GSL Cuts: Portal by GDT Member Lora Mahaffey

First off, thanks to Gina at Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts for inviting me to be her guest designer for the month of September! I'm going to be starting off with something weird and (maybe) thought provoking....

If such wondrous things as different dimensions of existence were real and a person could travel to them, how would you do it? How about a portal? What if you said to yourself, Hmmmmm, I think I'd like to have a picnic in the Great Forest of Silverhelme or chat with the folks in the Kraken Nebula?
Wouldn't it be cool to dial a location up and step through a portal with your cute little overnight bag or your picnic basket? Just putting it out there.......

I started out with the Arch Top Cabinet with Doors (which I love and can see a bazillion possibilities for). I pre-cut the paper for the front outer frame that houses the doors and then I assembled and glued everything together except the doors. I pre-cut the paper for the doors and set it aside. To hinge the doors, I used linen book binding tape. For a tutorial on how to do this, click HERE and scroll down to near the bottom of the page. The paper I chose for the outside of the cabinet is called Double Dot Vintage Gingerbread and you can get it at Alpha Stamps.

After gluing on all the papers and inking edges, I attached these hinges and applied little doodads to fancy them up a bit and added lots of hand painted details with gold acrylic paint. A spare eyeball, a watch face and a couple of large brass findings I gave a wash of gold to, made a fine and dandy focal for the top of the cabinet.

Open the cabinet doors and I see a universe of possibilities.

Oh! There is somebody there. Is she a tour guide? Your friendly neighborhood bus driver? Or maybe she's riding the portal like you and looking for her stop. Better step aside, this may be it......

I opted to paint the inside of the doors instead of trying to paper doors that were already attached and chose this gorgeous blue as it went well with the nebula I painted in the background. I used GSLCuts chipboard Compass which I painted gold, cut in half and glued to either side of the doors. More hand painted details and some sparkly bits were added to the doors as well.

To make the nebula background, I started off with some water color washes in blues with a bit of pink and yellow thrown in there. Then I added some acrylic high lights to the lighter spaces, which added dimension (Ha. See what I did there?) and texture. And emphasized the lighter spaces, making them appear to be lit up from the back.
The girl with the house on her head is an original drawing I did about a year ago called (very cleverly) 'Girl with a House'. I scanned her into my computer and changed her size to accommodate the cabinet interior. I added lots of watch parts and glass beads to her face to make her look like she's from very far away. The tree represents the Tree of Life to remind folks that no matter where you're from, life is life and not to go pointing your laser gun or vaporizer at a harmless tourist.