A happy accident!

 Hello all! So back in May I won an awesome canvas project from Stephanie Ackerman's blog. I was so excited to win it. I love her work. The chipboard letters were unfinished when she decided to give it away so I played around with some paints and inks and even Distress Crackle Paints and I loved the way it turned out!

Click HERE to read about how Stephanie put it all together. But I couldn't just leave well enough alone. Oh no! I painted most of the chipboard letters not trying too hard to cover it completely. I wanted the distressed, old, worn look. On the word "life", I first inked the letters with Walnut Stain Distress Ink using a foam applicator. Then I wasn't very happy with how that turned out so I painted over that with Distress Crackle Paint in Picket Fence white. I just put a very thin layer on and let it dry. Almost right away I could see it change! The white paint changed to an old yellowish color. As it was drying, some of the edges of the chipboard began to curl up. Once it was dried, it looked old and distressed and antiqued. Love it!  

So I decided to try that trick again! Here are step by step pics so you can try it too!

Begin with a chipboard shape or letter. This one is from an old K&Company collection. It is already covered in a pattern paper.

Next, carefully remove the top layer of paper from the chipboard,

until it's all the way off and you are left with the raw chipboard.

Then ink the chipboard with Distress Ink in Walnut Stain so it looks like...

this!

Next, using Distress Crackle Paint in picket fence...

coat the chipboard in a thin layer of paint.

Right away you will see the difference in color.

This is what it will look like once it is dry.

I used a sanding tool to curl the edges up a bit in a few places. Then I went over it lightly with the blending foam and the Walnut Stain ink again to get some color down in the cracks.

I'll use this on a project soon and post pictures soon. I hope you enjoyed this little tutorial.

Try this out and let me know what you think!