Is that real crackle on that card?

Today it's time for my 2nd DT piece for the "Crackle" challenge which is the theme for June over at Country View Challenges. For my first piece which I shared here I made a Father's Day card with a true crackle effect using  DecoArt mixed media products.
This time I am going to show that you don't need all those products, you can easily achieve a "faux" crackle effect too. It's simple, quick and very effective.
My card is similar to the first card I shared, this time,as we have now passed Father's day, it is a Dad's birthday card I made to sell in Dotty's.

I used my vintage childhood photo again.

For the base I used cheap acrylic paints, I buy these from The Works. I used a piece of grey board saved from the back of a paper pad and cut it into 2 and gessoed it - is that a verb??! it can be a Janeism then ;0)

 I dabbed on the colours with a baby wipe until I had a mottled effect I was happy with,

 Then it was time for the cheat bit ;0) ...all that is needed is a crackle stamp! These are Andy's Skinner's but there are lots on the market which can be used...you could even draw your own lines.

 I used black Archival ink

and this is what I achieved.

Instant realistic crackle.

I used one piece for my card, the other I have plans for.

Here is my finished card again. I used snippets of book pages and also tiny snippets of paper to die cut my dotty letters.

I used the Cheery Lynn Film set die for my photo and TH small sizzlits die for the film strip. The papers are vintage book pages.

It would be great if you can join in with our crackle theme over at Country View...you need to get cracking though as the challenge closes in 4 days time. You could even win a £20 voucher from our Sponsors, Country View Crafts, if your name comes up in the random draw. Here is the link.

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges;

Pixie's snippets Playground #235
As you like it 3/3 favourite die and why mine is my CL film set die..they are brilliant for framing photos.
Crafty Calendar 3/3 For a male
Happy Little stampers mixed media  texture
Creative Inspirations 1/3 bingo I used the bottom horizontal line...white (the book pages are actually white!), distress, dots (on my letters)
Emerald Faeries 3/3 anything goes
Love to create 2/2 #13
Double D challenges all about the boys

I am back again in a few hours with another post as I am also guest designing today too! Busy, busy, busy....

Thanks for visiting...it would be lovely to see you later too!

Bye for now,

Jane x