The King of Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! When I found this happy little turkey figure at my local farm store I knew he needed to be the Grand Marshal of the Thanksgiving day parade. He's gonna have a role in the centerpiece of our table on Thursday.

The first thing to do was figure out how to make him a float to ride on. The small box I used is from the GSL Mini Shadow Box Set and the larger one is a GSL Store Cabinet Base (available over at Alpha Stamps) that were easily assembled with tacky glue.

The paper on the small box is from Basic Grey Curio and the lovely autumn leaves are from BoBunny's Dreams of Autumn. I painted a set of GSL 1.5 Inch Straight Wheels and glued them in place, using yellow brads for the hubs.

Pumpkins, squash and gourds were made by painting dried putka pods which are sometimes used for vase filler. I also made a few polymer clay pumpkins.

I wanted yellow flowers for this project and ended up painting some white ones I had on hand. Autumn leaves were punched from colored sheets of cardstock.

The King of Thanksgiving needs a crown and I just happened to bring a tiny one home from our vacation in Portugal. It is 'interesting' to vacation with me... this was picked up on a walking food tour. “Hey, I'll catch up with you. I'll only be a minute in this very cool shop that nobody else wants to visit”.

Gluing the pumpkins and squash in place.

Here's a look at the rear of the float acknowledging it's sponsor. The Be Thankful sentiment is from Graphic 45's Time to Fluorish collection.

The 'headlights' are acrylic pumpkins. Happy Thanksgiving!

GSL Products Used

Mini Shadowbox Set

Store Cabinet Base

Wheels 1.5 Inch Straight

Other Supplies Used

Tacky glue

Acrylic paint

Basic Grey Curio

BoBunny Dreams of Autumn

Graphic 45 Time to Fluorish

Colored cardstock

Dried putka pods

Polymer clay

Brads

Paper flowers

Schleich Farm World turkey figurine

Miniature crown

 

Wizard Trunk Ornaments

Happy Saturday, everyone! I look forward every year to participating in a holiday swap inspired by Harry Potter. I make ornaments, exchange them with crafty people around the US and the ones I receive in return are gifted to my youngest daughter who dearly loves the books. This year I settled on trunk ornaments made from one of the GSL Mini Shadow Box Set.

 The boxes are easily assembled with tacky glue.

Once the glue dried, I painted the front edges with brown acrylic paint. The papers I used for this project are from Recollections Farmhouse collection, which had papers that look like leather and trunk lining. Once the papers were glued in place, I added small bits of suede to the box corners.

Printables used include book covers as well as Hogwarts Express sign and ticket. The tiny letter was sealed with a polymer clay 'wax' seal.

I filled small jars with both microbeads and star glitter. The dish is a miniature porcelain plate with a sticker decal. The crystal ball is a marble on a metal bead.

Miniature wands were made by shortening a round toothpick and dulling the point. A handle was made by wrapping it with a few inches of jute fiber soaked in glue.

Elements were layered in and adhered with E6000 glue to keep them extra snug.

To hang them, I used eye screws and slices of bass wood.

As an extra treat, here's a clock ornament made from a GSL Tower Top Reliquary, printed images, miniature spoons and clock hands.

Thanks for stopping by!

GSL Products Used

Mini Shadow Box Set

Reliquary – Tower Top

Other Supplies Used

Tacky glue

E6000 glue

Acrylic paint

Recollections Farmhouse

Printables

Bits & bobs

 

 

Voltaire

Hello creative friends!  It's Susan on the Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts blog today, sharing a wee shadow box.  I like to use quotes.  A lot.  I have them scribbled on scraps of paper, a white board, a notebook, the tablet; all waiting for inspiration to strike.  This week's inspiration brought out a quote by Voltaire, an 18th century French philosopher.

The Mini Shadowbox Set has 6 boxes graduated in size - I used the largest here: 3 1/2 inches x 3 inches.  Perfect used individually or for a themed series... hmm... I'm getting an idea!

While the box glue was drying, I printed the Voltaire quote on faux parchment paper and coated with a thin layer of satin varnish.  This made the both the ink and paper a little more vibrant.

It's not shown here, but once the varnish dried I glued that whole paper to another layer of the same to give the bits more strength.

Once dry, I cut the quote out and edged with gold marker on the front and ink on the edges. The gold marker needs time to dry before handling.

I covered the box in papers using Mod Podge.  Tip - the inside edge can be covered with one strip of 12-inch paper -- it fits perfectly. 

To raise the quote off the back wall, I needed scrap chipboard.  I kept these bottom fence pieces from a past project, and the width of the bottom strip was perfect.  I used 3 layers of fencing on each word strip.

I want to share how I miter Dresden trim edges.  I started by mitering the top and right Dresden strips.  (in the photo, I've already set aside the top strip for last.)  Here, the right strip is glued down - see how it's too long at the end?  I overlapped the bottom Dresden strip and cut, aiming the scissors at both the inside and outside angles.  Scissors with sharp tips are needed here so you don't push the scissors in too far. 

To position the Dresden trim, I use a Zig 2-Way pen and tweezers.

The bottom is glued on, now to miter the next corner.

Here, the left is glued on, and I finished with the top Dresden strip.  Remember that I already mitered the right edge of the top strip; just need to do the left using the same method.

Add glue and position with the tweezer.  Done!

Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts Used
Mini Shadowbox Set C33P Set of 6 
House Ornament Fence D172HF

Other Supplies Used
Graphic 45 Communique paper
Mod Podge
Black gesso
Dresden trim
Distress glitter
Cheese cloth dirtied up with black gesso
Pilot Gold Marker
Gold ink
Duraclear satin varnish (on quote strips)
Liquitex matte varnish (on box exterior)

Spring toadstool fairy exploding canvas

Hi Everyone,
Jess here today.  The weather has been so nice here.  Flowers are blooming and pretty soon we will start seeing the baby ducks in our little neighborhood lake.  It's also the time of year when I start to make fairies.  Ah, who am I kidding I love to make fairies all year round!

A couple years back I made an exploding canvas and I totally loved the process.  I decided it was time to make a new one and this time I gave it a little twist.  I knew I wanted a tiny fairy so my canvas had to be small  too.
I started by covering a 5x5 canvas with Tim Holtz Collage paper.  I used collage medium to adhere it to the canvas and coated the top too.  I dried it with a heat gun.  Once the collage paper was dry I used texture paste and a flower stencil to add detail to the top and bottom corners.

I sprayed the canvas using Distress Oxide Spray in Peeled Paint, Vintage Photo, and Iced Spruce.

 I added paint splatter in black(Distress Black Soot) and gold(Dina Wakley Ancient).   I used Distress Crayon in Lucky Clover to enhance the texture paste flowers. At the end I decided to add a bit of Worn lipstick and Picked Raspberry Crayon to the flowers too. 

Once the paint was dry I flipped the canvas over and used a different collage paper to line the inside of the canvas.  I blasted it with the heat gun and then cut the canvas up.  You can see the cut lines.  This is the scariest part of the whole process, but the outcome is fabulous.  

Before I started prepping my canvas I took the Mini Shadowbox set and put together a couple of the boxes I thought might fit into the frame.  Once I had one that fit right I started working on the canvas.  I didn't want to get this far into the thing just to discover that what I thought it would look like in my head would not work out at all. 

After the canvas was cut I glued the pieces to the front of the canvas creating an opening.  

For the hollow, I wound up using the smallest of the shadowboxes.  The fun thing about the box this size is that it doesn't take much paper to cover it.  I spritzed a manila tag with Worn Lipstick Oxide Spray and let it air dry.  The air drying seems to make it oxidize a bit better(it also could be my imagination).I gave it a quick mist of water on either side and ran it through my 3d Kaleidoscope  embossing folder.  This one tag covered the entire outside of my box with some to spare! I sanded the tag a bit and added some Distress Crayon in Gathered Twigs to highlight the raised areas.  

For an added detail I ran metal plumbing tape through my impresslit folder.I colored it using gold, latte, and caramel alcohol inks.   

I cut the manila tag to cover the outside of the shadowbox I used the faux dresden to cover the edges.  The edge of the dresden is the perfect size to cover the edge of the chipboard. 

The inside of the box was lined with paper and washi tape.  I really just wanted the little flowers to peep through in the back there.  I added some spun cotton toadstools, moss, and a teeny paperdoll.  The new Tim Holtz  wings work perfectly on this guy.  

To finish the canvas I colored seam binding using the Worn Lipstick Oxide spray and a bit of Tea Dye Distress Spray.  I made a fluffy bow and added a word band. In the top corner, opposite from the bow, I added a flower cluster with some additional moss.    

Happy Spring! 

Jess

UFO Shrine

Happy Saturday, everyone! Today I am sharing a fun little UFO shrine I made using one of the GSL Mini Shadowbox Set boxes.  I just love working with these things!  I have had a UFO shaped locket in my stash for a while.  It was always going to be used for beaming up some tiny farm animals.

I assembled the shadowbox with tacky glue and marked the ceiling of the piece where I wanted to insert an eye screw to hold the locket in place. 

I used a Paper Studio sky scrapbook paper for the interior and Kaisesrcraft Sublime paper for the exterior of the box. The paper edges were inked with Ranger Distress ink in crushed olive.

I cut a triangle of green foil paper and glued it on the back wall of the box directly underneath where the UFO hung.

Tiny HO scale sheep were 'beamed up' by adhering them to the foil. I painted two HO scale figures from the Preiser Carnival collection as shepherds.  A scrap of green felt was used for the pasture. The sheep and figures were glued in place with E6000.

For the top, I nestled a few glow in the dark maggots inside a miniature plastic dome. These were a gift from a friend who obviously 'gets' me. I think they might actually be night fishing lures. On each side I added a few snippets of artificial Queen Anne's lace. 

I glued on some metal lined glass beads as feet.  The only thing left to add was a bit of roving as the mysterious cloud the UFO descended from.

Thanks for stopping by!

Gypsy Soul Items Used

Mini Shadowbox Set

Other Items Used

Tacky glue

E6000

Acrylic paint

Kaisesrcraft Sublime and Paper Studio sky scrapbook paper

Ranger crushed olive distress ink

Green felt

Green foil

UFO charm

Eye screw

HO sheep and human figures

Artificial Queen Anne's lace

Glow in the dark worms

Metal tray with plastic dome

Metal lined glass beads

Roving