A Stroll Down Sweet Street

Yep, the holidays are over, winter has us all in her cold clutches. What better way to warm up than make some snuggly cute houses for Valentine's Day? Lora here playing with the House Oddities Box and having a grand time! I love this kit! I love anything house shaped and the possibilities with this awesome kit are pretty much endless.
I decided to take a stroll down Sweet Street,  a charming little block of confectionery delights.

It was lots of fun using pink papers and lots of glitter! And, of course, chocolate was eaten throughout the project. For inspiration. Just sayin'.

 

The papers kind of remind me of the Licorice Allsorts I got when I was in college in the UK.
I wasn't over fond of licorice, but the sweets were so colorful and pretty, they always looked like they should taste like something else.

A couple of detail shots.....

I started this project by gluing the box together and giving it a coat of gesso. I usually like to do this for two reasons. The main one is that matte medium loves to stick to gesso, so it's very easy to glue papers down. The second is that there is sometimes what I call 'burn residue' on die-cuts and this keeps your hands from getting ashy and transferring it to your papers when you're gluing them down.

I pre-cut all the papers I wanted to use for each house, back and front. Next I used linen hinging tape to connect all my little houses together.

I made sure to leave plenty of space between the houses to account for the bulk of papers and ephemera I wanted to add. If you tape the pieces too close together, the houses won't fold up properly.
Keep the bottoms of your houses straight and even so nothing is lopsided.

I glued all the papers on the houses and trimmed them where needed. I then inked the edges and the linen tape so it would blend in a bit with the whole ensemble.

I collected a bunch of fun little doodads and bits and composed little house layouts. I usually don't plan this part, as it's more fun to just be spontaneous and I'm not locked into  a fixed idea, so fun things start happening and my project starts to get a personality.
I made a little flap with a message underneath by cutting out a pretty shape from scrapbook paper and once again, using lined hinging tape.....

I laid the tape over the house and measured out (roughly...it's not brain surgery) the width and length I needed and stuck it down.

Now it's ready for embellishing and a cute little message.

Supplies List:
House Oddities Box
Window 6 Panel
Steampunk Shape Set (wings)
Stackable Labels Shape Set

Additional Supplies
Bo Bunny Sweet Moments 6x6 and 12x12 Scrapbook Papers
Stickles-Diamond
Linen Hinging Tape
Paper Roses
Collage images from Sandy Gordon (Art, Tea, Life)
White acrylic paint marker
Gesso
Matte Medium (I like Liquitex)

Thank you so much for stopping by!

Business Card Holder

 Hello everyone.  Gina here and today I am sharing a business card holder I made for my daughter in law, who recently opened her own business.

 I began by laying out my pieces and doing a dry assembly.  I decided which of my paper pieces would need slots cut and which would not.  I traced my pieces on the patterned paper (I used Authentique's Elegant Three). Remember that you do NOT want to cover the tabs on the pieces so all of the sides and bottom pieces will be cut as simple rectangles.

 After cutting out my paper I moved to the paint stage. Only the edges of the pieces were going to show so I used an acrylic paint pen to paint these.  The raw edge soaks up the paint and it does take two coats for a smooth well covered finish.

 Next I applied the paper to the inside of the ends of the holder.  These are the pieces that I cut the slot holes in.  I used Scotch Quick Dry adhesive (in the fine line applicator).

 I assembled the business card holder using the same adhesive.

 I applied the paper to the inside of the holder.

 And finally to the outside of the holder.

 For some added decoration I used a frame from the Postage Frames set

 and a corner from the Victorian Corners 2 set.

 I colored these black using a Sharpie marker and sealed them with a coat of Diamond Stickles (who doesn't need a little sparkle on their desk??).

I printed a family photo for the top frame and used another piece of the patterned paper to fill the lower frame.  I attached the frame to the back of the holder and the corner to the front of the holder, adding a punched piece of paper for layering. 

 

GSLC Products Used

Business Card Holder

Postage Frames

Victorian Corners 2

Tool Caddy

Hi folks, it's Angela with you today with a simple tool caddy. It is incredibly useful for putting in those bits and bobs you use all the time like scissors, pokey tool, pens and a ruler. Just put it on the desk whilst working and pop it back on the shelf when you have finished (you all tidy up when you have done don't you? ha ha)

First I layed out the pieces on the desk so I knew what I had.

Next I took the 2 number 5 pieces and inserted them into number 1, I then ran a line of glue along all the "lines" on piece number 3 before placing the assembled bit onto it.

Next I took the 2 number 2 pieces and layed them against the base to apply a line of glue along the joins. I find it easier to do it this way as you get glue exactly where you need it without too much mess.

All that was left for assembly was the end pieces (number 4) and here you have the assembled piece:

Here is the covered version:

and here it is sat in the rotating hobby organiser where it fits perfectly:

Supplies used

GSL Cuts Tool Caddy

GSL Cuts Rotating Hobby Organizer

Beacon 3 in 1 glue

Graphic 45 Botanical Tea paper.

A Steampunk Card for a Friend

I think that I had this ambition to get as much as I could on an 8" x 8" card and with the help of gorgeous  gslcuts embellishments I was able to succeed.
                                                                         
                                                                        

 

I used an 8" x 8" scalloped card that I had in my stock and cut a piece of creative expressions foundation card in white, slightly smaller than the card, making the curved corners to match.

 I used creative expressions gilding polish (colour heather) to cover the whole of the white piece of card, then embossed this with cogs & gears creative embossing folder. After I had embossed it I went over it very lightly with silver dream gilding polish.
Next I chose which embellishments I wanted to use, which were:- gears shape set, butterfly of gears, heart of gears, dragons shape set, hot air balloons net style and word elements 1. 

                                                                   

  I also had some flowers in my stock and thought they would look good too.
I covered all the embellishments in white gesso and let them dry, then coloured them with different coloured distress inks and some with gilding polish.
The colours that I used on the embellishments I also added to the background card using the hot air balloon as a template, but did some "splodges" as well.

                                                           

I had the flowers in my stash so stuck these in two corners then took the larger embellishments and placed these where I thought they looked good. 
Before sticking the heart on I threaded some ribbon around the top and stuck it to the card, and the larger gears set I stuck on myself, however, the small pieces of gears I just put in my hand, held them above the card and let them drop. I stuck them to the card where they had landed so that I didn't end up doing a uniformed pattern.
I added two heart pins from my stash to the top of the butterfly to form antennae, and added the friends word in a frame to the top corner.

                                                           

Gslcuts items used:-Dragon shape set
                                     Butterfly of gears
                                     Heart of gears
                                     Hot air balloons net style
                                     Gears shape set
                                     Word elements 1.
Other items used:- Creative embossing folder, cogs & gears
                                    Creative expressions foundation card
                                    Creative expressions gilding polish
                                     Distress ink (any make)













      

Horror Diorama - A serial Killers House

Ed Geins House

Horror Diorama

Welcome back to part two of the horror diorama. I'm going to start off by showing you how I finished the tombstone and then you'll get to see all the finale pictures of the whole diorama.

Ed Gein was a serial killer and grave robber active in the 1950's. His horrifying work inspired many Hollywood movies (Psycho, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Silence Of the Lambs).

I painted the tombstone in a base coat of burnt umber.

And then dry brushed white over top once it was dry.

I added some green flock for a mossy look.

And some dollar store moss for an extra mossy look. And now onto the finale!

Full view of front of Ed Geins house

Side view of Ed Geins house.

Top - down view of the house.

Atop the dresser sits some morbid creations. 

My personal favourite, is Ed Geins skull-bowl. A bowl he made out of a human skull. A spoon is added because bowls need spoons. Ed really did make one of these.

A book on bones and grave digging, open to handy pages with illustrations.

A beautiful bone-bouquet. He was clearly thinking of his mother when he made this. 

His floor is scattered with grave digging work.

A tombstone leans against the wall - a nod to both his grave digging hobby and the fact the Ed himself no longer has a headstone because people kept stealing pieces of it.

Tacked to the wall is one of the newspaper articles released when Ed Gein was arrested.

A picture of the notorious Ed Gein himself, framed on the wall.

Ed was a notorious mama's boy. He was obsessed with his mother (which is why it inspired Psycho).

All of the available pictures of Ed's house were taken in the winter - it was soon after burned down. So I added some "snow" to the roof for good measure.

A shovel, a boot covered in dirt, some more dirt, and bones.

The front of the dresser with bone handles.

An antique clock on the wall for an added punch.

Materials

Shingles

Split Front Box

Tombstone Stand Ups

Gothic Dresser