Inner Child by Betsy Skagen

The weekend is here. When the week has been especially trying, it can feel as if your inner child is a little battered. 

Or maybe, the inner child is still whole, but its protective nook inside the heart sustained some damage, the glass window shattered. 

To be honest, my inner child feels great, but I just liked the concept of this art piece.

To make it, I began with the Little Heart Niche, which as you can see, includes a handy hanger for the back.

I adhered the pieces to the backside of a sheet of scrapbook paper and fussy cut the paper to match the chipboard.

I then reinforced the corners of the niche with some tape--just to give it some extra strength--and glued the niche onto the heart.

Next, I applied Distress Grit Paste, pressed heart stamps into the paste and dried with a heat gun.  I darkened the edges of the heart with black ink and then sprayed everything with purple and black ink sprays. After the ink dried, I applied embossing ink, sprinkled Rocky Road Baked Texture onto the surface and activated with heat gun.

I cut a frame from chipboard, applied embossing ink and covered it with Rocky Road Baked Texture and activated with heat gun. I used the same technique on a heart paperclip.

While the frame and paper clip cooled (be very careful when heating any metal with a heat gun!), I glued thin sheets of broken mica over the top of the niche.

I then shredded and inked some cheese cloth, sprayed a small figurine candle with distress ink and adhered these inside the niche.

After gluing the paper clip and frame in place, I printed, cut out and inked the edges of my words and adhered them to the heart.

Thanks for stopping by to check out the tutorial. I hope you have a lovely weekend. If it is even a little bit as cold as it is here in Minnesota, I hope it gives you an excuse to stay inside and create art all weekend long! -Betsy

Great Stuff

Little Heart Niche
Dress My Craft scrapbook paper
Distress Grit Paste
Heart stamps
Beacon Fabri-Tac
Spray inks
Distress Black Soot ink pad
Distress Vintage Photo ink pad
Seth Apter's Rocky Road Baked Texture
Embossing ink
Grit paste
Chipboard
Paper clip
Mica sheet
Cheese cloth

Spring Cleaning

Hi Everyone,
Jess here today.

Well it's time to do some spring cleaning and that includes my desk.  I try to be a neat crafter, but my desk always ends up looking like a large bomb exploded in the general vicinity.  For today's project I used only items that were on my desk or within reach of my desk.  I will admit some of these are mop up tags, so I don't know exactly what is on there.

Adventure is out there tag-

The butterfly man background was made using Vintage Photo Oxide Spray and then I added Hickory Smoke ink through a stencil(THS091).  I shifted the stencil and added Peeled Paint Oxide Ink.  I splatted on some Black Soot Distress Paint and then stamped the flourish(CMS070) in  Ground Espresso Archival Ink.  The edges got a bit of Vintage Photo Distress Crayon for shadow.

The paper doll was inked up using Tsukineko Inks.  His buttons and watch chain were colored using gel pens.  Then got a pair of wings and  glued them to the tag.  I had a snippet of the mini provincial impresslit left so I popped that in the top corner.  Chic chat words were inked up using Peacock Feathers Distress Ink and glued down.

A snippet of the Meadow Flowers was on my desk so I added a couple layers of gesso and once that was dry I added PaperArtsy Infusions in The Sage to the stems.  I added grit paste to the flowers and used Peacock Feathers Distress Ink to color them.  There was some leftover Distress Crayon on my desk from edging the tag and I used that to dirty up the flowers.  Once that was glued down, I added detail using gel pens.

Eccentric, but very estimable gentleman-

For the eccentric, but very estimable gentleman tag I used a mop up tag that had some blues and purples on it.  I added some leftover rust from when I was rusting up bits and some Seth Apter Stamps.
The circles are from the Mixed Media Fragments 1 Small.  I rusted them using PaperArtsy's Rusting Powder and then added Verday Paint from 10 Second Studios for the oxidized brass bits.  I cut the circles into three segments and attached them to the card using glue.  I added Tim Holtz Hardware heads to make them appear to be bolted down. I added alcohol ink in Patina, Mushroom, and Coffee to the hardware heads.  Then I popped on a bit of Distress Crayon in Cracked Pistachio for a bit more dimension.

I tied a little brass heart to his wrist and glued him down.

 Clipping stickers make for really fun stories and gel pens add the final bits to this tag.

The Proprietor of Ideas-

This little guy gets stuck in all kind of things.  Today I popped him in a lightbulb from the Steampunk Lightbulb Set.  The lightbulb was painted white and then the bulb portion was given a layer of DecoArt Crackle Glaze.  Once the glaze was dry I added Distress Crayon in Black Soot and Brushed Pewter.  A thin piece of acetate was added behind the bulb and colored with mushroom alcohol ink.  The tiny crown on his head will be coming soon to the GSL cuts store(I cannot wait for you to see all of these teeny crowns).

The base of the bulb was painted with Tarnished Brass Distress Paint and then pounced with Mushroom, Latte, and Coffee Alcohol Inks. I snuck in another hardware head here and a story stick.

This tag was made by using Oxide Spray on my gel plate.  It makes such gorgeous and dreamy backgrounds.  I used a Tim stencil for the words and numbers.  I used Hickory Smoke and Black Soot Distress Ink for the coloring.  White paint is splattered all over the back, Perfect Pearl spray, and gel pens finish the background.

The main title is from the Tim Holtz Noble Gent set.  That was stamped in Black Soot Archival.  The little halo around the bulb is the same set.  I used Dina Wakley Paint in Ancient and Gilt to stamp out the halo.  Be sure to clean paint off your rubber stamps right away!   

Do you save all of your little bits to make projects with later or do you toss out the scraps?

Jess

Walking the Winter Woods at Night

A lifetime ago I was and English Major. Truth be told, I was not a particularly great at it. My true academic love at the time was journalism, and I did not have the temperament to analyze and discuss poems and fiction hour after hour after hour. 

Still, I always loved the written word--before, during and after my time in college. Something about Robert Frosts's "Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening," has always appealed to me. It's tone is what inspired my piece "Winter Woods at Night." 

Tutorial How to make the Winter Woods at Night

Begin by adhering old dictionary pages to a piece of white cardstock with Mod Podge.  If you look close, you can see I chose pages that included words with "winter" and "woods". Use a dry brush to apply dark and light blue acrylic paint in criss-cross strokes. 

Trace the outline of the Mini House Room 4 x 4 Box onto the pack of your dictionary/cardstock paper and cut out.

The Mini House Room Box is designed to have a piece cross the house at the base of the roofline. Because this project eliminates the top piece, you need to cut off some of the notches of the side panels so the roof lies evenly on top.

Use Mod Podge to adhere your blue painted dictionary pages to the interior of the house.

Use a dry brush to paint yellow and white acrylic paint over another dictionary page. When dry, cut a circle from it and adhere to the interior of your box.

 Mix gesso with water and use brush bristles to flick this mixture onto your box in order to create snow.

Add a rectangle of pine green cardsdtock to the interior floor. 

Cut the frame away from the Framed Trees. 

Cover the Framed Trees and the Pine Tree Shape Set with a glue stick and then apply pine green embossing powder. Activate with heat. 

Add Snow-Tex and Diamond Dust to the top of the tree boughs. Brush trees with gold pigment to accentuate the moon shining down. 

To create dimension, use adhesive foam pads when adding the trees. 

Cut out snow mounds from white cardstock and add Snow-Tex to the top edge. When dry, adhere into your winter scene. 

Print out our title. Cover it with a glue stick and add Vintage Beeswax Baked Texture. Repeat several times until you are happy with the results. Add a silver cardstock mat.

Cut out child from Paper Calliope Vintage Children #2 and add a small strip of clear packaging behind it to make a stand. Adhere the stand in place.

Finish the interior by adding in some bleached cheesecloth and large pearl beads.

Add decorative cardstock to the exterior of the house. Glue icicle swag to the edges and your art is complete.

Happy Crafting, Betsy

Great Stuff

Pine Tree Shape Set
Framed Trees

Mini House Room 4 x 4 box
Paper Calliope Vintage Children #2
Seth Apter Baked Texture Vintage Beeswax
Green Embossing powder
Glue stick
Embossing ink
Mod Podge
Faux snow
Gesso
Acrylic paint
Gold ColourArte Pigment
Acrylic medium
Pink and blue Gelattos
White cardstock
Silver cardstock
Pine green cardstock
Decorative cardstock
Old dictionary pages
Cheese cloth
Pearl beads
Icicle swag

Making Mixed Media Elements by Betsy Skagen

Let's face it, thousands upon thousands of crafters, myself included, use the same mass-produced decorative elements in their projects. However, there is another option. If you don't want your art to feature the same materials hordes of other artists are using, you can easily create your own elements.

By applying mixed media techniques to chipboard elements you add unique texture and interest to journal pages and other craft projects. This particular journal page combines some of those mass produced decorations with elements I created.

I recently was lucky enough to attend a mixed media class by artist Seth Apter. If you have the chance, I highly recommend taking one of his classes. The class inspired me to tweak a couple of Apter's techniques to make my own mixed media elements.

Tutorial on How to Make Mixed Media Elements

Before we begin, I just want to note that while I adapt some of Seth's techniques to create my own process, this tutorial does not cover the wonderful techniques Seth teaches in his classes.

Begin by punching out the chipboard. Use a utility knife to cut the tiny segments that keep the chipboard intact for shipping.

Next, cover the chain with black gesso.

After the gesso dries, dry brush Quinacridone Gold and yellow acrylic paint over the surface.

 Dry the paint with a heat gun. Don't worry if you overheat and get a few bubbles as that will add to the finished texture.

Cover the entire surface with embossing ink.

Cover with Chunky Rust Embossing Powder and set with heat. Repeat until you get the effect you want.

 Adhere your elements to a journal page that you have prepared and your project is complete. Have fun creating your own mixed media elements!

Great Stuff

Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts Flourished Chain Small
Black gesso
Quinacridone Nickle Azo Gold acrylic paint
Yellow acrylic paint
Embossing ink
Seth Apter Chunky Rust Embossing Powder
Ribbon
7Gypsies Architextures typewriter element
Tim Holtz word band

Mine Tags Taste like Honey

I have always been drawn to encaustic art, yet I have never quite managed to begin the process for using it in my own crafting. For quite awhile I had been planning on using Gypsy Soul's Honeycomb & Bees in an encaustic project--because shouldn't every honeycomb project be created with beeswax?

That is why I was delighted when Seth Apter developed his Vintage Beeswax Embossing Powder. I combined the Honeycomb & Bees with the Embossing Powder to create a faux encaustic look on  three golden honey-colored tags.

To make the tags, I began by collaging vintage dictionary pages about bees onto manilla tags.

Next I cut the Honeycomb into sections and painted them and two of the bees 

with yellow paint. When dry, I added flecks of white paint and inked the edges with brown ink.

I hope you forgive me, but I had so much fun creating these tags that I forgot to take photos of the next few steps.

I spritzed the tags with Tattered Leather Spray and dried them with a heat gun. I then flicked droplets of High Impact and Glimmer Glam Paint onto the tags. After drying with a heat gun, I inked the edges of the tags with brown ink. 

Next I dabbed tiny drops of glue randomly on the tags and added gold flakes to the tags. I also covered one of the bees with gold flakes.  

After adhering the honeycomb and bees to the tags, I covered each of the tags in embossing ink and coated with Vintage Beeswax embossing powder. I set the powder with a heat gun and repeated this process four more times to give the tags the encaustic look. 

Finally, I painted each tag with matte medium to remove the glossiness. After the tags were dry, I threaded ivory ribbons through the holes. 

Thanks for stopping by the blog today. I hope that this project inspires you to BEE creative. Have a fantastic week. - Betsy

Great Stuff

Honeycomb & Bees- Small
Seth Apter's Vintage Beeswax Embossing Powder
Acrylic paint
Vintage Photo Distress Ink
Tattered Angels Glitter Glam Paint
Tattered Angels High Impact White Paint
Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist Tattered Leather Spray
Embossing Ink
Gold flakes
Matte medium
Ribbons