Crafty Tool Tote

Happy Saturday, everyone! This week I have a project to share that I made just for me. With the weather finally warming up I have been crafting out on on covered back deck and have been schlepping my most-used craft supplies out there in a box, then putting them away when I get back into my upstairs craft studio. I decided to make myself a tote using a GSL Tool Caddy to permanently hold everything that I use on a regular basis.

Here are the pieces laid out ready to assemble and decorate.

I know this will be used a lot so decided on a dark color for the interior to keep scuffing to a minimum as I move tools in and out of it. I painted the handle and all interior surfaces with black acrylic paint before assembly.

Once the paint was dry I assembled the tote with tacky glue and held everything tight with rubber bands while the glue dried.

 

The paper I chose for the outside of the caddy is a pretty one from Graphic 45's Floral Shoppe.

 

 

Rather than leaving the tote plain, I chose a GSL Stackable Label for an embellishment.  I painted the base of the label pink and used clear embossing powder around the edges.

I considered a few phrases before settling on 'Power Tools' which got printed on yellow cardstock.

It came together really fast and ended up pretty cute.  It will get a lot of use this summer.

GSL Products Used

Tool Caddy

Stackable Labels Shape Set

Other Supplies Used

Tacky glue

Acrylic paint

Graphic 45 Floral Shoppe

Clear embossing powder

Cardstock

 

Mini Movie Prop Display Case

Happy Saturday, everyone! I have a silly project to share today. I love using the GSL Bookcase 1 to 12 to display things and have been on a bit of a Holy Grail quest lately with some of my projects. I got to thinking about how fun some of the props they used in the movie are and wanted to make a few in miniature and this little display came to life.

The bookcase is very simple to assemble with tacky glue. I used rubber bands to hold everything in place while the glue dried.

A few coats of brown acrylic paint came next. So quick to finish and now it needs some props.

I started with shields, which are made from GSL House Jewelry Piece bases which were painted white. Sir Galahad's shield got one of the GSL Gothic Cross Miniatures painted red and King Arthur's sun symbol was hand drawn. 

I made a few research books for the shelves from GSL Miniature Book Blanks (coming soon). These make the perfect sized book for a miniature project and are so simple to use. I painted the edges white to represent book pages. 

The only thing needed to finish it off is a printed cover.

I also included a reference book on sparrows. The holy hand grenade is a large pearl bead studded with crystals and topped with toothpick ends painted gold.

This shelf includes polymer clay coconut shells coated in jute threads for Patsy to use to make horse hoof sounds for Arthur's imaginary horse. I also included a can of Spam made from a dollhouse brick and a miniature shrubbery.

The shields are on the second shelf, along with a resin bunny representing the rabbit of Caerbannog, a polymer clay witch nose and a dagger from a Clue game.

The bottom shelf contains prop barnyard animals for the french to catapult over the castle wall.

The final touch is a sign made from a GSL Stackable Label. This was a fun project that opens up many possibilities for many more movie prop displays! 

 Thanks for stopping by!

GSL Products Used

Bookcase 1 to 12

House Jewelry Pieces

Gothic Cross Miniatures

Stackable Labels Shape Set

Miniature Book Blanks (coming soon)

Other Supplies Used

Tacky glue

Acrylic paint

Printed images

Polymer clay

Tiny treasures

 

 

 

 

 

 

Steampunk Boutique Experience

Hi again,

It's Elle here from Empire of the Cat, and here's my project for today:

To make this project, I will be using the following chippies from GSL:


 There are two dress form / mannequin types included in this set but for my display I really wanted three so I used this circled piece of chipboard which I thought looked a bit like a dress form.  As you can see, it is just the waste piece that was leftover from the large wings that were there.  I have circled it for you in the photo below.  I cut out the whole piece and kept the cogs in place.

Since she would need something to stand on, I decided to use this key from the Steampunk Lightbulb set, but if you don't have this set, you could use something else as this is the only element I used from this set.

Here's how I laid them out inside the box to check that everything fit. 

The next step was to paint everything with white gesso - all of the dress forms and the inside and outside of the box pieces.   I am not using the internal dividers so I will keep them for another project.

Once everything was dry, It was time for the fun part - heat embossing!  I am using an Emerald Creek EP called Wrought Iron which seemed appropriate.

I ended up only using the EP on the dress forms, here's a look at them after heat embossing.   Now at this stage I was considering using that pink alcohol background in my display box but you'll see below that I changed my mind.

Much as I love the bright pink with the black embossed pieces, I decided to use one of these other backgrounds from my stash and so my project was definitely heading in a vintage direction!

Time to construct the box!  I am using regular white glue to glue everything together.  I made sure to measure my paper pieces first - much easier to do before the box is constructed.

Since my project is basically a display "window" I thought it could use a sign, so I die cut these letters from some old cardboard boxes, and since the cardboard was quite thin, stacked them on top of each other to make them more robust. But where to put my sign?

To construct my sign I am using this old piece of acetate from a cake box which I will wrap around the top of the display box and glue into place.  I laid everything out to make sure it would fit across the front of the box.

Now it was time to cover all of these elements with black gesso, ready for painting.  I don't have a painting photo but they were painted with black and metallic paints.

Leave all of those elements to dry and start gluing the background papers into the box and paint the outside of the box - I used Little Black Dress of course!

Next, adhere the acetate to the top of the display box, and then begin to arrange the painted gears and cogs, gluing them on to the acetate, and then add the STEAMPUNK letters on top.

Now to add the dress forms / mannequins to the display window.  I am using black foam tape 3-4 layers of it to attach to the back of each dress form (in a place where it won't show) and then affix them to the back wall of the display box.

Here's how the ladies look once they are in place:

At this point I was "finished" but I felt that it needed something else, and that something else was little feet.  I used a couple of plastic bottle caps, gessoed them and painted them in black metallic paint.  Once the paint was dry, I glued them in place on the bottom of the box.

And then, just when I thought I was finished, I found this little label that was leftover from another project and I thought it would be perfect as additional signage.  It was already gessoed so I gave it a coat of pewter metallic and added these word stickers from Prima.

Turns out I wasn't happy with how it looked, so I ended up repainting it in black acrylic.

I then glued it to the centre of the display box at the bottom.  The addition of this little plaque really finishes it off perfectly!

And that's my project for today.  I hope you enjoyed following the process and seeing the finished project.  Let me know in the comments below!


Elle
Empire of the Cat


PROJECT RECIPE

GSL:
Specimen Box C12Q
Steampunk Shape Set D33A *coming soon*
Gears Shape Set BB13
Steampunk Lightbulb Set D20D (one element used, can be substituted)
Stackable Labels Shape Set D35H (one label used, can be substituted)

Other:
Embossing ink and embossing powder
Silver, copper, pewter metallic paints
Black and white gesso
PVA glue
Black chalk paint
Word stickers
Double sided foam tape (black)
From stash: background paper, acetate, cardboard letters, bottle caps,

The Rabbit of Caerbannog

Happy Saturday everyone! Connie here with a tribute to one of my favorite movies – Monty Python and the Holy Grail.  In the film, the Cave of Caerbannog is guarded by a bunny with nasty, big, pointy teeth and a vicious streak a mile wide. When King Arthur and his knights are attacked by the killer rabbit, he shouts for them to 'run away'! 

This project started with a GSL Bagatelle Box 3 by 4 inch which assembles easily with a bit of tacky glue. The exterior paper I chose for this project is from the fairy tale related Once Upon a Time stack by DCWV.

I couldn't resist setting the bunny in front of a medieval castle image framed with a neutral gray paper from Tim Holtz.

Other elements used in this project are from the GSL Stackable Labels Shape Set, House Jewelry Pieces and Gothic Cross Miniatures.

I painted the base of one of the Stackable Labels black and glued a printed Run Away image to the top layer.

For a knight's abandoned shield, I turned one of the house jewelry pieces upside down and painted it white, then added a red gothic cross. Something so simple makes me giggle.

For this little shrine's feet, I painted wood ball finials with black acrylic paint. A tip for painting them is to pop each one on a Q-tip. They are easy to hold while painting and you can hold them in a small container while the paint is drying. The rabbit is a plastic Schleich toy with a bit of blood red paint added to his mouth for effect.

To finish the piece, I set him on a carpet of thick grass colored felt and glued down a few bones I cut from one of those dollar store plastic skeletons.

Where's a holy hand grenade when you need one?

Thanks for stopping by!

Gypsy Soul Products Used

Bagatelle Box 3 by 4 inch

Stackable Labels Shape Set

House Jewelry Pieces

Gothic Cross Miniatures

Other Products Used

Tacky glue

Acrylic paint

DCWV Once Upon a Time paper

Tim Holtz Idea-Ology paper

Castle image

Tacky glue

Acrylic paint

Felt scrap

Wood ball finials

Schleich rabbit

Plastic skeleton

 

Miniature Bakery Cart

The GSL Square Shrine Shadow Box has a one inch facade at the top. I've used these before to make miniature storefronts. For this project, I flipped it upside down in order to turn it into a miniature bakery cart. 

The shadow box comes in 6 pieces; top, bottom, sides, back and the facade. It is easily assembled using a bit of tacky glue. 

The paper I used for the front is a Paper Studio white brick scrapbook paper from Hobby Lobby. I used the front facade piece as a template for cutting the brick paper to size.

The interior wall paper is from Graphic 45's Cafe Parisian collection. I used a few scraps of wood grain paper for the floor and ceiling. They were all glued in place prior to assembling the shadowbox.  Once the glue was dry, I flipped the front facade over and used an X-Acto knife to cut along the inside edge to leave an opening.

I painted a GSL Branch and one of the GSL Stackable Label Shapes with off white acrylic paint. 

The branch was glued inside the box as a bit of back wall decoration. For the display table, I cut a tongue depressor to the size I wanted and selected two miniature wood ball finials for the table's feet.  These were also painted off white.

I painted a set of GSL 1.5 Inch Straight Wheels with black acrylic paint and glued some pretty brads in their centers. The two rear wheels were glued onto axle mounts that were painted off white.

Here is the table set inside the cart. I cut a cafe menu from a sheet of Graphic 45's Cafe Parisian paper. It was set in place on top of foam squares. 

I got out my polymer clay, paper clay, miniature pastry molds, polymer clay cane slices, paint, glitter and miniature dishes to fashion some fun pastries. 

The Boulangerie Patisserie sign was also cut from a sheet of Cafe Parisian paper. I adhered it to the stackable label with a foam square. A few miniature flowers were added as embellishment. 

 Thanks for stopping by!

Gypsy Soul Items Used

Square Shrine Shadow Box

Branch

Stackable Labels Shape Set

Wheels 1.5 Inch Straight

Other Items Used

Tacky glue

Acrylic paint

Paper Studio white brick scrapbook paper

Graphic 45 Cafe Parisian papers

Foam squares

Brads

Tongue depressor

Wood ball finials

Polymer Clay

Paper Clay

Miniature pastry molds

Polymer clay cane slices

Miniature dishes