It's Five O'Clock Somewhere

Happy Saturday, everyone! Today I'd like to share what I made with one of the GSL Art Doll Nichos - a little shrine dedicated to happy hour.

The shrine comes in three pieces; the doll's body, a round disk for her head and an easily folded box. When I was studying this piece to see how it spoke to me I noticed the doll's body is shaped like a bottle and the idea took off from there. I set aside the round disk for a future project then cut a small calendar image to fit the interior of the nicho.

It was glued in place and the interior got a wash of white acrylic paint mixed with water.

The paper I chose for the bottle is from BoBunny's Weekend Market Collection. I simply traced around the chipboard bottle and cut the paper to size.

Since the name of this little shrine is 'It's Five O'Clock Somewhere', I knew I needed a clock for the front. I used a metal clock face with a glittery brad for the center. After searching my stash for clock hands that would fit, I realized the legs of the brad would be perfect and were going to have to be removed for this project anyway. I snipped them off and glued them in place. 

Here are the components, including some Architextures Found Glass Bottle stickers. 

I glued the nicho to the back of the piece and found a nice piece of gray ribbon to use for the bottle top, which was wrapped around and glued in place. 

The only thing remaining was a tiny cocktail. I rimmed a miniature martini glass with some fine crystal glitter. While the glue was drying, I cut a small section from a polymer cane lime slice and mixed just enough Ice Resin with a dot of red oil paint, poured it into the glass and secured the lime on the rim. 

It came out pretty dang cute!

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts Products Used

Art Doll Nicho

Other Products Used

Tacky Glue

BoBunny Weekend Market Collection

Canvas Corp Brands Architextures Findings - Found Glass Bottles Collection

White acrylic paint

Tim Holtz metal clock face

Brad

Miniature glass

Polymer cane slice

Fine crystal glitter

Ice Resin

Oil paint

yankee doodle daisy

The fourth of July is such an important day for this country. We gather together to celebrate the United States of America's independence as a nation.
Today I am sharing a patriotic piece that I created for the holiday. I love the Blue Daisy Character Constructions stamps from Catherine Moore. They have a wonderful American vibe that works so well with red, white and blue. Transforming them into my patriotic girls was so much fun!

I begin with two Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts art doll nichos. Each arrives in three pieces, the body, the niche (which requires a simple assembly), and a circle head piece. Whenever I create a project, I like to ensure that both the front and back are finished. For this project the backs of the art doll nichos will be painted black. The first step is to crease and fold the tabs of the niche, then add a dab of glue on each flap and secure to create the 3D form. I paint the back sides of the body forms, heads, and assembled niches with black paint and set aside to dry.

While the paint is drying, I select the stamps to use for the girl's clothing. The art doll body is slightly wider than the dress stamp I will be using. To accommodate the extra width, I stamp a blank piece of cardstock, cut out the image, and then slice it down the middle. I use these two sides to determine the extra width I will need to fit, then use this as a template for the dresses.

I trace my template onto the patterned paper and fussy cut the dress. When the extra-wide dress is cut out, I ink up one half of the stamp and cover the opposite side of the dress with a mask, then stamp the left side of the patterned dress. I allow the ink to dry and then repeat the process on the right side of the dress. The middle collar section is stamped by masking each edge and only inking the horizontal trim section of the stamp.

When the dress stamping is complete, I add trims and embellishments with glue, then set aside to dry. I cut coordinating patterned papers to fit inside the niche. These papers are adhered with Scor-tape.
The next step is stamping and coloring the dolls heads, arms and legs. I use a variety of markers, including Copics, Distress, Sharpies, and Gelly Roll pens. I then add a red rhinestone brad from  Emerald Creek to each girl's hat. Before attaching all of the pieces together, I want to complete the niche interiors. It is much easier to work this compartment before it has been secured to the body.

I die cut a mini paper rosette for each niche with coordinating papers. Each rosette is hung from a piece of craft thread. I poke a hole into the top flat portion of the niche, pass the thread through the hole, and tie a knot on the outside. Small die cut stars are scattered and glued to the niche walls and back. Once each niche is complete, it is attached to the back side of the body form. The appendages and clothing are then attached to the front of the body. The stamped and colored head is attached to the chipboard head piece and then attached to the front side of the neck portion of the body.

Each Daisy is waving a flag and holding the end of a banner strung between them which reads INDEPENDENCE to commemorate the fourth of July holiday.

 I have so may ideas for these art doll nichos. They can be used with doll stamps, as I have, with collage papers and paper cuts; or even with images found in magazines.

 If you like to play with dolls, the art doll nicho is a great base to start with.

Thank you so much for stopping by, I really appreciate it.
 Wishing you a happy Independence Day, if you celebrate.
~Ann
xxx


Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts used:
 Art Doll Nicho

Trixie Likes Bees

Hello everyone, Lora here for Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts.
Beatrix Mellifera likes honeybees.
A lot.
And they like her.
She draws them, studies them, talks to them and generally looks after their well being.
She cultivates their favorite flowers and fusses over them when it gets cold and shoos away naughty insects that might do them harm.
She is a great friend and guardian.
She's a little quirky, but aren't we all?

She has lots of personality and if you ask about bees, she can talk about them for a very long time. And she has great hair...

I began with the Art Doll Nicho (which is coming to the store soon).
I glued down the inside folds of the box and clipped them together until the glue set.
NOTE: the flaps are not glued down, just folded in to help the clips hold the wet gluey bits.

Next, I painted the inside of the box cream and aged up the corners a bit with some brown ink using a Q-tip and cut the papers front and back using the nicho as the template. Notice that when I cut the back paper, I included the circle (head). I did this to give added strength to the piece when I glue the collage sheet face onto the circle.

In the picture above, I glued the box on to the backside of the nicho, painted the side of the box cream and inked it up a bit to give it a little patina. After it dried, I dry fit the paper on to the back, pushing it over the box carefully, adjusting the fit as needed. I carefully removed the paper after I had a good fit, added glue and stuck it down.

I glued Beatrix' head on and then the front papers. I added bits of cotton lace around the nicho opening and gave her a pretty lace collar. I attached the brass bee to a small cork and did the same with some of the sequin flowers, cutting the corks to different heights to give things depth.

I put the flowers and little bits of glitter and sequins in the box before I added the bee. That made it a lot easier to add or subtract detail without having to work around a big object.

 I made a little skirt out of leftover paper and arms and legs for Beatrix from a collage sheet (you can get this or something similar at Alpha Stamps)

 I stuck a command strip on the back of the box to attach her to this pillar. You can do the same thing anywhere in your house.

A little lace, glitter, sequins and a pretty bee....... you can't go wrong!

Thank you for stopping by!

SUPPLIES:
Art Doll Nicho (coming soon!)

Additional:
Acrylic paint
Graphic 45 Olde Curiosity Shoppe paper
Collage sheet
Tea stained lace
Sequins
Glitter