She's Got a Ticket to Ride by Betsy Skagen

What does your creative process look like? For me, some vintage Silver Star tickets sitting on my desk reminded me of the old Beatles song. That inspired me to search through my stash to find the perfect saucy woman.

A lingerie model from a 1940s magazine and several elements from Gypsy Soul, including a silver star,  set me on the path to create this mixed media / altered art wagon.

Tutorial: How to Create a Retro Mixed Media Wagon.

Begin by covering a shallow box with black gesso.

On cold press watercolor paper prepare a multi-layered mixed media background using acrylic paints, dry brushes, stencils, inks and other mixed media tools. 

Use an embossing ink pen and a stencil to create the rocket cone. Add Deep Sea Baked Texture and activate with heat gun.

Cut your newly created mixed media paper to fit the inside of your box. Score where it will fold and make corner slices so you can create the box shape. Below I am showing the messy back side ( I am never a tidy crafter!) of the mixed media water color paper so you can see how I scored the paper and cut the corners.

After making sure your paper fits inside the box, Fold the paper into a rectangle, add glue and let dry.

Use paint or a marker to color the edge of your paper so that you won't have a glaring white edge.

Depending on the size of your box, you may want to trim the wheel axels so that they don't overwhelm your project.

Then cover all of the chipboard pieces--Ticket Strips, Stars String Alongs, Wheels, stars from the Celestial Shape Sets and a rectangle from the Four Panel Door with black gesso. When dry, paint the stars with metallic silver paint.

Select a paper straw that will fit through the axel and wheel holes and four washers that also fit. Paint the straw with black gesso. When dry cut the straw to fit the axel base.

Attach black Tyvek to the axels so you can strengthen the bond between the alexs and the box. I just love black Tyvek. You can use it for so many purposes such as creating incredibly strong folding hinges on books and journals. I used to color white Tyvek envelopes with a black marker until I found that I could purchase a black version of it.

Ink the Star String Along with embossing ink, cover with silver embossing powder and use a heat gun to activate it.

Punch a hole in the top of your mixed media paper box and thread the star through it. Cement the star in place with strong adhesive tape.

Adhere your mixed media paper box inside the cardboard box.

Using a strong glue like Beacon Fabrfi-Tac, adhere the axels to the bottom of the box. Slide the straw pieces through the axel, add the wheels and glue the stars from the Celestial Shape sets onto the straws. Add the chipboard rectangle to the front of the box to create a handle or carriage coupling.

Fussy cut a vintage lingerie model, adhere to black cardstock and cut around the image. Use a metallic silver paint pen to paint her shoes silver.

Tear one end of the tickets and the chipboard ticket strip. Distress the edges of vintage tickets with black ink. Adhere the tickets to the chipboard strip, then adhere the woman to the ticket strip.

Next add foam adhesive squares to the back of the woman and tickets to add depth to the project. Because I didn't have any thicker adhesive foam on hand ( and was too lazy to go to the store), I stacked three adhesive squares together to give extra dimension. Line up the tickets with the embossed arrows to create a rocket. Adhere the woman and tickets to the inside back of your box.

Use a printer or typewriter to create your title piece. Cut into a rectangle, ink the edges with black ink and adhere to a black cardstock background.

Cut a rectangle of clear acetate, score in half and adhere to the back of your title piece to make an invisible stand. Adhere inside the carriage box.

Apply metallic silver paint to a foam blending tool and stencil assorted graphics to the side and back of your carriage.

Add black Dresden trim.

Your Ticket to Ride Carriage is now complete! I hope you were able to find a little inspiration or knowledge from this tutorial. Have a great weekend! -Betsy 

Great Stuff

Chipboard Ticket Strips
Moon & Stars String Alongs
Wheels
Stars from 2 Celestial Shape Sets
Rectangle from Four Panel Door
Cardboard box
Vintage tickets
Vintage ad
Black Tyvek
Deep Sea Baked Texture Embossing Powder
Silver embossing powder
Embossing ink pen
Black ink pad
Assorted stencils
Foam blending tool
Foam adhesive squares
Black Dresden trim
Clear acetate
Printer or typewriter
Paper straw
4 washers
Cold press watercolor paper
Black cardstock
White cardstock
Black gesso
Acrylic paints
Metallic silver paint pen
Beacon Fabri-Tac
Beacon Zip Dry

Make your laundry room more fun with these retro signs by Betsy Skagen

Two of my favorite things in the world are mid-century graphics and snarky humor. I recently combined them to make one of my least favorite things in this world--doing laundry--a little more fun.

These retro laundry signs are sure to brighten both my laundry room and my spirits when I tackle my family's Mount Maytag of laundry.

Tutorial on how to make retro laundry signs

Begin by creating gel prints on white cardstock to use as your background.

Next cover the Retro Frame Set with gesso. Dry with heat gun and then paint each of the frames. I chose to make my frames metallic silver and teal.

Dry with heat gun and then cover the frames with embossing ink and clear embossing powder. Activate the embossing powder with a heat gun.

. Cut your background paper to fit each of the frames.

 Cut out images from Vintage Laundry #1 and personalize with messages.

 Adhere the images to your pre-cut background paper.

Glue the frames onto your images. Then adhere the images to white corrugated cardstock. Complete the signs by gluing the corrugated paper onto black cardstock. 

Great Stuff

Retro Frame Set

Vintage Laundry #1

White corrugated cardstock

White cardstock

Black cardstock

Acrylic paint

Embossing ink

Clear embossing powder

Black pen

Don't be a bird brain (and watch out for homicidal parrots) By Betsy Skagen

I didn't know parrots were bullies until I created this little altered art project. Hopefully not all parrots are such big meanies, and these guys are just a bad lot.

As you can see, they convinced this dim-witted lass that she can fly--that's why she is precariously on the edge of the house, readying to launch herself into the air.

I wonder, is that yellow bird whispering in her ear telling her to stop or egging her on? (you did see what I did there, didn't you? Birds > Eggs = Giggle Snort.)

Tutorial--How to make the altered art bird brain house

Now that you have recovered from being dazzled by that pun, you can find out how to make this little project. Begin by assembling and gluing the Mini House Shadowbox 4. Ignore the torn finish on the shadowbox in the picture below. I had it temporarily held together with some tape and wasn't careful enough when I removed it. It makes no difference for our project.

This shadowbox is so sweet. It is only four inches tall! It would be perfect for little fairies, elves or your kid's pet night crawler (ewww).

Next, give it a quick coat of aqua paint. Don't worry about making this perfect as you want a distressed look.

Emboss the entire house with Verdigris Sparkle. Before setting the embossing powder with heat, intentionally swipe with a small cotton swab to remove some of the embossing.

After the embossing has set, add extra dimension by rubbing the edges with a brown ink pad.

Cut out the images you are going to use from your collage sheets. Then use a hot glue gun to adhere plastic greenery to the inside of the house.

Next adhere the background parrots.

Layer the rest of the birds, the nest and the girl. You can't see it because of the message, but I actually sliced open the nest to slide one of the girl's feet inside it.

Print out your message, ink it with tea dye distress ink and adhere it to the bottom of the box. 

Have you ever encountered any strange parrots in your life? I met a parrot at a Jewish-based post-hospital care facility that wished everyone a Merry Christmas and made loud catcalls to the elderly ladies.

I hope everyone has a fantastic Saturday. Make sure you stay away from any homicidal parrots!
--Betsy

Great Stuff

Mini House Shadowbox 4
A Trip to the Zoo #1
All About Birds
Plastic ferns
Hot glue gun
Ink jet printer
Tea Dye Distress Ink Pad
Vintage Photo Distress Ink Pad
Ranger Aqua Acrylic dabber
Verdigras Sparkle embossing powder

Going to the zoo, zoo, zoo with Betsy Skagen

Coming to you straight from my vacation dockside are these zoo tags.

 First there is the Pretty in Pink flamingo nestled within his cage. The` second tag features Mr. Tiger.

 Cat got your tongue? This cat certainly got the poor zookeepers tongue (and entire head) when the zookeeper found himself on the wrong side of the fence.

Tutorial how to make the Zoo Tags

1. To make these altered zoo tags, begin by running white cardstock through a honeycomb embossing folder several times. Cut out the shape of two large tags, approximately 7.5" by 4".

2. Cover the tags with Quinacridone Gold acrylic paint.

3. When dry, rub a soot black distress ink pad over the surface.

4. Use a silver paint pen to paint both the cage and the wrought iron fence silver. Then rub Soot Black Distress Ink along the edges to give the bars an aged look.

5. Next print out one copy of the digital image sheet A Trip to the Zoo #1, A Trip to the Zoo #3 and two copies of In the Garden - Bird Cages. Cut out the zookeeper, tiger, flamingo and text messages from the Zoo Sheet and cut backgrounds to fit the fence and cage from the Bird Cages Sheet. Cut additional flowers from this sheet as you see fit.

6. Adhere tiny bits of bling to the background sheet. (I forgot to take a picture of this before I added the bird and cage)

7. Use 3D foam adhesive to adhere your flamingo to the cage background.

8. Then ink tiny pieces of chipboard to create dimensional blocks for your cage and place these between the cage background and the cage to add depth.

9. Add tiny flowers, greenery, your text and ribbon to complete the flamingo tag.

10. Use a similar process to make the tiger tag. However this tag uses a second tag in the background. Begin by blending several ink colors onto a manila tag. Then use acrylic paint with different stencils or stamps to apply two to three patterns. When dry, adhere the tag to the second of your larger honeycomb tags.

11. Adhere the fence to the colorful tag.. Then add tiny bits of pink bling before gluing on the tiger, the zookeeper and the zookeeper's head (muahahaha).

12. Add your text, greenery, flowers and ribbon and both your tags are complete. I hope you get a chance to enjoy some summer fun, whether it be visiting a zoo or hanging out on a lakeside dock.

-Betsy

Great Stuff

GSLCuts items used:Mini Wrought Iron Decorative Fence 

Doodled Cage with Solid Back

Honeycomb

Alpha Stamps A Trip to the Zoo #1
Alpha Stamps A Trip to the Zoo #3
Manilla tagIn the Garden - Bird Cages
Quinacridone Gold acrylic paint
Silver Paint pen
Acrylics in assorted colors
Beacon 3-in-1 Adhesive
Embossing folder
Ribbon
Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pads in assorted colors

Beacon 3-in-1 Adhesive

Alpha Stamps Flowers & Greenery