Belated Christmas Card

Hi everyone.  I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas with family and friends.  However, what do you do when you get a Christmas card from someone after Christmas?  Do you send them one back, or just wait until next year?  Whatever you decide, it is never too late, or too early, to make a card for someone special at Christmas.  So, this is an easy one but looks like a million bucks.  Okay, that's just my opinion, but I hope you agree.

Choose an image from the Vintage Christmas collection and an appropriately sized frame from GSL.  The Flourished Frame Karen works quite nicely for this image.

Trim your image to fit inside the frame opening, then paint frame with pearl nail polish and let dry.

Use your finger to dab the Stickles lime green glitter glue for a delicate application and let dry.

Turn frame over and dab glue over frame, again using finger to apply a light coat.  Lay frame over image and adhere both to front of card, as shown.

Make a couple of rosettes and follow directions that come with the die.

Paint Memories word ribbon and several different sizes of snowflakes with the pearl nail polish and let dry.

Use the flat end of a makeup sponge to dab Romance red paint over the top of the Memories word band.  Add crystal Stickles glitter glue to top of each snowflake for extra sparkle, and edge rosettes with pine needles distress ink.

Adhere all pieces to card front, as shown, and lifting some  of the pieces with foam dots.

Supplies Used:
GSL  Flourished Frame Karen
GSL Word Ribbons 1
GSL Snowflake Shape Set
Vintage Christmas Paper Collection (Authentique)
Olive Green card stock (for 5"x7" folded card)
Rosettes die  (Sizzix/Tim Holtz)
Tokyo Pearl Nail Polish (any pearl nail polish would work)
Romance chalk paint (DecoArt)
Lime Green, Crystal Stickles (Ranger)
Pine Needles Distress Ink (Tim Holtz)
Peace metal embellishment

I hope you enjoyed this super quick but oh-so-beautiful Christmas card.  You can make beautiful cards so easily just by choosing an appropriate laser cut frame from Gypsy Soul, and there are so many to choose from, too.  They add dimension without adding bulk, so they go through the mail without extra postage.  Of course, if you add lots more embellishments like the rosettes on my card above, you might want to box it up or hand deliver it.  Of course, if I am sending a gift, this is the perfect card to add inside the box, and yep, no extra postage there either.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I just want to wish you all a very Happy New Year!!!

Barbara

"Remember" - a Layout by Trish Alger

When is the last time you created a layout? If recently, kudos to you. If like me you can't remember, let us consider it. Scrapbooking was my entrée into this crafty medium. For the life of me I cannot figure out why I don't scrap anymore; at all. I don't even scrap digitally these days. There was a discussion recently on Facebook about the death of scrapping supplies vs the overwhelming number of digital photos we all have. I can shoot 300 at one family event. How do I choose just one?

As a guest designer, for Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts, this month I challenged myself to a layout.

I remembered that I had a frame break in moving and had set aside the 8"x10" photo for later. Well, later is now here. I loved what this family picture said about us, the time period, and our personalities. Plus, the bright colors were just what I wanted to use.I will walk you through the steps, the supply list is at the end.

I plan to place this on my wall so I chose a 12"x12" paper to start with.  Added some white gesso, then clear gesso before laying in some modeling paste and molding paste and crackle paste through some stencils. I even tried some black gesso for contrast.

Dye sprays in concentrated colors or iridescent tones were sprayed or splattered on the surface as well.

I kept trying materials until I achieved the look I was after. This is no time to be shy. Try it all if you like. That's why gesso is perfect for mixed media--it covers a multitude of attempts.

 

 Inks were dripped and dropped in random order.

 

 

 I wanted to add some matte effect with oil pastels.

 Now to the great chipboard pieces I chose to incorporate. I used white gesso to prepare for other medium uses. Here they are gessoed on the textured surface.

  But wait, that's not all. The pieces need to pop with color.

 

 Really pop. (Notice I cut apart the bottom piece).

 

  The banner (that I modified a bit) and the pointer hand needed the golden touch.

 It's getting there. I decided to use a gloss varnish over the brightly painted chipboard to make it shine and seal the surface.

 

 When I tried the layout, the yellow was just too much for me and I was concerned I was trying to crowd too many pieces onto the layout with my large photo.

 

 So I added back in some white, removed a couple of pieces and rearranged. I liked it a lot better. Let me know what you think.

 

 

 The sticks were great to journal on top of.

Please let me know how your scrapbooking/layout/mixed media endeavors are going.  I'd love to hear from you. Ciao for now, -Trish Alger  justchickenscratch.com

Supply list:

Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts:  

Mixed Media Fragments 3  

Word Ribbons 1  

Curly Word: Remember  

Other Supplies:

Liquitex

-Black Gesso

-Clear Gesso

-Glossy Medium and Varnish

-Modeling Paste

Kaisercraft

-Hot Pink Paint

-Deep Yellow Paint

-Tropical Waters

Plaid

-Apple Barrel Paint Iris

Golden Paints

-Molding Paste

-Crackle Paste

Martha Stewart

-Gesso White

Scotch

-ATG

Eclectic Products

-E6000

Ranger Industries

-Dylusions Sprays

  Dirty Martini

  Fresh Lime

  White Linen

  Melted Chocolate

  Black Marble

Lindy's Stamp Gang

-Maidenhair Fern Green

Winsor and Newton

-Ink White

Faber Castell

-Gelatos Gold

-Adhesive pop dots

Tags in a Box by Trish Alger!

Hello there, this is Trish Alger. I'm so excited to be a Guest Designer this month for Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts.  Here is my steampunk inspired tags in a box project:

GSLCuts has the most amazing chipboard elements. Great themes, with intricate detail, that are a fabulous springboard for our creativity. I'm in love with GSLCuts steampunk selection. Gears, gears, and more gears - delicate, lacy gear borders, chunky gear shapes, and lovely Victorian pieces to pair with. 

I needed some feminine gifts. The kind that had laborious value, not cost. In the project I chose, each woman can receive her own extra-large tag (with sentiment) to take home. I set the challenge to create my own metal gears out of chipboard, rather than hunt through my metal stash. Other than a few metal brads, I succeeded. I kept my palette limited to brown tones, ivory, black, and rusty gear metallics. 

Let's look through the steps of the tutorial.  You'll find the supply list at the end. Each piece was gessoed in black...

Or white...

 

Or a coat of iridescent medium mixed with acrylic medium...

 

Here are the wings closer...

(Do yourself a favor and remove any lingering bits from the holes before covering it in medium.)

Some unbleached titanium for the dressforms...

Next I added some rust paint over the vanilla doily edges and cut to fit in the shape of a corset.

 

And some copper for the beautiful banner...

 

Then a bit of unbleached titanium over the letters...

A closer view...

 

Time to mix paint with acrylic medium and add some color...

Mixtures...

Black gessoed tag, painted in a leather color...

White gessoed tag, painted in another leather tone...

 

I printed the Pocket Pages sentiments onto the vanilla linen paper and trimmed to allow six for the backs of the tags in the box. They were adhered with the acrylic medium.

 The inside of the box were gessoed black. The outside was painted with copper and the corset images (printed on vanilla linen paper) were adhered with acrylic medium. Doily edges were deconstructed to adhere with acrylic medium around the edges like a frame.

The gear sheet, painted with rust, copper, and black...

A second view...

And a third view...

Here are the individual tags completed:

Tag 1...

Tag 2...

Tag 3...

Tag 4...

Tag 5...

  Tag 6...

 

And the tag for the front of the box...

 

Here is the entire box filled with the completed tags:

 

 I realized as I assembled the completed sides for box that I needed to be extra aware of the materials in the tab areas. That includes paper, paint, and mediums. Lots of sanding otherwise.

 

 Well, I had a lot of fun and it made me happy. What happiness are you creating today? Please let us know you were here and what you thought of my box of tags.

Ciao for now,

-Trish Alger

justchickenscratch.com

My ingredient list:

GSLCuts:

Tags in a Box Display  

Dressform Tags  

Texture Sheet Gears  

Cardstock Doily Set Steampunk  

Gears Border and Corners (will be available soon!)

Word Ribbons 1  

Victorian Silhouette Frames  

Gears Shape Set  

Dressforms & Wings Shape Set  

Clock Hands Shape Set  

Other Supplies:

Liquitex 

-Black Gesso

-Basic Burnt Sienna

-Gloss Acrylic Medium and Varnish

-Heavy Body Acrylic Unbleached Titanium 

Golden Paints

-Fluid Acrylic Burnt Sienna

-Glaze Metallic Copper Light

Martha Stewart

-Metallic Acrylic Rust, Gloss Black, and Copper

-White Gesso

AlteredPages.com

-Victorian Edges Rubber Stamp

-Steampunk and Pocket Pages digital images

Eclectic Products

-E6000

Stewart Superior

-Palette Hybrid Inkpad Burnt Sienna

Stampin' Up

-Waffle Paper Brown

Winsor & Newton

-Iridescent Medium 

Vanilla linen paper 

Historical images free of copywrite

Assorted Ephemera