Shabby Chic Frame - All That's Gold with Karen Bearse

Hello Inky Chipboard Fans, Karen Bearse here today with a shabby, chic frame with gold accents. I am helping my 12 year old daughter to move into her gone to college brother’s room. I thought I would surprise her with a custom DIY frame using the colours she has chosen. This project is actually quite simple and the only hard part is waiting on crackle paste to dry!

Here is my finished frame. The picture is one of my favourites from when my daughter was very young.  Let’s get started! You can use any wooden frame, I just bought an inexpensive one from the craft store but this would also be a great way to repurpose one you already own.

Step 1: Cover frame with acrylic paint, I used a combo of paint to get the desired colour. Make sure to paint the sides also. Tint Texture Sand Paste with similar colours & scrape it thinly in random spots on the frame. Distress as desired including sides of frame.

Step 2: White crackle paste can be coloured by mixing in 20% fluid or regular acrylic paint. I choose to leave mine white.  Place a chip board piece with open spaces in it & scrap a layer of your crackle paste using a spatula, in the open spaces. Keep the paste level with the chip piece by scrapping across the top. Gently remove chippie. For this step I used part of the Tiny Bubbles cutting out the pieces I wanted. I let the paste dry on the chipboard & carefully picked it off using a pokey tool. Designer’s choice- either heat emboss or paint the chipboard pieces. Set the frame aside to let the crackle cure. Do not heat set. This will take a few hours. The cool part is the background paint shows through the cracks.

Step 3: Paint and heat emboss a few accent chipboard pieces using your chosen colour palette. I painted the pussy willows white, & used an embossing pen to heat emboss the leaves of this chippie in gold. The peacock feather was painted in Bahama Blue & distressed with some white. It was then stamped with a detailed image using embossing ink & heat embossed in the same gold colour.

Step 4: Assembly! Once the crackle paste is dry on your frame, replace your chosen chippies back into place using a strong wet glue. Adhere your other pieces. Pop your photo in & voila!! I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. Leave any questions or comments below. Have a fun inky day and remember to join us this month in our challenge-you could win chippie$$$!!!

Southern Ridge Trading Co. Supplies Used:

- Tiny Bubbles

- Pussy Willows

- Fancy Peacock Feather

Other Supplies Used:

- Deco Art: fluid acrylic & Americana acrylic paint, Crackle Paste, Texture Sand Paste.

- Ranger Ink: stamps, perfect medium.

- Recollections: embossing powder.

- Zig: embossing pen.

- Michaels: Unfinished Frame.

- Karen