Hanging around by Betsy Skagen

So many elements go into this mixed media piece--layered background paper, mica stained glass windows, National Geographic background paper, an old dictionary page and even a tiny little noose.

To begin making this piece, give your Gypsy Soul chipboard elements a basic coating of acrylic paint--white for the skeleton and ivory for one of the arched window frames. Apply black ink to the edges of the skeleton.

Once the paint has dried, use a black pen to make crackle marks on your painted window. The picture below shows the start of t his process.

Rub black ink all over the second window frame and the tree.

Take a sheet of mica and peel it so you have a thin layer. Coat it with embossing ink and then sprinkle translucent embossing powders on it and activate with heat gun. This will create your stained glass. Cut out the mica to fit the window slots and glue to the back of your painted window frame.

Make a tiny noose from twine and place it around the skeleton's head. Draw spooky eyes onto another background paper. I used a CitraSolv treated National Geographic page.

Glue the free end of the noose to the black window frame, then glue the painted window frame with mica windows onto the black window frame. Adhere the entire set to your spooky eye background page.

Next begin layering the pieces: glue the window set to the tree and glue onto decorative paper. Adhere all of that to the vintage dictionary page.

Create a background page by dry brushing layer upon layer of acrylic paint onto it.

Trim down the dictionary page, distress the edges with brown ink and use matte medium to adhere the whole thing to your painted background paper. 

Ink the edges of the background paper with black ink. Then apply embossing ink to the edges and cover with Black Magic embossing powder. Activate with heat gun.

The black embossing powder adds a nice frame to your piece and it is now ready for "hanging" in your home.

Happy Saturday! -Betsy


Great Stuff
Skeleton Shape Set
Arched Window Frames
Tree 1
Mica sheet
Embossing ink
Seth Apter Translucent Baked Powders
Eileen Hull Black Magic Baking Powder
Cold press watercolor paper
Stamperia Paper
Vintage dictionary page
National Geographic CitraSolve page
Black ink
Black pen
Acrylic paints

Skeletons At Work

Hello crafty gypsy friends!  It's Susan here on the Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts blog to share a little skellie triptych made with the Arch Top House Silhouettes.

The first thing I did was match the personality of my three skeletons with paper bits, outlined them with pencil and cut out.

I lined up the silhouettes with about 1/4-inch between them and added Linen Hinge Tape on each side.

A scoring tool or some such thing will help adhere the linen tape strips to each other.

I added black gesso on the edges and on the linen tape, then used matte medium to adhere the paper to each side.

A gold marker on the edges for a little pizazz.

Funeral Director

The Pharmacist

Auctioneer

Thanks for your visit today!

Cheers,
Susan

Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts Used
Arch Top House Silhouettes

Other Supplies Used
Tim Holtz Halloween Paper 8x8
Black gesso
Dresden trim
Antikamnia Calendar skeletons
Gray and black watercolor pencils
Matte medium

A Pair of Skeleton ATC Shrine Boxes

Huzzah! More Halloween!
Lora here creating more fun Halloween-y stuff for the awesomeness that is Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts. Here are my two slightly creepy but fun Halloween Skeleton ATC Shrine Boxes.

Super fun, easy to make and great to display!

To create some depth, I stacked images from G45's Rare Oddities Collection. You can see an example of this in the image below.....

I started out by gluing the Shrine together, painting the sides (inside and out) black and cutting out the images I wanted to use, all from the 8x8 pad.

The background paper and the paper I used on the back side of the shrine is my favorite Bo Bunny Vintage Double Dot paper in Citrus (inside) and Green (outside back). Glue those in first.
I cut four pieces of chipboard 1/2 inches wide, painted them black and glued them to the sides of the shrine to support the 'frame' that will be the middle layer...you can see the frame in the above photo.
A pic of the supports...

I glue the frame onto the supports.

After that dried, I then glued in the skeleton, which has four widths of chipboard glued to its back to bring it up off of the background paper.
It would seem simpler to glue the skeleton in and then the frame, but I found that it's best to do the frame first and then center the interior piece to the frame, rather than the other way around.

I glued the outside border paper to the edge of the shrine, added some Dresden trim (which you can get HERE) and a few extra details like some brass findings, a few discreet sparklies and little white dots.

Don't forget to decorate the bag and sign your work!

SUPPLIES
 ATC Shrine Boxes

Additional Supplies;
Black Dresden Trim
G45 Rare Oddities Scrapbook Paper
Bo Bunny Vintage Double Dot Papers
Flat bck Crystals
Brass Findings
White Acrylic paint

Thank you for stopping by!

Dying to get out

Hi Gypsy Soul Fans,
I have a fun Halloween decor project for you today.

This project was so fast and simple to create, but the results are pretty creepy.
Cover your Coffin Box with your choice of paper.  I went with something that looks like weathered wood.

On the underside of the lid place another small piece of the same paper and cut through the chipboard using a craft knife.

Glue your skeleton to the top of the box so his head pops out of the hole. I cut an addition tiny hole so a hand could peep out.  Add brown ink to the edges of the coffin and the hole. Flick on black paint and wrap the box with chains.  Do not wrap them all the way around.  You want the back to remain flat so you can attach it to your frame.  

Paint a frame black and highlight with brass paint.  Glue your coffin to the center and cover the frame with moss. 

You're all done!

Jess

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