Feature Friday with Tami: Tim Holtz Distress Crackle Paint

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Reviewed By: Tami Bayer

I had an opportunity to play with this new product during a mystery class with Tim that I took on August 5th. This new paint by Ranger will hit the stores on September 1st. The product comes in a 2 1/4" tall plastic jar that holds 1.1 fluid ounces and has an applicator attached to the inside of the lid. No messy paint brushes with this one, it's similar to a rubber cement applicator. For just under $6.00 (US) retail you can afford to collect all 24 colors. (The same 24 that the distress inks and distress embossing powders come in.)

Ok, down to what it can do. It works on "cardstock, chipboard, paper mache and more". In the class we used it on naked chipboard and it worked beautifully. It is a self-leveling paint. That means that you just glop it on any old way with lumps and streaks and it flattens out as it dries leaving a smooth appearance with lots of great crackling. You do need a medium to heavy layer of paint for this. It is a very thick paint with a consistency like honey or a really gooey mud bath. You can't dry the paint with a heat tool until the crackling has begun which takes quite a bit of time. If you use a heat tool right away, it won't crackle because a skin forms on the top of the paint. Waiting for the paint to dry is the only down side of this product for me. We painted first in the class and then did a zillion other things while it dried.

Here is a photo of what the paint looked like when it was wet on the chipboard.


It was very uneven and looked like a mess to me. Here is what it looked like when it finished drying.
It leveled off and made the most beautiful crackling effect. I love how this is a one step process. After the paint was dry we used distress inks to ink the edges and smoosh down in the cracks then rubbed off the excess ink. You could do this with the same color or contrast. You can also base coat your project and let that show through the cracks. Here is the finished project and you can see the little chipboard pieces after they have been inked.


This is an Ikea mirror that we glued all the finished little chipboard pieces on. Only 8 of the pieces are the crackle paint. The others are paper or distress embossing powder. I had to cover the mirror in the center to get a decent picture.

I tried my own little experiment with the part of the description of what you can paint that says "and more."


I found that it works beautifully on wood, cork, coated chipboard, and cardstock. On the metal, plastic, and glass... it flaked off. It did not crackle on felt, but did crackle a bit on the burlap. I used a little glue dot on the back of each of these items to hold them steady for painting, which is a great little tip I learned in class. All of these items were painted with vintage photo distress crackle paint. Inking up the items after they have been painted adds some extra depth to the projects.


I wrote the color of ink used on each one. I love the variety of looks I got with this one bottle of paint.

I will definitely purchase this product when it hits the stores. I love how you can change the appearance of the paint with some ink after it dries. I love how messy the application looks, but what a beautful finish it gives. I love that I don't have to clean up any paint brushes. I think the drying time is a factor in deciding to use this, but it would be worthwhile to paint up a stack of goodies and keep them on standby to use as needed.