Nightstand Cabinet Re-do

So I've had this nightstand since I was like 10 years-old. My dad made it for me way back when and for some odd reason I decided to paint it pink (currently pink is my least favorite color) and at the time there was only one middle separater pieces so he cut out some wooden flowers and butterflies that I of course painted all cute and girly and he glued it on the front for me. Then as I got older I had him add a second middle separater piece, painted the whole thing a light green, then hand-painted some darker green squiggles along all of the raised wooden pieces (sorry the only picture of the before is on my phone and I can't seem to get it off right now so you'll just have to use your imagination). But now being married and trying to decorate the house in a more adult way the green just really didn't fit. So, over time, I've transformed it to fit my bedroom decor A LOT better. 

After painting it all an Acrylic Latex Gloss called Nightfall, I knew I wanted to try and get the crackle look on the top and on the raised wooden pieces on the front but I didn't want the underneath color of light green to show through when it crackled so I painted the top and front pieces one coat of white paint.

You know how they say in order to get that crackle look you have to buy the paint that's especially mixed with some sort of crackle element? Yeah, well that's a load of poo people say because they have no idea that....dum dum dum...Elmer's Glue, will do the exact same thing for a fraction of the price! I picked up a 7.65 oz. bottle for $1.67 at Wal Mart. Cheapo! So after the white paint dried I squirted my Elmer's glue all over the top, then used a foam brush to smooth it all out a bit before I painted a coat of my same Acrylic Latex Gloss on top of the glue. Now this is my second time doing this crackle finish but I think one trick is to let it dry some. Not all the way, just enough so it's more tacky instead of wet.

This is after it was completely dry. Another trick is when you brush your final color on top, only brush over it ONCE, otherwise the crackle will not work. I wasn't quite sure what the best way to do this would be so I pretty much just loaded up my brush with the paint and started on the sides. When I first got the top covered it didn't even look like I did anything special but I was patient and it came out looking like that. I think I'm going to try and experiment with different paints and see how they all crackle. Just using plain acrylic paint seemed to crackle a lot better instead of just looking like I did a poopy paint job like with this time so I might re-do the top down the road if it still bothers me. But the front pieces crackled really well...

I didn't really bother to do a good paint job with the spots between my separater pieces cause I knew I was going to be covering them up.

However, the cabinet re-do didn't stop there. I found a blog awhile ago ( I can't remember which one I found it one but it's one that I've made a link to on my blog), that they made a bathroom cabinet and mod podged pages of a book onto the doors. Well I fell in love with that look and decided to do that with this cabinet. I didn't want the pages from a brand new book because of the extreme white of the pages so I dug around my bookshelf and found a copy of the 1997 Guiness Book of World Records. Yeah, old! But the pages definitely looked more worn and had that older tinge of tan to them so I started ripping out pages. 

You'll need:

scrapbooking cutter

book pages

Mod Podge

brush

First I started by cutting 2-3 pages in half to try and get around the edges pretty well...

I only did this for the bottom section just because I wanted to try it a little different with the others but either way it turned out great! Basically you want to first put a thin layer of the Mod Podge on the surface you're working with just to get it to stick and not slide around when you put a layer on top. One lady that has her craft blog soley dedicated to Mod Podge suggests spraying the back of the surface you'll be Mod Podging down slightly with water but the way I did it seemed to work. So once you've got a layer brushed on you can lay down your pieces of paper, placing and layering as you desire. There's a tool called a brayer that's supposed to really help get the bubbles out but I never remember to get one and I was really wanting to finish the cabinet. I tried to use a glue stick....didn't work! However, I found out that if I used my finger to squish out the bubbles (half the time there was just a thicker layer of Mod Podge underneath that my brush couldn't flatten well enough) it worked pretty well. And the best part is that even though it's white when you put it on, it dries completely clear so no worries on making a mess...

The end result turned out great! I'm debating on using my Cricut to cut out a shape or something and Mod Podge that onto the book pages of the front but unfortunately none of the paper I have is what I had in mind so that's just gonna have to wait but other than that I am thrilled with my finished product...

I have a feeling this is just the beginning of a long road full of Mod Podging with book pages : )