Retro Teen Girl's Bedroom Nook

How's that for a post title? Happy Saturday, everyone! This little project brought back some fond memories and I had way too much fun with it. Record players, black light posters, bean bag chair....let me walk you through how it came together.

The scene was set inside a GSL 7 by 7 Corner Room Box. Here are the pieces laid out ready to assemble with tacky glue. It's the perfect size to set a miniature scene.

Once the glue dried, I papered the floor with a white hardwood floor paper from BoBunny's Garden Party collection and the walls with Paper Studio's Girl Flowers.

A GSL Bookcase 1 to 12 displays a lot of treasures. Pink and gingham were all the rage for girls rooms during this era. Authentique Latest & Greatest has the perfect gingham to paper the back wall of the bookcase once it was assembled. 

Rubber bands were used to hold the bookcase in place while the glue dried. 

It was painted off white to reflect the French provincial style so popular during this timeframe.

The other piece of furniture in the room is a record player console made from a GSL Library Table. My dad actually made me one of these when I was a kid to hold my stereo. Today it holds my crafting books.  Here are the pieces laid out.

I painted the sections before assembly. This makes it easier to get paint into the small nooks. It was papered the same as the bookcase.

The room needs a record player! So easily made from a GSL Suitcase 1.6 Inch and cardstock circles.

It was finished with some beads for the knobs and a snip of wire for the arm. I also made a little jewelry box from a GSL Mini Cigar Box available over at Alpha Stamps.

Here's the record player in place beneath a few posters from the time period. This little nook has black light, Have a Nice Day, Hang in There and Peter Max posters. The console also has a ouija board, Mickey Mouse ears, Creepy Crawler molds, a Mad magazine, a jar of mercury (What, didn't everyone play with mercury from broken thermometers as a kid?) and some albums which are just printed images glued onto thin cardboard.

Some favorite games assembled from printed minis. 

The shag rug is a section of pastel rainbow trim I found in the fabric section at Hobby Lobby. I'm always on the lookout for bits I can use in miniatures. I sewed up a quick beanbag chair and plopped a stuffed animal in it. The miniature chemistry book next to the chair was covered in a bit of brown paper then doodled on. There's a periodic chart to study from, too. 

Besides a few collectibles, the bookshelf has a Pet Rock (pebble with googly eyes), Magic 8 Ball (black bead), Rubik's Cube and Green Ghost game (mini printables), black & white TV made from a small tin, and a Silly Putty egg (poly clay). The glass jar contains some water beads. I wanted to make a lava lamp but finally settled on this. I also really wanted a Troll Doll for this room and ordered a miniature one from China but my order got cancelled. I'll keep an eye out for one!

Thanks for stopping by!

GSL Products Used

7 by 7 Corner Room Box

Bookcase 1 to 12

Library Table

Suitcase 1.6 Inch

Mini Cigar Box Set

Other Supplies Used

Tacky glue

Acrylic paint

Printed images

Paper Studio's Girl Flowers

BoBunny Garden Party collection

Authentique Latest & Greatest

Cardstock

Miniatures & Collectibles

Potages Cauldron Shope

I'm embracing my inner Potterhead once again and this time I've created a miniature version of "Potages" the cauldron shop located on the North Side, Diagon Alley in the Harry Potter universe.

I've used a 7 by 7 Corner Room Box as the base for my little shop. I've also added a
Double Window Ornate on both the inside and exterior of the 'building'.

The signage is are printouts pasted to thick board with small brad heads added to the corners.

Simple trims, which are just various sized strips of card cut from a cereal box, are a super easy way to create a finished custom look.

Wooden floor was created with coffee stir sticks, stained with washes of acrylic paint. And how perfect is that wallpaper with it's pattern of tiny spiders?! That's "It's Elementary" from Graphic 45s Master Detective Collection. Scrapbook paper makes excellent roombox wallpaper.

To fill my shop, all sorts of little cauldrons. I even designed some products for proper cauldron upkeep like wax, cleaner and polish. To be honest, those little packages put me almost a whole day behind... totally worth it :P You can download the collage sheet to create these at the bottom of this post.

Want to create your own Potages? Or maybe a shop from your own imagination?! I have a video walkthrough for creating the basics of this room that might help you in making your own masterpiece. You can find it HERE

Finally, here are supplies used in my wee cauldron shoppe:

7 by 7 Corner Room Box 

Double Window Ornate

Black Plastic Cauldrons

Metal Cauldron or Pot

Tiny Wooden Bowls
"It's Elementary" Graphic 45, Master Detective Collection

cereal box card

thick card

wooden stir sticks

acrylic paint

drywall compound

small metal brads

transparency paper

glue, glue, glue
Cauldron Shop Printable

Have fun!

The Secret Word is FUN!

Happy Saturday! Today's project is truly a nostalgic one. My daughter and I never missed watching Pee Wee's Playhouse together on Saturday morning when she was little. The show's amazing playhouse set decoration inspired me to make my own version using the GSL 7 by 7 Corner Room Box

The room box itself couldn't be easier to assemble with a bit of tacky glue. It's just 5 pieces: The floor, two walls and two 7 x 0.5 inch support pieces for the box's floor. 

The scrapbook paper I used doesn't 100% match the walls of the playhouse on TV, but they are close enough to evoke the feel of it. I made the flooring from gray, white and black cardstock and a few interesting hole punches. 

 I used two of the smaller GSL Mini Shadowbox Set boxes in this project. One is used for Jambi the genie's box and the other is used for the aquarium's base. This set of boxes is so versatile!  I use them in lots of projects.

"Wish? Did somebody say 'Wish'?” Jambi grants Pee Wee one wish per day. I painted the interior of the box black and the exterior a sparkly purple. I printed out a Jambi image and added a red jewel and feather to his turban. He is mounted on a bit of foam to add some dimension.  His box sits on top of a dollar store bedside table that I painted red.

I made the doors to his box out of white polymer clay. After baking, I painted one side with Lumiere Burgundy metallic paint and Martha Stewart amethyst glitter paint. 

The other side got a coating of Lumiere Metallic Silver and Martha Stewart sugar cube glitter paint. It was finished off with dots of Ranger Stickles and a few flat back jewels. "The wish has been granted. Long live Jambi!".

Clocky was sculpted out of yellow and white polymer clay. The red and black accents were done with Sharpie markers. The numbers in his smile were cut from a piece of junk mail.

Mr. Window was a fun project. He's made from a GSL 6 Panel Window.  After removing the lowest vertical spacer, I gave it a primer of gesso then painted it with a yellow acrylic paint. A realistic sky scrapbook paper was cut to fit the window.

The only things left to add were googly eyes and a dollhouse window pull (with straight pin heads glued in place to represent nails).  I clipped the pin shafts off once the glue was dry.

 

For Pee Wee's aquarium, I pulled two plastic fish out of my stash then removed their eyes (!) and replaced them with googly eyes. 

Their aquarium is made from a GSL Number Card cut in half and painted black, a coffee stir stick , some aquatic scrapbook paper and a snippet of plastic greenery.

I sandwiched them all together and held it with craft clips while the glue dried.

The flowers that introduced the King of Cartoons were assembled from glitter paper, cardstock and googly eyes.

Chairy figures are available online but I decided to needle felt her instead. Her eyes are teddy bear eyes topped with fake eyelashes.  It's only the second needle felted project I've ever attempted. I'm pretty happy with how it came out.

This is maybe my most fun project I've made in a long time. I'm guessing you either were brought on a nostalgic journey along with me or are left wondering what the heck? At any rate, for the rest of the day when anyone says the secret word, scream real loud! 

 

Gypsy Soul Laser Items Used

7 by 7 Corner Room Box

Mini Shadowbox Set boxes

Windows 6 Panel 
Number Cards

Other Items Used

Tacky glue

Lumiere metallic paint

Martha Stewart glitter paint

Acrylic paint

Googly eyes

Dollar store bedside table

Cardstock

Basic Grey Nook & Plenty

Kaisercraft Winter Wonderland Silver Bells

Ella & Viv Mid Century Modern

Stickles

Flatback crystals

Glitter cardstock

Polymer clay 

Plastic fish

Toy Chairy

Gardening at Night by Betsy Skagen

 Spring has arrived and gardens are blooming. But beware those cute little garden gnomes...for at night they turn the garden into a place where evil resides.

Under the cloak of night  these gnomes cast wicked magic upon your garden. Innocuous plants turn into man-eating beasts while the gnomes themselves cart body parts from nearby cemeteries into their gardens. What they do with them, one can only imagine...and shudder.

I had such fun making the "Gardening at Night" scene (which by the way gives a subtle nod to R.E.M., my all-time favorite band). It all began when I assembled the 7 x 7 Corner Room Box and painted it with gesso. I gave it a base coat of green paint and then began adding different layers.

Slowly I added layers of several greens, as well as yellow, brown and black acrylic paint-- to create a lush plant background. I used a heat gun to dry between each layer so as not to muddy the colors.

Next, I assembled the Planter Box with Trellis and Little Birdhouse. I painted the trellis with a mixture of yellow and white acrylic paints and painted the birdhouse sky blue. 

I then inked the edges of the trellis and birdhouse with brown ink and a blending tool to give them an aged appearance.  

After placing florist's foam inside the planter, I inserted the carnivorous plants that I made from clay.  I also added black paint to plastic greenery, dried moss and miniature flowers and added those to the trellis.

Finally, I painted  a miniature bird with black paint and added it and the birdhouse to the trellis.

To make the wheelbarrow, I first assembled it all but the axle and wheels and painted it green. I then painted the axle green, the wheels brown and completed the assembly. 

Next, I cut apart a small plastic skeleton  and shortened the rib cage and limbs to create a more gnome-like shape. I then reassembled the skeleton using a strong adhesive.

Scraps of blue striped fabric made the perfect pants and I quickly turned a red circle of felt into a hat.

I painted doll limbs with brown paint make them appear dirty and cut a rusty miniature snow shovel into the shape of a spade. After piling the wheelbarrow dried greens, I added the limbs, spade and mushrooms. 

It is the little details that really make the scene.

I aged miniature pots by smudging white paint with my fingers and painting moss with white paint before gluing it to the pots. 

On the base of the Room Box I created a curved pathway with black stones and surrounded it with green moss. I also added plants to the walls of the Room Box. 

Next, I created an entrance to the garden from tree branches from our yard. Sometimes I soak the branches to make them more pliable, but these were bendy enough that I was able to just use wire and hot glue to create the archway. 

I secured the archway in place by punching holes in the Room Box and securing the branches with wire on the back side.

To finish "Gardeing at Night" I glued everything in place and added additional details such as a gnome holding a skull, rope ladder, mushrooms and creepy trees.  

Thank you for stopping by the Gypsy Soul blog. I hope this tutorial inspires you to make your own Night Garden. Remember to keep an eye out for those wicked gnomes! -Betsy

Great Stuff

7 x 7 Corner Room Box

Wheelbarrow 1:12
Planter Box with Trellis
Little Birdhouse
Skeletons
Garden gnome
Rope ladder
Rusty shovel
Mushrooms
Moss
Stones
Plastic greenery
Artificial flowers
Miniature trees
Florist's foam
Doll parts
Miniature bird
Polymer clay
Wooden dowel
White cardstock
Gesso
Acrylic paint
Red felt
Fabric
Cotton ball
Tree branches and twigs
Wire
Brown ink
Beacon Fabri-Tac
Beacon 3-in-1
Hot glue gun