As we approach the end of the year I hope your Christmas preparations are making good progress and thought it was important to share a positive affirmation. Success may not be guaranteed but if we are determined then we will achieve so much.

This post focuses on Crackle Mediums - there are just so many on the market - and they definitely produce very different results but using them may be a source of confusion - 1 step, 2 steps, fine crackles and weathered wood effects - to heat or to not heat - there are so many questions.

Here I am using two crackle mediums by Daily Art that come as part of the Crackling Laquer kit which if you look at the bottles would appear to give very similar results but the description on the bottles is definitely accurate one set of crackles is large and the other small.

Both of these mediums cry clear and so it is important to have a base layer, I chose a door hanger and covered it with Rich Craft Paper Bag chalk  paint and once dry added a layer of the step 1 Large Crackling Laquer covering with a thin coat before setting aside to dry naturally. Once this was dry I added the step 2 medium and again set aside to dry naturally. This gives beautiful random large crackles that can be barely seen. To highlight the texture I then painted the tag with Daily Art Bitumen before wiping off the excess with a damp baby wipe leaving the dark "paint" in the crackles.

Not wanting to waste this piece I then painted a larger rectangle of MDF with more of the Urgup painted and followed the instructions properly - this produces a small crackle across the entirety of the piece.

I layered my three pieces on top of each other before adding butterflies cut from scraps of Craft O'Clock papers but you could use butterflies from butterflies extras sheet and a sentiment taken from the Time of Reflection journal extras pack. Finally I added splatters of  That's Crafty! Acrylic Wax which were then embossed with Weathered Gold powder.