Check Out My Chest...Of Drawers! Ha! Fooled Ya!

Sup!
A few months back I purchased a miniature chest of drawers made of bare wood with the intent of altering it. I finally attended to it at this was the result.

I wanted to alter it in a shabby chic vane. My first attempt at such a genre. Actually this is only my second alteration of something of this nature at all. Oh let me just tell you! I love it almost as much as shadowboxes.

Here are the sides

Here is the back

Here is the top of the dresser in detail

And a little close up detail

Tada!

Okay, I want to discuss the crackle look on the paint for a minute. I did not use anything more than glue. I've seen a few blogs reference it, so I tried it myself and it does work awesome. Better in fact, than the stupid $9.00 of crackle medium I bought and compared side by side. Here, allow me a brief rundown. It is super simple.
Paint your item in the base coat you want to use. I chose an acrylic in espresso brown.

Buy a cheap bottle of white all purpose glue. The kind you used in school. Don't even splurge on name brand like Elmers, grab that cheap crap.

Apply an even coat to your item once the base coat has dried.

Let it dry until its tacky to the touch. Aprox 3 - 5 minutes depending. You should feel some resistance of the glue when you touch it with your finger.

Paint the top coat the color of your choice. I used an acrylic in off white.

Apply using as few strokes as possible. The more strokes the bigger the chance you are then actually moving the glue around underneath.

You will start to see some cracks right after painting but after about five minutes you will see lots of them. Big ones. Nice and deep too. So much better than a crackle medium.

Cool huh! Here is what I learned. The smoother the surface the bigger the cracks. The back panel of the chest was super smooth and the crackle back there was dreamy. The rest was a rough wood and they came out great but not as pronounced at the smoother surface. Also, allow extra time for the top coat to dry once the glue and paint is on. Say three times the normal drying time.
Some tutorials suggest cutting the glue with water. I did not. If however, you are working on something that does require smaller cracks then mixing with water will do that.
Okay, so I am a convert. I will never use anything else.
Well there ya have it!