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Idea of the Month Cracked Glass
Cracked glass is a beautiful technique that adds an elegant, antique touch to your artwork. You'll want to use your cracked glass artwork as an accent piece, attaching it to a larger card or layout. It really does look like you are seeing your artwork through an old, antique window! In the card below, I have attached the cracked glass piece to one of our new wire-rimmed paper tags, and accented the card with silver metallic beads strung on waxy flax.
Supplies:
Clear embossing powder Close To My Heart TM Adhesive Sheets (clear, double-sides adhesive sheets, #Z262) Craft heater Tweezers Craft tray or scrap paper Scissors Adhesive
(double-stick tape or other strong adhesive is recommended for this project) Artwork made with stamps and inks of your choice
Step 1: Create Your Artwork Create your artwork using stamps and inks of your choice. In the above sample, I've added color using watercolor pencils and a waterbrush. You might want to color your image brighter or darker than normal, since colors tend to look muted when viewing them through the cracked glass. Important: leave large margins around your artwork (look at the photo below- I've left a large border around my stamped image). This will make it much easier to hold the piece while you create the cracked glass. You'll trim it down later on.
Step 2: Attach the Adhesive
Attach a piece of clear adhesive sheet on top of your artwork: Again, cut your adhesive larger than your finished artwork will be. Peel off the protective paper on one side, and adhere it directly on top of your artwork. Peel off the protective paper on the other side- you now can see your artwork through the adhesive and you have a sticky surface. The photo above doesn't show it as clearly as I had hoped, but there is a piece of adhesive on top of my stamped flowers. The adhesive extends about 3/4" beyond artwork in each direction, leaving a generous border of paper beyond that so I can easily hold the piece while I complete the next steps.
Step 3: Emboss Cover the exposed adhesive with clear embossing powder and shake off the excess into the craft tray (or onto the scrap paper). Heat evenly with the craft heater. Immediately after heat embossing, shake on more powder and heat again. I found it easiest to simply hold the artwork over the craft tray and to shake on more embossing powder each time, but you could fill the craft tray with powder and press the artwork into it to apply the embossing powder instead. Hold the piece with tweezers if it gets too warm to handle. Repeat this process until you have 8 layers of embossing powder built up. Do not allow the project to cool completely between layers. The paper might start to curl up... that's ok.
Step 4: Crack! Place your artwork in the refrigerator or freezer for a few minutes. After it's cool, gently bend the artwork in various directions and watch it crack! To finish, trim your image with scissors and use a strong adhesive to mount it to your artwork.
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©Linda Harrison 2004
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