Gold Crackle Paint and the Sea...

One of the projects in this month's issue of Craft Stamper used some stuff I'd never heard of called "Viva Croco Crackling Colour" and it looked fabulous, so I just had to go and buy some and this is my first project using the stuff. I really wish I'd bought a big pot!!

"The Sea"

This picture frame started life as one of those cheap wooden ones from Ikea. I just gave it one thick coat of the crackle paint with a cheap paintbrush and left it to dry.

"Crackle paint"

Wow, get a load of that texture!

"Hanging charms"

I added a few charms and beads to a length of chain using jump rings, and attached the chain via a small nail hammered (yes, I know, I used a hammer and a pair of pliers!!!) into the top of the picture frame.

"Octopus"

A few more charms and seed beads were fixed to the frame with glossy accents. I just love this octopus charm, reminds me of all those horror stories about giant squid at the bottom of the sea...

"The Sea"

I really like this lighthouse stamp from Kanban. The background was coloured with distress inks before stamping, then extra inks were added with a watercolour brush, diluting each colour in water before brushing. The scene was kept fairly simple, because in this case the frame is the real star. A small amount of distress ink was brushed over the crackle paint at the bottom of the frame to give a real seaside effect. I grew up by the sea and it always sticks in my mind how the bottom parts of anything in the water would become covered in green slime.

Ingredients:

Viva Croco Crackling Colour: Gold

Kanban clear acrylic stamp: lighthouse scene

Distress inks: Tumbled Glass, Stormy Sky, Broken China, Chipped Sapphire, Pine Needles, Dusty Concord

Archival Ink: Black

Cardstock: 160gsm white, stamping card

Picture Frame

Charms, Chain, Jump Rings, Beads, Seed beads

Entered for the following challenges:
Simon Says Stamp and Show... Anything Goes
The Stamp Man... Texture