“A Penny For Them” – Louise Collins DT & Tutorial

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On January 15, 2013

We all know that Dusty Attic is well known for its beautifully designed chipboard pieces, but did you know that you can also buy Dusty Attic Paints, Glosses and Blooms too?

I had so much fun playing with the wet mediums on this layout, so I decided to do you all a little tutorial on how I used DA products to create this weathered, distressed background.

Firstly, I began by marking where my main layers would be covering the background up. By doing this you avoid using your precious paints in places where they will not be seen…such a waste!

I chose to not cover my whole background, but just have the centre of my page distressed, so I thickly painted on some Dusty Attic Acrylic in Alabaster with a brush.

The next step was to paint on some of the DA Clear crackle varnish over the top of your dried White acrylic. This should be really thick for good big crackles, or thinner for smaller crackles.

The next step is the most important for this technique. You must WAIT!!

If you can stand it, preferably overnight, but otherwise at least a couple of hours. Once you start to see crackles appearing you can use a heat gun to finish the crackling process but NOT BEFORE!

When it is finished it will look something like this…

Now to add some colour, tone down the shine and emphasise the texture.

I have watered down two different coloured Dusty Attic Acrylic Paints, Hot Chocolate and Denim.

To do this a squirted a little in a small cup (an egg cup is ideal) and mixed in the same amount of water.

To emphasise the crackles, I used a sponge applicator to gently rub some of the Denim watered down paint into the crackles. Some of the clear varnish may flake off, but don’t worry. This just adds to the distressed effect!

I then used a small paint brush to flick and splatter some of the Hot Chocolate watered down paint around the page. Some of this will also settle into the crackles.

After allowing it all to dry and stitching a zigzag border, I constructed the rest of my page on top of my weathered background.

I also used my Hot Chocolate Acrylic Paint to edge my corrugated cardboard sections, and with a sponge over a mask for the wood grain affects on the edge of my page.

Dusty Attic Products used:

Acrylic Paints:
On Butterflies – Denim DA0914, Faded Denim DA0913, Alabaster DA0902.

On Floral Piece – Bisque DA0921, Pesto DA0918, Crushed Olive DA0917, Forrest DA0919, Faded Denim DA0913,

On Background – Hot Chocolate DA0923, Denim DA0914, Alabaster DA0902.

Clear Crackle Varnish DA0900

Dusty in Bloom – Cornsilk DA0806, Blue Bonnet DA0807

Chipboard – Flutterbiies DA0389, Floral Corner piece & Small Butterfly *COMING SOON*

Corrugated Cardboard DA0830