She's Got a Ticket to Ride by Betsy Skagen

What does your creative process look like? For me, some vintage Silver Star tickets sitting on my desk reminded me of the old Beatles song. That inspired me to search through my stash to find the perfect saucy woman.

A lingerie model from a 1940s magazine and several elements from Gypsy Soul, including a silver star,  set me on the path to create this mixed media / altered art wagon.

Tutorial: How to Create a Retro Mixed Media Wagon.

Begin by covering a shallow box with black gesso.

On cold press watercolor paper prepare a multi-layered mixed media background using acrylic paints, dry brushes, stencils, inks and other mixed media tools. 

Use an embossing ink pen and a stencil to create the rocket cone. Add Deep Sea Baked Texture and activate with heat gun.

Cut your newly created mixed media paper to fit the inside of your box. Score where it will fold and make corner slices so you can create the box shape. Below I am showing the messy back side ( I am never a tidy crafter!) of the mixed media water color paper so you can see how I scored the paper and cut the corners.

After making sure your paper fits inside the box, Fold the paper into a rectangle, add glue and let dry.

Use paint or a marker to color the edge of your paper so that you won't have a glaring white edge.

Depending on the size of your box, you may want to trim the wheel axels so that they don't overwhelm your project.

Then cover all of the chipboard pieces--Ticket Strips, Stars String Alongs, Wheels, stars from the Celestial Shape Sets and a rectangle from the Four Panel Door with black gesso. When dry, paint the stars with metallic silver paint.

Select a paper straw that will fit through the axel and wheel holes and four washers that also fit. Paint the straw with black gesso. When dry cut the straw to fit the axel base.

Attach black Tyvek to the axels so you can strengthen the bond between the alexs and the box. I just love black Tyvek. You can use it for so many purposes such as creating incredibly strong folding hinges on books and journals. I used to color white Tyvek envelopes with a black marker until I found that I could purchase a black version of it.

Ink the Star String Along with embossing ink, cover with silver embossing powder and use a heat gun to activate it.

Punch a hole in the top of your mixed media paper box and thread the star through it. Cement the star in place with strong adhesive tape.

Adhere your mixed media paper box inside the cardboard box.

Using a strong glue like Beacon Fabrfi-Tac, adhere the axels to the bottom of the box. Slide the straw pieces through the axel, add the wheels and glue the stars from the Celestial Shape sets onto the straws. Add the chipboard rectangle to the front of the box to create a handle or carriage coupling.

Fussy cut a vintage lingerie model, adhere to black cardstock and cut around the image. Use a metallic silver paint pen to paint her shoes silver.

Tear one end of the tickets and the chipboard ticket strip. Distress the edges of vintage tickets with black ink. Adhere the tickets to the chipboard strip, then adhere the woman to the ticket strip.

Next add foam adhesive squares to the back of the woman and tickets to add depth to the project. Because I didn't have any thicker adhesive foam on hand ( and was too lazy to go to the store), I stacked three adhesive squares together to give extra dimension. Line up the tickets with the embossed arrows to create a rocket. Adhere the woman and tickets to the inside back of your box.

Use a printer or typewriter to create your title piece. Cut into a rectangle, ink the edges with black ink and adhere to a black cardstock background.

Cut a rectangle of clear acetate, score in half and adhere to the back of your title piece to make an invisible stand. Adhere inside the carriage box.

Apply metallic silver paint to a foam blending tool and stencil assorted graphics to the side and back of your carriage.

Add black Dresden trim.

Your Ticket to Ride Carriage is now complete! I hope you were able to find a little inspiration or knowledge from this tutorial. Have a great weekend! -Betsy 

Great Stuff

Chipboard Ticket Strips
Moon & Stars String Alongs
Wheels
Stars from 2 Celestial Shape Sets
Rectangle from Four Panel Door
Cardboard box
Vintage tickets
Vintage ad
Black Tyvek
Deep Sea Baked Texture Embossing Powder
Silver embossing powder
Embossing ink pen
Black ink pad
Assorted stencils
Foam blending tool
Foam adhesive squares
Black Dresden trim
Clear acetate
Printer or typewriter
Paper straw
4 washers
Cold press watercolor paper
Black cardstock
White cardstock
Black gesso
Acrylic paints
Metallic silver paint pen
Beacon Fabri-Tac
Beacon Zip Dry

Make your laundry room more fun with these retro signs by Betsy Skagen

Two of my favorite things in the world are mid-century graphics and snarky humor. I recently combined them to make one of my least favorite things in this world--doing laundry--a little more fun.

These retro laundry signs are sure to brighten both my laundry room and my spirits when I tackle my family's Mount Maytag of laundry.

Tutorial on how to make retro laundry signs

Begin by creating gel prints on white cardstock to use as your background.

Next cover the Retro Frame Set with gesso. Dry with heat gun and then paint each of the frames. I chose to make my frames metallic silver and teal.

Dry with heat gun and then cover the frames with embossing ink and clear embossing powder. Activate the embossing powder with a heat gun.

. Cut your background paper to fit each of the frames.

 Cut out images from Vintage Laundry #1 and personalize with messages.

 Adhere the images to your pre-cut background paper.

Glue the frames onto your images. Then adhere the images to white corrugated cardstock. Complete the signs by gluing the corrugated paper onto black cardstock. 

Great Stuff

Retro Frame Set

Vintage Laundry #1

White corrugated cardstock

White cardstock

Black cardstock

Acrylic paint

Embossing ink

Clear embossing powder

Black pen

This Would Make Doing the Laundry So Much More Fun by Betsy Skagen

Let's face it, doing the laundry would be so much more fun with a retro pink washer and dryer.

Stashing a bottle of wine in the basket of clean towels, like this happy homemaker has done, probably wouldn't hurt either.

Thanks to the pairing up of Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts and Canvas Corp Brands, those of us who can't have a life-size retro pink laundry room can at least make one in miniature. Heck, with a little ingenuity, we can even have a sink bursting with bubbles!

How to Make a Retro Pink Laundry Room

Begin by creating your room base. I created a room from three squares of 9" x 9" foam core because I wanted a little bigger set, but  you can opt to assemble a Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts Room Box if you put fewer pieces of furniture in the room.

It is easier to adhere the floor and wall covering with a matte medium before gluing the room together. Use 7gypsies paper for wallpaper and faux white pine cardstock to create the floor. Then cut faux wood strips from the 7gypsies Architextures 8 x 8 paper pad and adhere to your wall panels to create a baseboard.

Paint a Window 4 Panel with white acrylic paint. Place a rectangle of  Blue & Ivory Mini Dot Reverse behind it and glue to the wall. Add some curtains by scrunching some pink and white scrap fabric with a hot glue gun.

It is easy to stick on and even reposition the vintage laundry starch sign with nifty Architextures removable ephemera.

The Table

Next assemble the  Tile Top Table using a strong adhesive. A lot of people wonder what to use for this kind of assembly. My personal favorite is Beacon Fabri-Tac because it is thick, dries quickly without me having to hold pieces in place and doesn't have nasty fumes.

Paint the table an off-white color. When dry, give the table an older, distressed appearance by accenting it with brown ink. Next, take one of the green pieces from the 7gypsies Architextures Junque Pack Attic and cut apart little squares and adhere to the top of the table, creating miniature tiles. Cut two rectangles and add to the front of the drawers and add small brads for drawer handles.

The Washing Machine

Find a small round plastic container to reuse (I used a micro bead container). Center the container on one of the 3-inch cube panels (Coming to Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts soon) and trace around it.

Cut this out, but err on the side of cutting too small a hole because if you cut too big a hole, you are, shall we politely say...screwed. Finish the hole with a file or sandpaper so that your container snugly fits inside it.

Remove the container, assemble five sides only of one of the 3-inch cubes, placing the round hole you made in the front and keep the bottom panel of the cube off. Prime the washer with a coat of gesso.

Take the remaining panel and instead of placing it on the bottom as intended, glue it to the back of the cube with approximately 1/2" sticking above the cube to create a panel.

Give the washer two coats of pink acrylic paint and a final coat of gloss gel medium. Punch starbursts from silver foil tape and adhere to the top panel. Cut a larger circle from the silver foil, adhere to panel and add a black bead.

Insert the clear plastic container and hot glue into place. Open the container and add small pieces of fabric to your "wash load".

The Dryer

Take one panel from the second 3-inch cube set and cut out a door. Sand the edges of the door and the panel so the door will open and shut smoothly. Prime all the pieces with a coat of gesso.

Punch a hole so that you can later insert a brad door handle. Use linen tape to create your door hinge and adhere one side of the hinge to the interior of the door and the other side to the panel interior.

Assemble the cube, placing the door hole you made in the front.

Give the dryer two coats of pink acrylic paint and a final coat of gloss gel medium. Paint a brad silver and when dry insert it into the door.

Just like you did with the washer, punch starbursts and cut a circle from silver foil tape. Adhere these with another black bead to the front of the dryer.

Cover both a plastic flexible straw  and metal nut with silver paint. When dry, trim the straw down and glue the flexible edge into the hole of the nut.

Decide where you want to place your washer and dryer. Center the straw/nut combo with the middle of the dryer and glue to the wall. 

 Washboard, Laundry Hamper & Sink

To make the washboard, adhere silver foil tape to both sides of a thin piece of chipboard and cut into a small rectangle. Run this through a corrugator paper crimper. Cut strips from the "crates sheet" of the 7gypsies Architextures 8 x 8 paper pad and adhere to both sides of chipboard. Make the washboard top, sides and bottom from these strips. 

To make the laundry hamper, cut four 2 5/8" narrow wooden dowels; six 1 1/2" dowels; and four 2 1/2" dowels. Hot glue the six dowels to the four 2 5/8" upright dowels. Then glue the 2 1/2" horizontally in place.

Cover with silver paint.

Cut a 6" strip of fine mesh. Lay a thin nylon string along the top edge, fold the mesh over and glue in place. Do this without getting glue on the string so that the string can still move freely. Repeat on the other end with the same piece of string. Glue both sides together to form a bag with a drawstring closure. 

Repeat to make a second bag and fill the bags with small bits of fabric.  

To make the sink, I actually altered an old wooden dollhouse sink. Paint the interior of the sink and cupboard white, the exterior pink and the faucet silver. Cover all with gloss gel medium. Cut a curtain from Canvas Corp Pink & Ivory Mini Dot Reverse. Cut a wavy pattern along one edge and punch holes along the opposite edge. Thread a narrow dowel through the holes and insert into the cupboard as a hinge.

Fill the sink with miniature antique glass beads and glue in place. Coat lightly with gloss gel medium and sprinkle with Twinklets Diamond Dust.

It's all in the Details

Bringing the laundry room together is all the little details. You can easily make the Happy Homemaker, vintage laundry boxes and the jar labels (and a whole lot more) from retro papers I designed.

Well, I hope you enjoyed the tutorial. I'm off to do the laundry. -Betsy

Great Stuff

3 inch-cube (two) Coming to Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts soon!
Tile Top Table
Window 4 Panel
9" x 9" squares of foam core (three) or Room Box set
7gypsies Architextures Junque Pack Attic
7gypsies Architextures 8 x 8 paper pad
Canvas Corp Blue & Ivory Mini Dot Reverse
Canvas Corp Pink & Ivory Mini Dot Reverse
7gypsies Trousseau 8 x 8 paper pad (retired)
Vintage Laundry #1
Vintage Laundry #2
Retro Pink Household
Beacon Fabri-Tac
Twinklets Diamond Dust
Glass jars
Set of unlabelled jars, bottles and tins
Metal mouse
Small plastic container
Silver foil tape sheet
Starburst punch
Assorted beads
Assorted miniature items from personal collection
Matte medium
Gloss gel medium
Brads
Narrow wooden dowels
Fabric
Fabric mesh
White nylon string
Thin chipboard
Acrylic paint
Hot glue gun
Corrugator paper crimper