Chunky book page - blue, crackle paint and "allure"

Joined a 4"x 4" Chunky book page swap on one of my groups with the theme of "blue, distressed crackle and allure".  It took a few days and some internet research to come up with my concept for the project and to find tutorials for creating crackle paint.
I am very happy with my crackle background.  More info on that a bit farther down.   I decided to use techniques that draw me to creating - hearts, green and pink, texture, inspirational quotes, script backgrounds, hand lettering, etc.  I started by trimming my background to a four inch square and then stitched it with white thread to a white backer which was embossed with hearts.  I dug through my stash of hand decorated papers and found one with pink and green.  I glued a portion of it to cardstock and die cut a heart (SZ) out of it.  I embossed the heart using a script stamp (SU) and white embossing powder.  I glued it to my blue crackle 4" x 4" background using hot glue, added the felt flower and leaf embellishments and the little quote with hot glue as well.  I hand lettered the words and added the dots using a white gel pen.  Very happy with it!!

Crackle backgrounds - there are many tutorials on line for making them.  I started by using a clear crackle medium which I have own for a long time. I applied it to quarter sheet of dark blue hand decorated paper and followed the direction on the bottle.  I let it get tacky and then applied light blue acrylic paint to the surface.  It crackled some but not enough for my liking.  So I went looking for another method.  Someone on the group recommended several tutorials so I watched them and decided to use cheap white glue and paint.  As you can see on the left I started with several squares of blue serendipity paper which I painted liberally with cheap white glue ($1) and then painted with white and silver acrylic paint while the glue was still wet.  I had to apply a generous coat of paint to avoid disturbing the glue layer too much.  I left them over night and they crackled very nicely.  Unfortunately, the contrast between the upper and lower layeres was not really what I was looking for so I started over.

I used a quarter sheet of dark blue cardstock, applied the glue as described above, added a medium blue acrylic paint over it and left to dry overnight.  It crackled very nicely and the contrast between the two layers was much more what I was looking for.  The photo to the left is the same piece of crackle background as you see in my finished piece but they look so different.  Must be the light over my other work surface that made the difference.
So if you are looking to give this technique a try I would recommend the cheap white glue and acrylic paint technique.  It is cost effective and gives you very nice crackled background.  Here is a link to a tutorial.   Enjoy!!

Therese