Crackle paint technique with Elmers School Glue

Do you love the crackled, chippy, vintage look? Not sure how to create this look without buying fancy crackle mediums, that can be a little pricey?! We have some great news for you!

Just grab a bottle of Elmers white glue, nothing special. For this tutorial, I’m actually using Dollar Tree white glue, which is even cheaper.

Let me walk you through the whole process, start to finish!

Here’s everything you’ll need to create this choppy crackle look:

White school glue
A Dark and light paint color of your choice
2 paintbrushes
Optional, heat gun or blow dryer (you can let the glue air dry on its own and you’ll get the same effect)
A surface to paint on

Start with the darker paint color and completely cover your surface. Make sure you let this completely dry before moving on to the next step.

Now that your paint is all dry. Next, brush on the white glue. You can apply this as thin or as thick as you’d like. The thinner you apply it, the smaller the crackle will be, the thicker you apply it, the larger the crackle will be.

While the glue is still wet, you will start applying the white paint. Don’t overwork the white paint, brush in one direction and just get the paint on pretty quickly.

Lastly, you can speed up the crackle process by drying with a heat gun or hair dryer. Or just let it air dry, either way, you’ll get the same effect.

You can see the difference in the size of the crackle in this photo. I applied the glue thicker to the surface on the right and a little thinner on the left.