You can do a lot with a little

Please welcome our newest Design Team member Myry. Myry is from Spain and loves crafting. We hope you like her work as much as we do.

Hello everyone! 

Myry here and I'm pleased to partner with Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts!

Sometimes we think that to embellished our works we need a lot of different elements. But that's not true! 

So Today I want to teach you how to take advantage of few elements to create a cover for an album.

The first thing we're going to need are chipboards. I'm going to use "Family" from Fall word set and some pieces from Leafy Swirls and Buds.

Let me give you a tip: sometimes chipboards have traces of something like charcoal. You need pay attention to the edges. If they're dirty clean them with a rag. This way you'll avoid dirtying your work.

Now we're going to use embossing powders to color the chipboards. Use a color that you're already using in your work. In my case, I'm using a pink and violet palette so I'm going to use this light pink powder.

Another tip: use just a little bit powder for a cracked and aged effect. 

This was after two attempts.

Next we'll position the title over between the edges of the heart using a piece of acetate a little longer than the title.

The important thing is to know if our glue fix the acetate or dry as a layer of glass (therefore the acetate will slip).

Try to glue only the parts of the chipboard that will make contact with the acetate.

And now we're going to start putting the rest of the elements in place: the other chipboards, some diecuts and small elements like beads and dots.

One tip more: use the excess of the chipboards to give volume and make layers.

And that was it! So simple and easy :)

I hope this short tutorial help you in your future works. 

Have a good week!

Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts items used:

Fall Word Set

Leafy Swirls and Buds

Other items used:

Zing "Pink" embossing powder

Distress embossing ink

Heat embossing tool

Cutter, glue and rag

Acetate

Diecuts, beads and dots

Book of Love

I've been dreaming of this project for months and I'm so smitten with how it came out.

Perusing Instagram one day I spied a medieval painting with a young man holding a heart shaped book and I KNEW I wanted to make my own.

Apparently heart shaped books were quite popular during the late Middle Ages. A quick search and you'll find loads of beautiful antique examples. 

For my book, I've used paper from Graphic 45's Flower Shoppe (one of my favaourite collections
ever) and chopped up a  Rose Border for embellishment.

Inside I've covered each folio with music paper, and painted the pages with symbols associated with love and love magic.

A bit of advice: be sure that your layout is dry before moving on to the next. I had a couple of incidents of pages so in love they wanted to stick together and not be unstuck.

I added some stamped elements on a few pages and applied gold embossing powder. I think it gives a nice nod to the gilded illumination in old manuscripts.

There's runes and symbols and all sorts of love elements in my magic little book, but don't feel bound by my example.

The petite size of this book make it wonderful for exploring and experimenting. With just 7 layouts to complete, it's not an overwhelming commitment. AND the chippy pages are pretty great at accepting an enthusiastic application of mixed media. 

Want to see how I put this heart-shaped book of love together? Great! I've made a video to guide you though the process of making your own. Pop over HERE to see it

And here are all the bits I used:

Heart Shaped Album

Gypsy Soul Foam Stamps Coming Soon

Rose Border

music paper

scrapbook paper (Graphic 45's Flower Shoppe)

glue

hockey tape (cloth type)

acrylic paint

gold embossing powder

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

Shabby Sewing Heart with Canvas Corp Brands

Hi folks, Cherry here today at the GSLC Blog!   Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts had a fun product match up this month with Canvas Corp Brands.

  What fun it was using both companies products together.  Kinda a match made in heaven.   I created this fun shabby heart with a sewing theme.  Perfect little decor for a sewing or craft room.

 I started with these fun mini display tray hearts  as my base and decided to spray paint them with ballerina pink spray paint. 

Than I traced my inside heart with this sweet sewing paper from 7 Gypsies .

I added a double layer of lace to the inside.

I wrapped the heart with seam binding diagonally.

From here I layered the tray heart on top and started adding all my embellishments including this Ironwork frame.  I spray painted it as well.  I also highlighted areas of frame with some white acrylic paint to shabby it up a bit.

           I used some awesome Architexture embellishments including this cool sewing machine and those sweet little girl Mary Jane shoes.  

I added some pretty velvet blooms, vintage measuring tape, and a metal bobbin to complete my project. 

 I adore those little patent leather Mary Janes!

 Thanks for stopping by the Gypsy Soul Laser Cut blog today!  Cherry Nelson

Gypsy Soul Laser Cut Supplies-

mini Display tray-heart

Ironwork frame 

Canvas Corp Brands Supplies-

Architexture treasures sewing machine

Trinkets Mary Janes

7 Gypsies Seamstress Patterns paper

7 Gypsies Seamstress Bias Tape pattern paper