesner, a huge art shop.
I'll add their web address, so you can check out whether there is one near you, or you'll have to use their online shop: http://www.boesner.com/boesner/servlet/frontend/articleDetail.html?btUid=bt_Article&iDf_id=c0a81e6:-4cd97d27:10a032c891a:35c8&3rdKeywordOID=7f001:-47182655:11957e3ca1e:-77a1&2ndKeywordOID=7f001:-47182655:11957e3ca1e:-77a4&showAll=true&1stKeywordOID=7f001:-47182655:11957e3ca1e:-7944

The medium isn't that expensive for the big amount you get I think. It's very fertile.

You have to prime your surface with any colour your cracks should have in the end.

Then you apply the crackle coating, the bottle says to use steady brush strokes in one direction.
In the end, 80 % of the big cracks will run with the direction of the stroke, so you can achieve a more chaotic pattern by simply ignoring the manual :)
Another thing you can follow or ignore is the thickness of medium you apply. The manual advises a thin coat,
but a thick will intensify the results.

After everything dried (be sure it dried...or else you'll rip off the medium with the first brush stroke) you can apply any acrylic colour you like.

Again the manual advises us to use: short and gentle strokes with a thin coat of colour.
Fat coats will again intensify the result. (and have a way more intensive colour)

That all sounds very theoretical...and so I made a few tests to show you what results can be achieved.

You can see different consistences (more or less water)  from left to right.
The first row shows the colour applied thick, without taking the water out of it with a paper towel, your hand...
The second row shows the colour applied thin.

The red and green spots on the right where Tamya Clear Red and Liquid Greenstuff. Both weren't effected.

As you see, the results very really strong.
I'll do some testing on miniatures (I am thinking of sockets with a worn look, and old wood with really thin colour) and will show you my experiences soon.

Part Two - Bigger scales and use on furniture
I decided to redo my wardrobe, it is old kitchen furniture a friend gave to me when I moved into my new flat. It had stains, scratches and was white...nothing I like :)

So I took the first thing to hand, some chaos black spray because I wanted strong contrast between cracks and colour.

If you want to do something really big, like this door, don't use anything as a pallete then the big thing itself.
I used some bowl, but most of the medium wasn't usable, because it liked that bowl so much...the stuff is tough and sticky.

I decided to ignore the manual, as I always do, and applied very different layers of medium, some areas were thin as advised, others were really fat and needed hours to dry.

The medium keeps its shine in some areas, even when it dried. So testing around is your friend, if it doesn't stick to your fingers, it is dry.

Then I applied some colour, simple wall paint I used for my whole room.

Nice to know: You'll just have one stroke per area...if you brush over it again, you will take much of the medium with your brush and much of the color. So be sure your colour covers with thin layers. 

That problem didn't trouble me at the testing card I showed above, so maybe it was the wall paint or the fat coat of medium....don't know.

The crackling starts immediately.

After 20 minutes...

Everything dry and ready for further work.

Where the medium was really thick, big cracks showed up, that run into one direction, in the thinner areas you find small cracks that run chaotic, just as the Tim Holtz Crackle Paint achieves.

Have a nice day everyone

Personalised stuff with decoupage

Heyho!
Yesterday I saw Romans brushboxproject over at Massive Voodoo ( http://massivevoodoo.blogspot.com/2012/01/start-of-mv-brushbox.html ) and once more I thought about getting such a thing.
The internet revealed that the store which sells them has an own shop here at my city...well now I don't have money left, but am happy :)

The box itself isn't that expenisve, you can get them here:
http://www.boesner.com/boesner/servlet/frontend/articleDetail.html?btUid=bt_Article&iDf_id=c0a8736c:ae3da8:fd09f42bac:5993&2ndKeywordOID=7f001:-47182655:11957deff1b:7f57&showAll=true&1stKeywordOID=7f001:-47182655:11957deff1b:7ddf

I wanted something personal, for I don't want to copy other persons ideas or articles, when it gets to write something down here at our place. (I also suck at freehand painting anyways)

So what to do with it? During last christmas days I remembered a technique I learned years back at some artistic convention. It is called decoupage, and its about paper, glue and some things to change.
A few presents later (with some big fails, but more about this later) I was in love again.
It is cheap, fast and you can do tons of cool things with it.

So I thought I should write a short article about it and here we go:

The things you really will need:

Some decoupage paper (got mine for 1 Euro per page at local hobby store) and maybe small things you want to add. Something to cut on is really good too, if you don't like scratches at your table.
You can also use napkins (just take the layer which holds the picture/color).

 Some stuff you would like to change. You can do this on every material I think, and possibilities are unlimited. (I used it on boxes, books, shelves, bags...whatever). Just coat it with some varnish if you plan to use it outside.

The decoupage glue. You can get it at hobby stores, just ask the nice salesgirl for glue and a date, if she is sweet :) If not, more time to glue stuff. I didn't try other glues, because I got this big package since a few years (it lasts really, really long).

And here is stuff you won't need, but it makes life more comfortable.
strawberries, a biiiig  cup of cacao and Southpark.
Just take things you like.

Well there are no pictures of the actual process...because I don't know what to show.
You cut out the paper you need (in my case I cut the little lizard and measured how much paper the box would need) take a good amount of glue and brush it directly to the surface you want to cover.
You can paint it before that step (if you have a dark surface or edges, like the lizard does) but it will also work without.
After glueing, you put the paper/napkin to the surface, now you could do the following things:
- take a flat iron and smooth the surface, so that all bubbles are gone (put baking paper between the iron and your surface)
- just let it dry (dull finish)
-brush another layer of glue to it (glossy finish, more resistent)

There is one thing you always should have in mind: LET IT DRY
This may sound simple...it isn't if you are as impatient as me :)
I made a jewelry box for christmas, thought it was dry and closed it...a few days later the damn thing was glued together and now nobody can open it.
At my brushbox I touched the paper and ripped off a little bit of it, the lizard covers it but it is really bad if you don't plan to put such a thing on your surface.
If you do boxes, things with hinges etc you have to dismantle them first, as I did with the brush box.

And here we go wip and ready:

I often walk through stores and see people buy stuff with such patterns as my shelveboxes for incredible high prices, with a little time and happyness you can make them all alone.
I'am also planning to use this at some miniature related projects, cover sockets with patterns or effects like the old color effect at the first shelvebox or make some wallpapers for little scenes.
Hope anyone can use this, have fun while trying :)