A phone is not for calling--plus a free ear worm!

We all have those special friends who just "get" our unique humor. Those are the friends to whom we can send our snarkiest cards.

This is one such card--a not so subtle reminder about how annoying phone calls can be.

To keep this site family-friendly, I blurred out some language on this card. If you want, you can see the original adult-language-version card on my blog.

Complete with a retro telephone dial, the dial actually turns, to reveal more numbers...

and a few key letters.

To make the card, begin removing the smallest of the Rotary Dials from the package and adding colorful ink.

Adhere decorative paper and the image from Questionable Characters 2 to the card base.

Determine placement for your telephone dial and punch a small hole in the card for the brad. With a pencil, lightly trace the location of the dial holes that fall onto the white card base.

Remove the phone dial, add rub-on letters and numbers within the traced circles and then erase the pencil marks. 

Next, place Post-it Notes over the areas you wish to mask and stamp a textured background onto the card. 

Remove the Post-It Notes, replace the dial pad, add the center "Miss You" sentiment, smudge white pencil around the image and lightly pencil fake telephone numbers onto the background paper. 

I can't tell you how many times the 867-5309 song went through my head during this process. You are incredibly welcome for that free ear worm. 

Print snarky sentiment and "Miss You" sentiment on your computer. Adhere the "Miss You" to the circle chipboard that came with the rotary dial and adhere it to the brad. If you wish, you can first carve out a hole for the brad in the back of the chipboard so it sits flat. 

Adhere the snarky sentiment to the card. The font I used would not print an apostrophe, so I had to do some printing gymnastics to turn a comma into a outline and then flip it upside down to create an apostrophe. This made for some tiny gluing!

Lightly ink the edges of the card with black ink and your card is complete. Have a great day everyone. Hopefully that song won't stick in your head all weekend--if it does, just use it as a reminder to get crafting! -Betsy

Great stuff

Rotary Dials

Questionable Characters 2

Brad

Decorative paper

White cardstock

Ink jet printer

Stamp by Seth Apter

Purple ink

Black ink

White Stabilo All Pencil

Black Stabilo All Pencil

Beacon Zip Dry

The house that snark built

This is the house that snark built.  

It's a bittersweet day for me today.  After three years with the Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts team today will be my last post.  I have loved every second I have been on the team and promise I won't be gone forever.  So, for this post I decided to go out the way I came in- full of snark.  

This project was made with the House Oddities box.  This kit includes the box and all the little houses inside.  It's pretty amazing.  

I started with two sheets of watercolor paper and used Distress Oxide Sprays to color them.  The first sheet has Broken China, Wilted Violet, Pumice Stone, and Cracked Pistachio Oxides.  After the initial layer of Oxides I added some PaperArtsy Infusions in Rocky Road. I areas that were still exposed got hit with Distress Ink in the corresponding colors.  

The second sheet was made using Picked Raspberry, Peacock Feathers, and Squeezed Lemonade Oxide Sprays.  I added Infusions in Violeta and filled in the blanks with Distress Ink.

The houses are hinged together using plain white sports tape.  I cut a small piece and put it on the front of the house.  A second piece went on the back so there was no stick exposed tape.  I knew I wasn't going to make the pages too thick with embellishments.  If you want to recreate this house and know you will have chunky pages just make the hinges longer.  The hinges are painted with colors that correspond to the pages.  

I cut the watercolor paper to fit each house and then stamped up the backgrounds.  I used several of Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous sets (CMS364, CMS341, CMS328,CMS302, CMS294,CMS261, CMS187, CMS172,CMS083, and CMS081) for this.  Some of the backgrounds were stamped using Archival ink in Hydrangea and the rest were stamped using Staz-on Pigment inks.  

Part of the stamping was done before the embellishments were added.  After the paperdolls, sentiments, and other bits were glued down I added a bit more stamping. 

Once all the stamping was done I went back in with various gel pens to add doodles and scribbles.  

So this is what the front row of houses looks like all stretched out.  

You can see I added bits to some of the pages.  The little crown, chain, party hats, and coin add just a bit of bulk but I took that into account when making the hinges. 

 Here are the back pages of the house. 

 Now these could be the front.  It just depends on how you fold them up. 

 I had so much fun picking out the paperdolls and the snarky sentiments for each. 

The exterior is quite simple to put together. 

I painted the exterior black and the interior with Dina Wakley's Lime.  Once it was all dry I used Beacon 3 in 1 glue to stick it all together.  Don't glue the front to the box or you won't be able to get inside! I gave the exterior a spritz of gold ink spray just so it wasn't flat black.

 The interior was splattered with the same color paints I used to color the hinges in the book. You can see the little houses all fit right inside the box.  

You can hinge the door to the houses, so when you pull the door open all the houses come right out.  I decided to do mine a bit differently and I actually used Tim Holtz hinges to hinge the door to the box.  The door panels were covered using the same background paper that covers the houses inside. 

Here you can see the top of the box was stuck to the door using a layer of foam tape.  The door is hinged to the side of the box using the metal hinges.  I used an awl and then was able to use brads to attach the hinges.  Please pardon my hand in here, the wooden base I use to take my photos is a bit warped so sometimes projects want to fall over.  

The final touches were added by spraying the finials with Oxide sprays in Peacock Feathers and Cracked Pistachio.  They got splattered with the paint too.  The baseboard doll was edged with gold(and the entire backside is painted gold too).  He got his snarky sentiment and was glued to the box using super glue.  

I hope you enjoyed my project today.  I had so much fun making it! 

Happy Crafting,

Jess

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

Drinks with my girls

Hi Guys,

Jess here today with a fun tropical tag for you.  I used one of the tags from the  Extra Large Tag set for the background here.  I created this tag to share as part of a new stamp release for Blank Page Muse Stamps.  One of the Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts Design Team Alumni drew all of these stamps.  Pam Bray is a woman that wears many hats!

Cover your Extra Large Tag with cardstock and stamp with Distress Ink in various shades of green.  I used stamps from the Blank Page Muses Tropical Dreams set.  Once your leaves are stamped cover the entire tag with Antique Linen Distress Ink and spritz with water. 

Stamp the hibiscus flower using Stampin Up ink in tip top taupe. This completes the background of your piece.

Paint the Flowers using Folk Art paint in color shift Green Flash and the flower centers in Distress Paint in Abandoned Coral and Picked Raspberry.  

I doubled up the small flower and one of the large flowers on the top of the tag.  The top flower was stamped with the Pineapple stamp to add some texture.  

The other large flower helps ground the girls.  

The big hats and flowers called for big drinks too! I think most of you know by now that I am pretty snarky and this sentiment was perfect for this tag.  I did a bit of scribbling using gel pens and paint on the tag to complete it.  

I think this would be a really fun gift for your best friend! I hope you're inspired to create a tag too.

Jess