Saturday Morning TV with Pee Wee's Playhouse

I am a child of the 80's. I totes remember having to get my butt off the couch to change channels and adjust the volume. I remember the glory of Saturday morning cartoons. As soon as I saw the Gypsy Soul Altoids TV's I was taken back to those days.

My absolute favorite of all that Saturday morning goodness was Pee Wee's Playhouse. Fellow design team member, Connie Little created an amazing room box of the Playhouse set a while ago and I've been desperate to make my own Pee Wee something ever since. THIS was the perfect opportunity.

Assembly was super simple and yet I somehow managed to mangle almost every step. It was one of those days when everything I touched turned to soup... and yet, even on a craptastic day, it's still awesome, right?! If you're having your own soup day, I have a walk-through with some pointers to avoid all of my mistakes. Pop over HERE for the video.

Don't like Pee Wee? I think you're crazy but you can totally make one of these cute TV's for your favorite show. Just grab a background shot, then add a cutout of your favourite character to add as a focal point. Bewitched is next on my list! Then, maybe, Murder She Wrote. Or how about Golden Girls?! 20 Minute Workout perhaps.

Of course you should use materials suited to the show theme you want to create, but for this particular Pee Wee version here are the supplies I used:

Altoids TV Standard

Altoid Tin

Red, black, white, yellow acrylic paints

Silver and red fine glitter

Glossy Accents

Glue (white, instant)

Background image, foreground character

Adhesive foam squares

Papillons Butterfly House Tag

Hello there friends and GSL fans! Ginny here with a uniquely shaped tag with  some gorgeous chippies.

 I love this house shape base and wanted to use the chipboard as a bit of architecture for the roof peak.

I'm also using chipboard in the role of foliage for my floral arrangement.

I think the antiqued effect finish really compliments this nature inspired project.

I love how the Hypericum Berries really fills in the corner and adds a little warmth and shine.

A few details added to complete this tag include a clip, some Nuvo Drops, tinsel trim, and Prills.

I selected my chippies and wiped them to to clean them to prepare for altering.

Everything gets a coat of metallic gold paint then allowed to dry.

Pearlescent paint is a bit sheer so when dabbed onto another color you can achieve a nice mottled finish.

Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts~Hypericum Berries, Altoids Tin Topper.

Wishing everyone a happy and productive day : ) G

Halloween in Wonderland Altered Altoids Tin

Hello, Friends!  It's Kathy Clement here, filling in with a little guest tutorial.  With the rapid approach of fall, my mind turns toward Halloween projects, how about you?  Well, today I have the cutest little Halloween in Wonderland altered Altoids Tin to share with you.  I hope you will enjoy it as much as I enjoyed making it!

Isn't it fun?  I used two different Altoids inserts: Scalloped and Alice along with Tiny Alice Props chippies from Gypsy Soul.

I have a few process photos to share with you, and then lots and lots of pics to inspire you.

I began the process by aging my Altoids tin with Prima Rust pastes.  I found lots of online tutorials for this process, but basically, you just use a brush to tap the paste on, starting with the darkest color.  Let the layers dry before you add the next color.  I treated both the inside and the outside of the tin.

While my rust paste was drying, I painted all the inserts with black soot distress paint.  Paint both the front and the back.  You can see that I kind of cleaned my rust paste brushes off on some areas of the painted chippies.  I didn't want them to look too perfect.

I also used a white Sharpie pen to outline some of the shapes.  I tapped shades of blue Distress Paint onto the chips as well, just to add some texture.  Then I sponged over the ink with Black Distress Ink and a blender tool to knock the color back a little.

I traced each insert onto Halloween in Wonderland papers, trimmed them out and glued them to the back of the insert.  Easy, peasy!

I hot glued some purple trim and a border piece around the edges of the tin.  I tried using Glossy Accents but it would not stick to the rough texture of the rust paste.  Glue gun to the rescue!

I painted a selection of Tiny Alice Props with Wilted Violet and Shaded Lilac Distress Paints.  The edges were inked with Black Soot DI.  I also used my White Sharpie pen to add a dot border around the inside edge of each insert.  I really like the way this helped define the shape as well as provided some pattern and contrast.  

I wanted my tin to look really old and battered so I distressed it even more by tapping it lightly with a craft hammer.  Then I rusted a Tim Holtz Idea-ology word band and glued it to the front edge of the tin.

I filled the inside of the tin with all the inserts.

I also painted some tiny mushroom chippies from the Tiny Alice Props and added them to the final card in the box.  I love the dimension this adds.

So that's all for me!  All these fun bits and pieces will be coming to Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts soon, so keep your eyes peeled!  They'll make spook-tacular Halloween decor.

Thanks for stopping by!

Cheerio,

kathy