A new technique - Mixed Media Acrylic with DecoArt Chalk Crackle.

Morning all,

I had a brilliant weekend at Dare 2 Create this weekend gone, with Andy Skinner and Tracy Weinzapfel Stratton, and the fab Tando Creative Ltd.  It has taken a couple of days to recover!  I was demonstrating on the Saturday evening, and I had some ideas floating in the grey matter, to try a crackle on the back of an acrylic piece. Bearing in mind painting on acrylic works backwards, it took some working out, and hope that it wouldn't crackle all the layers.

Here is a full tutorial, and pictures of some of the pieces I have made since.

The Acrylic has a protective layer both sides.  I remove just one side to work on, and leave the other for protection on my work surface.  Stamp an image on to the acrylic using Carbon Black Fluid Media Acrylic. You do have to be careful not to let the stamp slip, but the bonus with acrylic is that you can wipe off any mistakes while still wet. Spread the paint thinly on your craft mat to stamp with.

Choose a paint colour, and colour in behind the heart, (always on the same side as your stamping), going over the black stamping as well (this will still show through in places).

When dry, colour in the missing parts of the heart, I used Venetian gold here.  You could colour the whole heart in, some of the gold would still show through the first layer of magenta.

Cover the whole heart in a layer of black, this seals the front colours, and stops light getting through further.  It also makes the black stamping clearer from the front.

Next, splatter some slightly watered down colour all over the acrylic.  You can use one or more colours.  Dry between applications so they don't make mud!

Apply the Crackle Medium to the acrylic.  I went around the edge of the heart, but you can go right over, it won't crackle normal acrylic, or what's underneath it, just what you put on top.  This crackle only works with the chalk paints.

Once completely dry, paint over with your chosen colour of chalk paint and let dry.

The final step is to paint behind the cracks in a contrasting colour.  

Then it's time for the final reveal, just peel back the acrylic from the other side and admire your artwork.

As you can see, I'm slightly hooked.  The best part is peeling away the protective cover and seeing what's beneath.

Hope it inspires you to have a go.

Best Wishes,

Nikki
xxx

Products Used:

Tando Creative Acrylic Cubbie Pieces/Media boards.
Andy Skinner/Stampendous/Laurel Burch Stamps.
DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylics.
DecoArt Chalk Crackle.
DecoArt Chalk paints.
DecoArt Dazzling Metallics.