Give Thanks Fall Cards by Barbara Rankin

Hi everyone!  Barbara here on the Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts blog today.  Can you feel the chill in the air yet?  I love this weather, and Fall is very much on my mind.  So, I made a couple of cards with Fall in mind, but these cards can be used for any occasion.  Who would you give them to?

For the Be Thankful card, cut a piece of print paper from 8x8 paper pad to just slightly smaller than card front.  I am using a 5"x7" kraft card with the fold along the top, so I cut the paper to 4-3/4" x 6-3/4".  Then I distressed the edges with a paper distressing tool and inked with brown distress ink.

Cut a border strip from 8x8 paper pad, ink edges with distress ink, and use an awl or a pencil to roll the edges, as shown.

Adhere both paper layers to card front, as shown.

Glue Heart Dangle along top edge, as shown.

Lay heart frame over 8x8 paper and cut out heart shape.

Glue paper to back of frame.  Fill frame with crackle accents, set aside to dry.  (TIP:  Sit frame onto a small piece of card board so that you can pick it up easily and set it aside, off your desk area, so you don't accidentally set paper on top of it or stick your finger in it before it is dry.  TRUST me on this!!)

Fussy cut a pumpkin and two butterflies from the 12x12 paper pad.  Distress cut edges with brown distress ink.

Lay the two butterflies on a scrap of card board and apply a coat of glossy accents to the wings only.  Set these aside to dry.

Shape pumpkin with fingers and adhere to bottom right of card with foam dots.

Adhere tiny amber gems to each bead on the dangle chippie.  I used my paper piercer tool to pick up the tiny gems.

Add a thin coat of Buttercup glitter paste over pumpkin, and a thicker coat of Copper glitter paste over the two dangle hearts and the heart frame.  Adhere heart frame to base heart.  

Use finger to add shape to butterfly wings.   Glue just the butterfly bodies to the front so the wings will lift off of  the card.

And here is the finished card.

For the Pumpkin Love card, I am using a 5"x7" kraft card, and so I cut a piece of print paper  from the 12x12 paper pad to measure 4"x 6-3/4" and adhered to bottom of card.

Trim leaf border from the 8x8 paper pad and adhere to top of card.  Cut "Pumpkin Love" journaling card from one of the 12x12 papers and adhere to card front, as shown.

Cut a small piece of the checkerboard from the texture sheet to fit over the small pumpkin.  Draw a pencil line to coordinate with the shape of  the pumpkin.

Cut excess chipboard around pencil line and glue the checkerboard down to the pumpkin.

Glue remaining chipboard pieces to the base layer.

Spread light molding paste through stripes stencil and let paste dry.

Prime chipboard with a coat of white gesso and let dry.

Paint pumpkins with Pyrole Orange.

Highlight center of pumpkins with Hansa Yellow Light.

Dry brush Green Gold along top and bottom edges of pumpkins.  Paint leaves and stems with Sap Green.  Highlight center of leaves with a dry brushing of Green Gold.

Paint stems and curly bit from bottom leaf with Burnt Umber.  Dry brush Burnt Umber over both pumpkins.  Wipe away any excess, if needed.

Add pop dots to the back of the pumpkins chippie.

Adhere to card front.  Wrap organza ribbon around card along top fold and tie in a bow.

Supplies Used:

GSL Bead Strand Heart Dangle
GSL Pumpkins
GSL Texture Sheet Checkerboard
DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylics
  Pyrole Orange
  Hansa Yellow Light
  Green Gold
  Sap Green
  Burnt Umber
BoBunny Glitter Paste
  Copper
  Buttercup
Prima Amber Moon paper (12x12 and 8x8)
Two 5"x7" Kraft cards
Distress ink - Vintage Photo
Tim Holtz Stripes stencil
Blending Tool
Ranger Crackle Accents
Ranger Glossy Accents
Yellow gemstones
1-1/2" wide ribbon
Pop dots

I hope you have been inspired by my Fall cards today, and be sure to check out the Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts shop to see all the fun chippies available.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and have a wonderful week!!!

Barbara

The Sky is the Limit Art Journal Page

Hello everyone  Barbara here.  Today I thought I would do a bit of art journaling.  I love using my Gina's chipboard, and since we are cross promoting with The Robin's Nest this month, I knew these two products would work beautifully together.

To begin, I pulled out my Cottonwood Arts Canvas Notebook.  I love this book because it has canvas covered chipboard pages, making it so sturdy for adding heavier embellishments to the pages.

Cut The Robin's Nest Fleur/Stripe Tropicana paper in half, adhere Stripe piece to the left and the Fleur piece to the right, using matte medium.

Spritz paper with water and randomly remove only the top layer of this two-sided paper, leaving the stripe or the Fleur side showing.  This looks really cool, but not sure if the camera is picking up this cool textured effect.

Add torn strips of joint tape to the center and sides of both pages to disguise the paper edges that did not cover the entire pages.

Paint both pages with a coat of the Vintage Mustard chalk paint, wipe away with a baby wipe or damp paper towel.  Dry thoroughly.

 Mix Ultra-Matte Varnish with Burnt Sienna Fluid Acrylic to make a glaze and spread over pages with a Spatula.  This will enhance all of the textures from the papers and joint tape.

To tone down the orange color, I spread the Medium Grey Antiquing Creme over both pages with a baby wipe (or damp paper towel).  I don't know if the camera can really pick this up, but I think it looks like marble, or maybe granite.  What do you think?

Paint a thin line of the Cerulean Blue Fluid Acrylic along the top edge, hold book vertically and spritz with lots of water to make the fluid acrylic run and leave these beautiful striations. 

Place open balloon frame onto polka dot side of The Robin's Nest Smoky Chevron paper and trace around it with a pencil; cut out.  .

 Paint a wash of the Patina Green Antiquing Creme with water over the paper, let dry.

 Paint open balloon frame with a wash of Quinachridone Violet mixed with water.

 Adhere paper balloon cutout to page.

Glue black birdcage veil trim to the back of the balloon, let dry.  

 Trim excess veil from around chipboard and adhere over print paper.

 Cut the checkerboard texture sheet into irregular shapes and paint with Carbon Black acrylic paint.  Apply a coat of Clear Crackle Glaze over the checkerboard squares.  (TIP: I used my finger to spread the crackle glaze).

Paint compass with Burnt Umber fluid acrylic.  When dry, add Golden Opal Twinkling H20 for extra shimmer.

Adhere to page and add highlights around the compass with Titanium White antiquing creme a a wet paint brush.  Use your finger to wipe off any excess creme as you work your way around the compass.

Stamp Morroccan Fence and Crackle background stamps with black archival ink all over background for added texture.

I found these puffy stickers in my stash, so I used them to write "The Sky is the Limit".  I used a bit of white glue to ensure they were adhered well.

Paint "Explore" word ribbon, key plate, and balloon basket with Burnt Umber fluid acrylic. 

Use your finger to apply English Red Oxide and Patina Green antiquing creme over key plate and the "Explore" banner, then Iridescent Gold fluid acrylic to give it a super metal look.  Dab tiny spots of Patina Green over that to bring back some patina.  Insert tiny brads through holes in key plate and adhere to balloon.

 Adhere basket to a scrap of the Diamonds paper and trim excess when dry.

Adhere the key plate to the balloon, add some jewelry chain between the balloon and basket and adhere to page.

Adhere the Explore word banner to the top of the balloon.

Cut two banners from the sheet and paint with Primary Magenta mixed with Titanium White fluid acrylics.  When dry, add tiny letter stickers to spell out "There are no limits".  Adhere to balloon.

I used Titanium White fluid acrylic applied to a bottle cap to make circles on both pages.  Imperfection is key, here.  I seems to look better if the circles are not perfect.  I also added some white splatters about the page.

I added shading to the puffy sticker letters with the liquid pencil to help them pop off the page. Because it is rewettable, I was able to use a baby wipe to remove any areas where I felt there was too much shadow.

The very last thing was to add some bling, so I used The Robin's Nest Blue Skies Archival Seeds, which just happened to be the right color, around the page.  I think they really added just the right touch.

Supplies:

Gina's Designs:

Mini Display Tray - Hot Air Balloon;  
Texture Sheet Checkerboard; 
Compass; 
Texture Sheets Fiesta;
 Keys and Plates; 
Word Ribbons 3;

Robin's Nest:

 Tropicana Fleur cardstock;
Saffron Diamonds cardstock;  
Blue Skies Archival Seeds

Cottonwood Arts A2 Canvas Notebook (6.75 x 12) Journal

DecoArt Media™: Matte Medium; Ultra-Matte Varnish, Clear Crackle Glaze;   Antiquing Creme: Medium Grey, Titanium White; Fluid Acrylics:  Carbon Black, Burnt Sienna, Quinachridone Violet, Burnt Umber, Primary Magenta, Titanium White, Interference Gold

ColourArte: Twinkling H20s Golden Opal

Drywall Joint Tape (self-adhesive)

Vintage Mustard chalk paint (FolkArt)

Moroccan Fence stamp (LaBlanche)

Crackle clear stamp (Kaisercraft)

Black Archival Ink (Ranger)

Kraft Mini Black Alphabet sticker (Jillibean)

Tiny screw top brads (Tim Holtz)

Jewelry chain (Hobby Lobby Metal Gallery)

Plastic bottle cap

Glossy Accents (Ranger)

Derivan Liquid Pencil (Rewettable)

As always, I hope you enjoyed my step-out tutorial, and that I have inspired you a bit to do some art journaling, especially now that you see how beautifully The Robin's Nest papers work with Gina's spectacular, yes, I said it, spectacular, laser cut chipboard.  It just doesn't get any better than that!

Please check out the links to The Robin's Nest Store and Blog and of course check out all the things happening over at Gina's Store and Facebook Group.


So, thanks for stopping by, and have a wonderful and creative weekend!  Oh, and feel free to visit me at my blog, Black Hole Art Studio. There is always something going on there, too.  


Barbara