Hello everyone! Barbara here today with a shabby chic style project using none other than the fabulous Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts chipboard. My inspiration for this project came from the Dressing Room Set, and the rest just sort of happened. I thought this would make a beautiful wall plaque, if not to hang in your own dressing room, but it could be used to depict your Powder Room for guests. I was also thinking about how cool this would be to change the wording for your daughter to hang on her bedroom door.
As always, I like to choose my chipboard pieces and lay them out to see how well they will work together. I also added the ornamental birdcage to my project, but is not shown in this picture. Of course, this is just a beginning. I always add more as I go along.
I first had to get the plaque decorated, so I painted the filigree wood portion with a light pink chalk paint. Then I cut the decorative paper to size and adhered it to the plaque. The rose in the upper right corner was fussy cut from the portion of paper that I had to cut off and glued down. Then I edged the paper with a rose colored ink pad.
Now let's work on the chipboard pieces. I want to maintain a shabby chic look, so I painted the borders and corners with a light beige chalk paint. (Tip: I have found that using these flat sponge applicators work better than a brush for apply paint to these highly intricate laser cuts. The paint stays on top and does not fill up the openings.)
Next, I added a coat of an olive green chalk paint. After it dried well, I used a piece of sandpaper to sand away some of the top coat of paint, revealing the light beige color.
The chipboard pieces were painted, as shown in the photo below.
The dress was painted with blue chalk paint, then it was stenciled, first with a darker blue to get the pretty design, then gold was stenciled over that.
The lady and her arm were painted with flesh paint, and lightly edged with white on areas that might "shine" in the light. The gloves were painted with white only.
The shoes were painted with white, then a top coat of gold on top.
The gears were painted black first, then colored with various colors of metallic gold and copper.
The stool was painted with white and gold, the cushion on top of the stool was painted with the green chalk paint.
Here is a closeup of the gears.
Here is a closeup of the skirt. My intention was to attach the two metal embellishments to the dress with a brad, but I forgot that her arm piece would go where I punched the hole. So I ended up gluing it just below her arm, as seen in the finished photo.
The bird cage was painted white, then gold metallic wax was rubbed over the top, leaving some of the white to show through.
The dress form plaque bottom was painted with white, then pale pink chalk paint. A bit of sanding was done along the edge to distress it before edging with pink chalk ink to give that shabby look. The top of the plaque was covered with a coordinating piece of the paper and edged with the light blue chalk paint.
As I was gluing the pieces to my canvas board, I thought I needed something in the lower right corner. Fortunately, Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts has you covered. I painted this topiary tree, as shown, using a terra cotta paint and adding pen work to detail the pot. I painted the tree and moss covering the top of the pot with green chalk paint, and brown paint for the tree limbs.
I painted these plastic letters with the green, then sponged blue chalk paint over that.
The Art Deco border was adhered vertically along the left edge.
Lastly, I painted a butterfly with green, then blue chalk paint, edging the wings with gold, then a light coat of terra cotta.
The letters were glued to the base, as shown. I glued the gears to the top of her head with three small metal stickers. Here, you can see how I attached the metal flowers to her dress, below her arm.
Her high heels were glued, as shown, and I draped the pair of gloves over the edge of the stool.
The Art Deco corner was glued to the top and bottom right of the canvas.
In the upper right, I adhered the dress form plaque, adding two metal embellishments that I patinated with a patina ink, sanding back to reveal the original metal color. I punched a hole in the bottom so I could use a brad to attach a tiny bit of chain, allowing me to hang the bird cage below it.
A metal bird charm was glued down, flying towards the cage.
To bring even more life to my topiary tree, I glued dark green flower soft to the moss and a multi colored flower soft to the tree. I used an embossing stylus to separate the "circles" to delineate the three tree parts.
Lastly, I sprinkled a bit of the colored flower soft along the bottom, where the flowers are falling off and landing on the floor.
Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts Used:
Dressing Room Set
Ornamental Birdcages Shape Set
Art Deco Border and Corners
Gear Borders and Corners (coming soon)
Topiary Trees
Other supplies used:
Pink Paislee Hope Chest paper collection
ArtMinds Chalkboard Plaque (Michaels) (9-1/4 x 11-1/2)
Chalk Paint (white, blue, green, pink, terra cotta)
Pink, blue chalk ink pad
Plastic alphabet
Metal charms and length of chain
Metal brads
I hope you enjoyed today's project. I really love how this turned out, and I think this would also make a wonderful gift for someone, but I plan on keeping it for myself and hanging it on my "Powder Room" door. Be sure to stop by Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts to see all the fabulous chipboard and more inspiration from the team.
Thanks for stopping by, and as always, have a wonderful, creative weekend!!
Barbara
