Oh Baby Baby by Betsy Skagen

There's a baby arriving in my family next month. Shhh....don't tell, but I am making a little book for the mother-to-be to keep memories of those precious first months.

The book will feature all sorts of pockets, fold-outs and teeny little spaces to store precious mementos and tags to record different milestones and memories. I am using some of Gypsy Soul's wonderful chipboard to add some fun elements.

Right now I am just putting together the individual pages. Once they are done, I will reassemble them back into book form.

Tutorial--How to Make a Baby Book

Begin by gently bending the wire binding and remove the chipboard pages.

Cover the pages with black gesso.

Dry with a heat gun.

Cut a pocket from black cardstock.

Adhere decorative paper to the page.

Glue the bottom flap and right side flap to the back of the page. Because of the binding on the left side, instead of adhering the left pocket flap to the back side of the page, you need to adhere it directly to the decorative paper beneath the pocket.  

Place decorative paper on the front of the pocket. 

Paint the Special Delivery chipboard element and dry with heat gun.

Cover the element with embossing ink, coat with ultra thick clear embossing powder and activate with heat gun. When cool, adhere the element to the front of the pocket.

Cut tags that fit into the pocket from decorative paper. Glue paper on the back that is conducive to journaling.

Adhere decorative papers and a tiny pink vellum envelope to the back side of the page.

To finish your page, use sandpaper to sand down all the edges and rub black ink around the edges. 

So sweet! Now I have to get busy and make many more pages before the stork brings a tiny bundle of joy. -Betsy

Great Stuff

Special Delivery chipboard element

Chipboard album

Black gesso

Authentique Paper

Assorted paper

Black cardstock

Black ink

Pink paint pen

Embossing ink

Ultra thick clear embossing powder

Pink vellum envelope

Hanging around by Betsy Skagen

So many elements go into this mixed media piece--layered background paper, mica stained glass windows, National Geographic background paper, an old dictionary page and even a tiny little noose.

To begin making this piece, give your Gypsy Soul chipboard elements a basic coating of acrylic paint--white for the skeleton and ivory for one of the arched window frames. Apply black ink to the edges of the skeleton.

Once the paint has dried, use a black pen to make crackle marks on your painted window. The picture below shows the start of t his process.

Rub black ink all over the second window frame and the tree.

Take a sheet of mica and peel it so you have a thin layer. Coat it with embossing ink and then sprinkle translucent embossing powders on it and activate with heat gun. This will create your stained glass. Cut out the mica to fit the window slots and glue to the back of your painted window frame.

Make a tiny noose from twine and place it around the skeleton's head. Draw spooky eyes onto another background paper. I used a CitraSolv treated National Geographic page.

Glue the free end of the noose to the black window frame, then glue the painted window frame with mica windows onto the black window frame. Adhere the entire set to your spooky eye background page.

Next begin layering the pieces: glue the window set to the tree and glue onto decorative paper. Adhere all of that to the vintage dictionary page.

Create a background page by dry brushing layer upon layer of acrylic paint onto it.

Trim down the dictionary page, distress the edges with brown ink and use matte medium to adhere the whole thing to your painted background paper. 

Ink the edges of the background paper with black ink. Then apply embossing ink to the edges and cover with Black Magic embossing powder. Activate with heat gun.

The black embossing powder adds a nice frame to your piece and it is now ready for "hanging" in your home.

Happy Saturday! -Betsy


Great Stuff
Skeleton Shape Set
Arched Window Frames
Tree 1
Mica sheet
Embossing ink
Seth Apter Translucent Baked Powders
Eileen Hull Black Magic Baking Powder
Cold press watercolor paper
Stamperia Paper
Vintage dictionary page
National Geographic CitraSolve page
Black ink
Black pen
Acrylic paints

Step Right Up by Betsy Skagen

Ladies and gents, step right up because this week we are taking a shine to circus. 

I mean that literally, since my project today features different shiny surfaces that you can apply to circus trading coins. 

Each of  these circus trading coin features a different shiny surface: fine glitter, chunky glitter, distressed glitter, red metallic flakes or silver metallic flakes.

You can use these as trading coins, ornaments or as package tags.

Begin by covering both the front and back sides of the Artist Trading Coin with decorative paper.

Ink the edges of the coin with brown ink. Punch a hole in the trading coin, add an eyelet and thread baker's string through the eyelet.

Punch out the Circus Trading Coin Covers and the hat from the Alice Trading Coin Covers and cover with gesso.

Spread a thin coat of glue on the cover and add glitter or metal flakes. When dry, add foam adhesive to the back of the covers and adhere to the coins.

Great Stuff

Artist Trading Coin
Circus Trading Coin Covers
Alice Trading Coin Covers
Gesso
Glitter, fine, chunky and distressed
Metallic leaf
Brown ink
Baker's twine
Hole punch
Eyelets
Foam adhesive

Make Your Alphabet Mechanical by Betsy Skagen

What to you do when you have no idea about what to create? Some people turn to Pinterest for inspiration and some turn to YouTube. Sometimes I do that, but more often I just let the creativity flow.

This was one of  those times. When I sat down at my desk I had no idea in mind. For quite some time I had been wanting to make something with Gypsy Soul's Alphabet Stencil Blanks, but never had any inspiration. So I picked up a one of the letters and flipped it around it my hands. Soon, I decided it might pair well with a Trading Coaster.

I began wondering what I could put inside the letter to make it interesting and decided I should use some gears. Now, I had the beginning of an idea in mind, but no particular plan.

To get started, I began painting the Steampunk Shape Set with quinacridone nickel azo gold, burnt umber, teal, sky blue and yellow acrylic paint to to create faux metal pieces.

Next I rounded the edges of the alphabet stencil blank and then covered it and a 4" inch coaster with gesso.

After the gesso dried, I blended teal ink onto the trading coaster, covered the alphabet stencil with a page from a vintage book and blended brown ink around the edges to give it an aged appearance.

Next I glued my steampunk pieces onto the trading coaster so that it would line up with the letter J opening. 

I adhered additional components to the face of the alphabet stencil, and used Beacon Fabri-Tac to adhere translucent beads and a metal phrase.

I then painted some metallic ribbon and its spool to transform them into a hanger. I added an extra gear for decoration.

To finish the piece, I cut a piece of cardboard slightly larger than my coaster and tore off the backing to expose the corrugated surface. I then inked the cardboard with teal and brown inks and glued it to the coaster.

I was pleased with how this relatively quick project turned out--especially since I let free-flowing creativity guide its creation. Next time you feel like you are in a creative rut, instead of turning to Pinterest, YouTube or someone else for inspiration, try trusting your own creative process.

Have a wonderful and creative weekend! Betsy

Great Stuff

Steampunk Shape Set
Alphabet Stencil Blanks
4" Trading Coaster
Brown and Teal ink
Vintage book page
Translucent beads
Gesso
Metal phrase
Beacon Fabri-Tac
Acrylic paint: quinacridone nickel azo gold, burnt umber, teal, sky blue and yellow
Metallic ribbon and ribbon spool
Corrugated cardboard

Down by the Steampunk Sea by Betsy Skagen

Making this piece was so liberating. After experiencing a horrible, no good, really bad day all I wanted to do was crawl under the bed covers. However, I knew that wasn't a choice since I had too many upcoming project that I needed to complete.

Instead of retreating from the world, I pulled out some  sea-themed chipboard pieces since waterways always soothe my soul. To keep my project simple, I limited my palette to only two colors beyond black and white.

I found this decision liberating because my project came together lickety-split--which for me, the world's slowest artist, is nothing short of miraculous.

Down by the Steampunk Sea Tutorial

Begin by cutting the Steampunk Seahorse, Undersea Steampunk Set and Beach Shape Set pieces from their protective frames and covering them with gesso.

Color the chipboard pieces with a coral and teal ink and then ink the edges with black ink.

Next use matte medium to adhere scrapbook paper to a wooden board. If you don't have a wooden board, a piece of mat board of foam core will work.

Give the paper a light whitewash of gesso mixed with water and then dab dry with a textured paper towel. 

Ink the edges with embossing ink and lightly sprinkle aqua and black molten dimensions embossing powder around the edges. Heat with heat gun. Check out the amazing texture this makes. 

Use embossing ink to stamp wavy lines in random spots on the board and cover with White Molten Dimensions. Heat with heat gun.  

Adhere the chipboard shapes to the board. I just love how Gypsy Soul gave sea elements a steampunk twist.

If you wish, create a title piece and line it with black cardstock before adhering to your board. Finish your steampunk sea board by adding a black and white decorative backing. 

I hope you have a fabulous weekend. Happy creating! -Betsy

Great Stuff

Steampunk Seahorse

Undersea Steampunk Set

Beach Shape Set

White gesso

Coral Distress Oxide Ink

Black Distress Ink

Eileen Hull Bay De Laurier Color Box Blends

Scrapbook paper

Black cardstock

Wooden board

Matte medium

Embossing ink

Eileen Hull Aqua Splash Molten Dimension

Eileen Hull Black Magic Molten Dimension

Eileen Hull White Wonder Molten Dimension

Wavy lines stamp

Beacon Zip Dry Adhesive

A phone is not for calling--plus a free ear worm!

We all have those special friends who just "get" our unique humor. Those are the friends to whom we can send our snarkiest cards.

This is one such card--a not so subtle reminder about how annoying phone calls can be.

To keep this site family-friendly, I blurred out some language on this card. If you want, you can see the original adult-language-version card on my blog.

Complete with a retro telephone dial, the dial actually turns, to reveal more numbers...

and a few key letters.

To make the card, begin removing the smallest of the Rotary Dials from the package and adding colorful ink.

Adhere decorative paper and the image from Questionable Characters 2 to the card base.

Determine placement for your telephone dial and punch a small hole in the card for the brad. With a pencil, lightly trace the location of the dial holes that fall onto the white card base.

Remove the phone dial, add rub-on letters and numbers within the traced circles and then erase the pencil marks. 

Next, place Post-it Notes over the areas you wish to mask and stamp a textured background onto the card. 

Remove the Post-It Notes, replace the dial pad, add the center "Miss You" sentiment, smudge white pencil around the image and lightly pencil fake telephone numbers onto the background paper. 

I can't tell you how many times the 867-5309 song went through my head during this process. You are incredibly welcome for that free ear worm. 

Print snarky sentiment and "Miss You" sentiment on your computer. Adhere the "Miss You" to the circle chipboard that came with the rotary dial and adhere it to the brad. If you wish, you can first carve out a hole for the brad in the back of the chipboard so it sits flat. 

Adhere the snarky sentiment to the card. The font I used would not print an apostrophe, so I had to do some printing gymnastics to turn a comma into a outline and then flip it upside down to create an apostrophe. This made for some tiny gluing!

Lightly ink the edges of the card with black ink and your card is complete. Have a great day everyone. Hopefully that song won't stick in your head all weekend--if it does, just use it as a reminder to get crafting! -Betsy

Great stuff

Rotary Dials

Questionable Characters 2

Brad

Decorative paper

White cardstock

Ink jet printer

Stamp by Seth Apter

Purple ink

Black ink

White Stabilo All Pencil

Black Stabilo All Pencil

Beacon Zip Dry