Crackling with Elmer

As I've been clearing the craft crap from the dining room, I've been trying to spruce it up a bit as I go along. I'm am admittedly one of those people who still doesn't quite know what my style is.  I'm loving a look of French Country, a touch of Tuscany, with a wee bit of Shabby Unique Chic mixed in.   So I have a few pieces of furniture in that room that have needed some sprucing up and I've decided to just go for it!  Starting with an old bookshelf we've held onto... I wanted it to look old, chippy... and white.

For about as long as I've been painting, whenever I've wanted an old rustic type of finish on furniture or wood I've relied on store bought crackle mediums to achieve my result.  Guess what?!?  I don't have any!  But, with the upcoming Stashbusting September challenge I've chosen to participate in and the sheer MaSS of craft crap I've been going through... heading out to the craft store is just not an option.  My ever shrinking budget will thank me for getting in the busting spirit a bit early too!  I remember reading via a blog (Lord knows which one now so as to give proper credit) that you can use good old fashioned school glue to achieve the same results.  Being the skeptic I am I was a bit worried but part of this whole challenge is to use what you've got...

Yes, this is the same bookself... all a part of the "don't know what I want" process!  When we originally aquired it was a solid old creamy white which we painted black ( so into the black distressed movement then) and it served a purpose as an entertainment unit.  Since hubby brought in another tv unit the shelf moved to the dining room.  Since then it's been a bright teal (hated it) then a chocolate brown (hated it) and will now become what's in my head - a beautiful old cracked and chippy white.

Ok, so I gathered all of my supplies: white paint from the $1 bin @ HD, small 'weenie roller' as the hubs calls them, an OLD paint brush, left over Elmer's glue from last years school stash, and an old chinese take out container (to hold the paint).

Next, I squirted the Elmer's glue in patches along the top and side edges of the piece in big puddles.  As you can see in the photo above, I just used the old brush to smooth it out, fading into the center top where I felt the crackles would most likely occur on an old piece of furniture. 

The directions then suggested to wait 4-5 hours for the glue to dry. But Oh, No... Not I... I immediately started to apply the white to the wet glue.  I used  a heavy thick coat over the patches of glue because you cannot go back over those spots or the crackle will not work.

You can see here how the paint starts to "shrink" as it dries over the glue creating the cracks.  Be very careful not to touch it until it is completely dry or the paint will lift off and shift around.  I am pretty satisfied with the look I've achieved using this common household item. 

Now I'm off to sand and chip up the edges a bit; perhaps add some wax to protect it.  By the way, YeS, the interior shelving is still the bright teal blue... I'm doing a little something special in there but that's a suprise for next time!