I said crackle, not cackle mind you.

Remember when crackle paint was all the rage? EVERYTHING was crackled.
Every piece of furniture, frame, household item… CRACKLE.

It was fun. It was cool. But now, its a little predictable. Now I like a little more variation in my aged-looking items. A little more unique age. As if they are actually old, not manufactured to be so.

Of course, I turn to google for a crackle type solution. Why don’t I go buy a can of crackle stuff? Because I AM LAZY. And cheap, I mean frugal. Yes, frugal. If I can do what I want to do without having to leave my house and by using items I already have around, I’m going to do it.

Remember that “W” I mentioned in the cement post? Well that “W” is going to be my test subject for homemade crackle. In my very serious search, I found instructions here to make crackle medium using Elmer’s Wood Glue. Perfect, I have wood glue and do not need to leave my house.

Here’s the “W”:

I mixed navy blue and black acrylic for a dark dark blue base color. Then added my coating of wood glue topped with bright yellow:

Then I had to let it dry for what seemed like FOREVER. Perhaps I used too much wood glue, though I’m liking the clumpy look of the top coat.

I let it dry, but really wasn’t sure this was actually “crackling” as I imagined it would. But, once it was dry I took a sanding block to it and now I think it’s pretty cool! It’s going to look great on my font wall (you’ll hear about this soon, I promise!).

The directions for the crackle medium can be found here:
http://elmers.com/diy/project/crackle-finish

Try it!