A Hint of Spring

Hello creative friends!  It's Susan here on the Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts blog, sharing a fun shadow box that hints of the changing season.

I used the Square Shrine Shadow Box to create a window of sorts.  I can imagine staring out at the melting snow and budding trees.  This is a Mid-Atlantic March. :)

Using Graphic 45's Fairy Dust, I cut panels for the box inside and the front wall and Mod Podge'd them on.

I used a small sponge to dab light green paint on one leafy tree, and white paint on the other.  You might notice the trees are mirror images.

I trimmed the tree's lower branches and right edges in order to set it a bit to the right.

On the back of the green tree, I added a few layers of scrap chipboard to raise it off the back wall.  I did the same on the back of the white tree to raise it off the green tree.

After the sheet moss and trees were installed, I added the front panel.  Edges were sanded and inked with brown.

The bird was cut from the Birds On A Wire chippy and painted an orange-ish color.

Thanks for your visit today!  ~Susan


Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts Used
2 Small Leafy Trees: #D14E
Birds On A Wire 1: #D87A
Square Shrine Shadow Box: #BD2A

Other Supplies Used
Graphic 45 Fairie Dust 8x8
Green, white, orange acrylic paint
White craft glue
Mod Podge
Brown Dresden trim
Sheet moss
Flocking powder

Do You Believe in Fairies?

Hello gypsy soulmates!  I've been playing with the fairies and captured a few on this cool 3D "film" from Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts.  Let me show you!

The Filmstrip Shadow Box is 14" x 4" x 2".  For scale, you can see a wee bit of my keyboard in the top of the photo.  See the excess chipboard bits in the top right corner?  Save those!  They're great to use for added dimension.

This has three interior panels but I'm only going to use the center one.  I measured strips of paper for the inside walls and both sides of the center panel, and attached with Mod Podge.

Here's the ceiling panel, cut in two pieces to allow the center interior panel to fit the notches.  White glue to stick it all together.

The Leafy Tree - Small comes with two trees - this is the smaller one.  I painted it and all 6 of the Garden Fairies - Small with white gesso.

I wrapped the outside with fun stripey paper.  I only have it in 8x8 format, so I used 2 sheets that line up perfectly; Mod Podge to adhere.

I used Lumiere metallic acrylic paints for the fairy silhouettes - Pearl White for the bodies and assorted colors for the wings.  I used a light green metallic paint on the tree and small excess chipboard bits on the back to raise it off the finished surface.

My first thought was to paint the filmstrip front with a very light salmon color, but ended up with an amethyst-brown mashup.

I cut the tree in half with a guillotine cutter and used white glue to adhere to the back of the box.

Thanks for your visit today!

Susan

Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts Used

Filmstrip Shadow Box #HD111513001
Garden Fairies Small #RB1
Leafy Tree Small #D14E

Other Supplies Used
White glue
White gesso
Graphic 45 Fairie Dust
Lumiere metallic paints
Golden acrylic paint in purple and brown
Paper flowers
Sheet moss
Crochet lace

My Secret Garden

I love Spring and I love flowers, so I decided to make a garden with a dimensional card and loads of flowers from GSLCuts.

I started off by making the card up so that I could decide where to place everything.

 Then chose what I wanted to use on the card, I have already gessoed all the "ingredients"

I had this sheet of floral and butterfly paper in my stash which I decided was just the right colours for the background on my card, so covered both sides and the front of the folded parts of the card.

This lovely arch is just the right thing to put on the front of the card so that you look through into the garden. I gessoed it then coloured it with silver  gilding polish, after which I coloured all the leaves with green, I used undiluted water colour paint for this.

Then it was just a case of where to put everything, I started with the bridge and stuck that to the back of the card. Still at the back but in front of the bridge at either side I used Daisies on the left and Yarrow on the right with their leaves joining in the middle.

The row in front I used a small leafy tree on the right and buds from the Queen Anne lace on the left, the bench in the middle is a die that I had in my stash, and the butterfly is one from a set.

The first row is made up of Queen Anne's Lace and long stemmed rose, but I used the flower rather than the stem.

Which brings me to the front: I had to have a watering can for all those flowers, so I cut one out on my silhouette machine, I die cut some leaves and intertwined those up the side and on the top, then added some flowers from my stash and some butterflies and dragonflies in among the leaves.

I had one small space left at the bottom of the front so decided that whoever looked after this garden had to have some transport, so cut a bicycle out from one of my dies.

I must say here that the bicycle and the bench could have also come from GSL cuts but unfortunately I  decided to add these after I had started, so I hadn't ordered them, but have given you the links so that you can remember.

This card looks very "busy" but it really is very easy to make, so why not have a go and see what sort of garden you can invent, you don't have to use the same flowers or archway because GSLcuts has loads more, so have a look and see what you can do.

GSL cuts items:

Archway chipboard shape

bridge

daisies

yarrow

leafy tree small

Queen Anne's lace

longstem rose

butterflies and dragonflies 

Other items used:  

white card

patterned card

Creative expressions gilding polish

undiluted water colour paint

Glue

Leaf die

flowers

 

Typography Gift Bag and Birthday Card by Lynne

Once upon a time, on July 27 some years ago, an awesome thing happened....one of my favourite people in the whole world was born!! It's my best friend's birthday and I created this gift bag/card set for her using Graphic 45 Typography papers and some terrific Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts chipboard!

I love the friendship quotes that were on the paper cut-aparts and used several of those. I often call my BFF "Sunshine" so I thought the sunshine quote and the chipboard sun were perfect for the front of the bag!

I covered the sun with patterned paper , dry embossed it , then misted it in yellow before adding light random brushstrokes of yellow acrylic paint and rubbing the raised parts with Ranger antique linen distress ink. The red chipboard strips are from the Fiesta texture sheets. I have included a closeup taken of the yellow ones used on the back of the bag later in this post.

The back of the bag was embellished with strips from the Fiesta texture sheet painted yellow then rubbed with the same Ranger ink as the sun.

For the card I chose the "sheltering tree" quote and one of the  Leafy Trees from the GSL store. I painted the tree green, then cut leaves from the green patterned paper and covered random leaves with it then I dry embossed the whole tree with a wood-grain design.

I popped up some of the pieces on my projects with foam tape for dimension and added a bit of stenciling with texture paste. The paper's colours and patterns are quite vibrant so other than a little layered punch work, I didn't think it needed a whole lot more detail. I sure hope she likes them. Thanks for stopping by and having a look. Wishing you a terrific week even if it isn't your birthday!

GYPSY SOUL ITEMS USED

Leafy trees small

Celestial Shape set

   Texture Sheets Fiesta

     OTHER ITEMS USED
Graphic 45 Typography 12x12 paper pad
anger Distress Ink-Antique Linen
Crafter's Workshop stencil
Fiskars border punch
    texture paste
foam tape

Live - Laugh - Love Wall Hanging

Hey there, everyone.  So glad you stopped by.  Barbara here with Gina's Designs Lasercuts, and today I want to share an inspirational wall hanging that I made from three blank coasters and lots of Gina's chipboard shapes.



I knew from the very first time I saw the Birds on Key Set that I wanted to use one of them (you get two in a package) as a hanger of some sort.  I also seem to have accumulated quite a few blank coasters over the years.  So, I pulled them out, saw that they fit with the Key, and voila.

First lay out your chipboard pieces to see how you may want to arrange them, and what will fit on each coaster.  Tip:  If you have a digital camera, take a picture of your layout to refer to.  Remove chipboard shapes and set aside.

Cut six pieces of print paper to 4"x4" and adhere to front of each coaster.  I used the music paper on the front, and the woodgrain paper on the back, but if you want to adhere the hinges with brads, then wait to cover the back of the coasters so you can cover the brad prongs.



I inked the hinges with Versamark ink and embossed with Rustique embossing powder.  To make the EP look a bit more orange, I added some Adobe ink to the edges, reheated the hinges so the ink just sinks into the hot EP.  This was done to all three sets of hinges.

I adhered the hinges to each coaster as shown in the final photo.  Tip:  Because these are chipboard hinges, and really meant for decorative purposes only, you will want to be careful while adhering them.  I decided to strengthen them with a small piece of Tyvek glued to the back of each hinge before gluing them down.  This will prevent them from tearing apart.  

Here, you can see the front only is covered with the music paper,  the hinges are glued down, and I also used the brads because I liked how it looks.  I used an awl or paper piercer to mark the holes for the brads.

I used mixed media inks to color my chipboard this time.  For tiny areas, I simply used one of these Fantastic brushes to color with the ink.  To remove the ink and pick up another color from another ink pad, I simply dipped the tip into water and dried it off with a cloth or paper towel. 

I used the Patina, Vintage, and Honey on the birds.  A black ink pen was used for the eyes.  The key was covered with the Delicate Gold and Silver ink, then a tiny bit of Adobe was randomly applied.

Each of the Word Stackers 1 were covered with Vintage, watered down Leather, and edged with Mossy Green. The corrugated bottom pieces were all gessoed on the high spots, then either Schoolhouse Red, Patina, or Mossy were inked over the white gesso and spritzed with water to enable it to run into the crevices.



The tree was colored with Leather, highlighted with Honey, and Mossy with a touch of Vintage for the leaves.  The bird was, of course, colored with Schoolhouse Red, and Vintage for the beak.

They honeycomb was inked with Vintage, then added Adobe sparingly.  The bees were colored with Vintage and Black, the wings were colored with Pewter, edged with Patina, and Delicata Silver was added to the center of the wings.  The crown was colored with both Delicata gold and silver.

The heart was covered with Schoolhouse Red. The flourish was covered with Delicata gold.  (See photo below to see how I cut out this shape).  The smaller heart was inked with Schoolhouse Red, blended with Honey to make a more pink color.  The lady silhouette was inked with Black.  Then the dress form was inked with Leather, and the body portion with Mossy.

I used the outer filigree frame that matches this solid heart as a template to determine where to make my cuts on the Texture Sheet - Flourished.  Rather than cut in straight lines, I cut along some of the flourishes themselves, to get this more "flourishey " heart shape.

When all pieces were attached, I covered the back and the brad prongs with the woodgrain paper.  This finished it off nicely.

One last thing to do was to attach those top hinges to the Birds on Key Set and hang it on the wall.



Gina's Designs Lasercuts Used:

Birds on Key Set

Texture Sheet - Flourished

Leafy Trees Small

Bird Watching Shape Set

Word Stackers 1

Honeycomb & Bees ATC Sized

Filigree Frames Shape Set

Border Sticks - Hearts

Miniatures Shape Set - Ladies Choice

Hinges



Other Supplies Used:

Blank coasters (4"x4")

Print Scrapbook Papers (Echo Park)

Mixed Media Inx (Adobe, Vintage, Mossy, Honey, Leather, White, Schoolhouse Red, Black, Patina, Pewter)

Delicata Golden Glitz and Silvery Shimmer

Rustique Tin Can Embossing Powder

Brads



In our busy lives, I sometimes think we need to stop long enough to live, laugh, and love a bit.  So, I hope you are inspired by my wall hanging today and will give one a try for your home or studio.  Be sure to stop by Gina's Designs Lasercuts, and visit the blog to see what the rest of the team are cooking up.



In the meantime, have a wonderful weekend and stay crafty, my friends.



Barbara