A Trio of Easter Cards

Hello folks!  It's Susan from Killam Creative and this is my first post as a new Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts  education teamie.  I'm thrilled to be part of such a creative group!

Since Easter is right around the corner I decided to make a trio of cards with bunnies and chicks.

As you can see, I've used stunning GSL Cuts frames and a flourish to give the cards wonderful depth and detail.  Let's take a look at each one!

On the first card I wanted to use my current favorite colour combination of green and purple.  The base of the card is purple/plum. The GSL Cuts "Layered Frame Bella Oval" surrounds the adorable bunny.

On the Bella base layer I scribbled the edge with a TH Distress Crayon and used a little water and my finger to smooth it out.  It's the first crayon experiment for me, and I think it turned out well!

I inked the top layer of the Bella Oval with TH Ground Espresso and a sponge and glued the bunny to it.  It looked nice lying on top of the Bella base, but it needed a little more oomph.  In full experimental mode --and with fingers crossed-- I covered the base edges with Ranger Glossy Accents and very carefully placed the inked bunny layer on top.  I had to walk away and hope for the best.

Ta da! It worked!  The Glossy Accents glued the layers together *and* gave the beautiful vintage bunny a worthy frame.

Next up is a peachy-keen card.  I used the GSL Cuts "Flourish Frame Marie" to highlight lovely tulips on the retired Pion Designs paper.

I painted the frame with the closest thing to peach in the paint drawer.  Once that dried I whitewashed it for a little more interest.  I dabbed around the frame with watery white paint and let it set for a wee bit to dry. Then I used the dryer because I really wanted to get to the next, even messier step!

I inked the frame edges with brown since I can't make a project without inked edges.  To give the frame more pop I stuck my finger in a tiny tub of Distress Stickles and patted it all around.  This will work with clear glue and glitter or whatever you have on hand.

Once dried, it gives a cool, sort of random texture to the frame.  This could work with crackle paint also.  Next time!

Lastly, here is my favorite card of the trio, because of the DUCKIES!  This one uses the GSL Cuts "Damask Singles".  This chipboard is delicate and bee-you-ti-ful!  I hated covering up any of it, but a card maker's gotta do what a card maker has got to do. 

First I dabbed the damask cut with a couple layers of TH Picket Fence Distress Stain.  Once the card started coming together, I realized the white was too plain.  

It got a blue wash much like the white wash on my second card above.  Once dry I considered a bunch of sticky pearls along the flourishes but opted for the much-easier Viva Pearl Pen in Ice White.  I dabbed it all over and left to dry overnight.  I randomly inked with a brown color and it was done! 

To attach to the card, I dotted the Zig 2-way glue all over the back and held in place for a short bit.  

Thanks for visiting our blog today!   I'll be here the 2nd and 4th Tuesday of each month.  There's a new Education Team inspiration post every day and we hope to see you often. 

Cheers,

Susan

Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts:

Layered Frame Bella Oval #C7A

Flourished Frame Marie #BB65A

Damask Singles #YB9

ST .GEORGES DAY April 23rd.

King Edward III made St George England's official Patron Saint because, although St. George wasn't English, he embodied the characteristics that King Edward wanted to project to the outside world, and a Patron Saint didn't have to be from the country of origin.

There are many stories about St. George  but they all seem to agree that he killed a dragon that was terrorising a village and that he died on April 23rd. 303 AD.

The finished plaque.

First of all I decided which pieces to use from GSLcuts.many lovely items.

 Next I gessoed all the pieces  and then coloured them ready to put onto the plaque, I just used different distress inks for this. I kept using different colours until I came up with the end product that I liked. The rose, of course, is red because that is the colour of the English rose.

 I then cut a fairly thick piece of cardboard into a shield shape and covered it in white gesso, then cut a piece of white card and embossed it with an embossing folder from my collection. Any embossing folder can be used, it was just to give the background a texture. I cut two pieces of red card, embossed them with the same folder as the base and stuck them onto the base to make the English flag, (red cross on a white background)

I went online to find a picture of St. George, there were hundreds of course, but I just chose the one that I liked and that fitted with what I wanted to do.

Placing the relevant pieces on the plaque came next,  I used the feathery flourishes set on the base to make a rough frame. Then came St. George holding his horse, and trying to slay the dragon.

The rose I put on a background of white card so that it would show up better, and placed it at the bottom of the plaque. I cut the stem off the rose  as I only wanted the flower itself.

I  put the label at  the top of the plaque with St. Georges day hand written on it.

This is just a simple project but I hope someone will be inspired enough to have a go, maybe for another special day. Remember projects don't always have to be complicated, simple things can look nice too.

Items used: Feathery flourishes set.

          Horse shape set 

              Dragons shape set 

                          Stackable labels shape set 

                Long stemmed rose.

Tablet, Phone or Ipad stand

Hi folks, Angela here with a fairly simple project for you. I decided that it was about time I made the tablet stand up, after all it is only 3 pieces of chipboard! It is however an incredibly useful 3 pieces of chipboard when assembled.

I took a white painter pen and gave the whole thing a basecoat of white.

Then I took the symbols fragment from the Mixed Media Fragments 2 and used it as a stencil, I used a fairly stiff paintbrush (I don't have a specific stencil brush) with some distress paint to pounce through the fragment.

I then took another fragment, this time the hexagon one, from the same set and repeated the process with some color art silk paints:

I decided, once I had done the above step that I would use the fragment to decorate the stand so I cut it into pieces that fit and used an alphabet die set to cut out my name. Here you have the finished piece with an added elephant that I got on my recent trip to the USA.

I hope this will help to inspire some of you to have a go with some of the dimensional things in the store.

For the Birds by Cherry Nelson

Hi guys and happy Tuesday.  I have a bright colorful gift set to share today made for Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts.  A happy card and matching little spool birdhouse. 

 These two pieces came together very easy using the sweet For the Birds set.  I left most of the pieces the natural kraft but painted my little eggs with chalk paint to have them stand out.

 I sanded and distressed the eggs a bit and nestled them in the nest.

I added a few bright stickers, flowers, and ribbon and was done.

Wouldn't this make a sweet Spring pick me up for someone?  Thanks for visiting the Gypsy Soul Laser Cut blog.  Cherry

Gypsy Soul Laser Cut Supplies:

For the Bird set 

Celebrating Hazel-a mini album

Hi everybody! Lynne here with a project created using the Bracket Edged Stagger Mini Album and the cute Garden Party 6x6 paper pad from Pebbles Inc.

I had originally planned to make a spring-themed album, but once I had covered the pages with patterned paper, it just seemed to want to be a baby girl's album instead....funny how projects sometimes take on a life of their own!

I knew 3 people who had had little girls in the past few months, but only one of them lived close enough that I would be able to meet up and give her the album, so I got in touch and asked if I could use her photos for my project and she was kind enough to say yes....so here is a chronicle of the first couple months in little Hazel's life:

After covering the pages with patterned paper, I sanded and inked the edges. The photos were collaged 4 images to a 4x6" printout so each image was 2"x3". I was able to layer 2 images on some of the pages but one photo worked well on most of them. The embellishments were mostly cut from the paper and popped up with foam adhesive, but some of them came from the Special Delivery collection, also by Pebbles Inc. I tied a variety of laces, fibers and ribbons to the rings using larks-head knots.

The chipboard  piece on the cover was painted with white acrylic paint then heat-embossed with glitter embossing powder; I did 2 alternating layers of each, which, combined with the use of the heat tool, created a raised, bubbled effect. I then inked the surface lightly with pink ink.

Thanks so much for stopping by; I'm sure you can come up with a wonderful use for this cute shaped album-it's so versatile and will look terrific no matter how you decide to finish it. have a super week!

GYPSY SOUL ITEMS USED

Bracket Edged Stagger Mini Album
Delicate Frames and Ornaments Shape Set

OTHER ITEMS USED

Pebbles Inc. Garden Party collection-6x6
Pebbles Inc. Special Delivery collection (stickers and cutout shapes)
Colorbox inks
Ranger embossing powder-Bridal Tinsel

Happy Birthday to you...

Hi and welcome to the Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts blog today.  I have a fun and easy project to share with all of you using some of our large tags and the Birthday Shape set.  Grab a cup of coffee and join me to see how I did these fun to make tags with simple inks and embossing powders.

To begin this project you will need a set of the large chipboard tags, the birthday shape set and a few of the flower stackers that you see above.  Before I start all my projects that I  do,  I like to lay out all my pieces so that I can see what colors that I need and get an idea of what other papers and goodies I can use.  This is the fun part and you can use lots of those things in your stash too.

I picked this cute plaid paper from MFT for the base of my tags and traced around each of the them and glued them to the front and backs.  After they were dry I sanded around each of them with a file to get rid of any uneven edges. Then I punched the hole at the top of each for ribbons later.

Then I got out some of my favorite inks and dabbed them on the top of each of the pieces and then embossed it with clear or white embossing powder to set the inks.

For the presents I wanted to create a more watercolor effect so I dabbed on the inks into each area of the presents and the bows to color them and shade them.  Then I embossed with clear powder.  

I love that this piece has a window that goes over it... It makes it look like stained glass.

I also inked around the edges of the tags to make them a bit more vintage and match the chipboard.

And lastly--after I inked all my pieces and let them dry I glued them onto the tags and added a Happy Birthday stamp, ribbons and glitter to each of them.  It was super fun to try something new with the inks and now I have pretty tags to add to my birthday bags when I need them.

Here is my supply list for these projects:

GSLC Chipboard Decorative Large Tags

GSLC Birthday Shape set

GSLC Flower Stackers

Stampendous stamp- Friendly phrases

Tsukineko Chalk inks

Stampendous Detail Clear and white embossing powder

Scotch Quick Dry Tacky glue

MFT plaid 6x6 paper pad

scissors, nail file

superfine glitter

Thank you so much for stopping by today and hope you have a very fun and creative day too!

Teresa

Fairy Wreath

Hello and Happy Spring! It's Gloria with you today, and I am sharing a fun, springtime wreath.

I admit, making dimensional wreath projects is not in my main wheelhouse, but with the Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts chippies, it makes it pretty easy to take one on! I had a blast making my wreath and adding a tiny fairy hut, with some sweet fairies flitting around!

I depleted my stash of yellow flowers for this project, but it was worth it!

Let's get started!

We will be using the medium ring from the Wreath Rings set for our basic wreath shape. Set the other rings aside for other projects. 

Brush one side of the wreath ring with matte gel medium and place it face down onto a piece of decorative paper. Use a brayer to smooth the paper. Set the project aside to allow the adhesive to dry.

Use a craft knife to cut round the inside and outside circles. Use sanding blocks to smooth any rough edges.

Prepare the pieces of the Mini House Shadow Box 2.

Assemble the house. Use white ink or paint to give the house a weathered look. I used a spray ink and a foam brush to paint my house.

Once the paint has dried, glue the house to the bottom right side of the wreath, as shown. I used hot glue to attach my little house. I also added a bit of support on the back of the house with a cardboard shim.

Use pigment inks to color the vines, fairy, and word art from the Scribble Frame Fairy set. Allow the ink to dry.

Glue the fairy frame to the top of the 3D house, as shown.

Add dew drops to a small glass bottle and glue the bottle to the inside of the house. Add a butterfly charm, as shown. Attach the word art to the upper left of the wreath.

Use black ink to color two small fairies from the Garden Fairies - Small set. Allow the ink to dry. Glue one fairy to the top of the "H" and the other fairy to the bottom left of the scribble frame.

Use hot glue to attach yellow and white flowers, and green leaves, to the frame and the main wreath, as desired. Add yellow  and green enamel dots, as desired.

Celebrate spring!

~ Gloria Stengel: Scraps of Life

Supplies Used:

Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts:
Wreath Rings
Mini House Shadow Box 2
Scribble Frame Fairy
Garden Fairies - Small

Other:
Pigment ink (moss green, turtle, pistachio, pepper, cocoa), enamel dots, flowers and leaves, spirals, matte gel, white spray ink, multi-medium, wet glue, hot glue, decorative paper, dew drops (yellow, black, white), butterfly charm, glass bottle with stopper, enamel dots