Glue as a Crackle Medium

For a while I found myself slightly addicted to Pinterest.  There were just so many interesting pins out there and I had to pin them all the time.  The bad thing was that I wasn't actually doing any of the pins. 

I made a point to try some of the pins and one of them was using Elmer's Glue as a crackle medium that I found on Make The Best of Things blog.  She did a lot of experiments of different materials and colors and paints and how she applied the glue that I was very inspired to try it out.

I had these 2 very modern looking shelves I got at GoodWill that I was willing to try this technique on.  I thought the modern mixed with the rustic crackle would be an interesting twist.

I gave them one coat of ASCP Versailles first.  When it was dry I applied the glue with a foam brush to all the tops of the shelf.  

The first coat of the painted glue area was done and I rested the shelf on a little bit of an angle and the glue and paint gravitated in the direction of how it was resting.  I wasn't really happy with the way that came out, but it did let a lot of the green show through.  If you are going to use this technique, make sure your piece is laid down flat so the glue and the paint can't run and make your crackle wavy.

I apologize for the terrible after photo, but I was really not happy with how they came out.  

I did work on another crackle project that I have a better photo of. I used orange craft paint for the base (about 5 coats) and black latex paint over the glue.  I didn't water down the glue, just painted it on kind of thick and painted the black on top after waiting maybe a minute.  This crackled really nicely and I was much happier.

I stocked up on glue at a recent flea market (5 bottles for $1), so I will have to try it out again soon.

Linking to:
Classy Clutter
Primitive & Proper
Elizabeth&Co.
DIY Showoff
Miss Mustard Seed