Wintery Christmas Theater

It's time (at least for me) to think about Christmas. Being a person that much prefers chilly weather, I love winter. It is beautiful nearly all the time and there's nothing like the feeling of a snowy day, a hot pot of soup on the stove and a real fire in the fireplace.
It's also the time of year when I feel the most creative and am more productive than any other time of year.
So hooray, and salutations to all the winter loving folks out there.
And let's talk holidays.
Love winter holidays. Christmas is a favorite partly because it gives me license to be extravagant, to celebrate a winter world with sparkle, color and cheer.
And now speaking of cheer, here is a vivid pink Christmas Theater!
Not a traditional wintery color, but festive nonetheless.
Here is the theater, stage set and ready for whatever story one would like to tell.

Below, I chose to fill the stage with a winter scene of house sparkling with lights and snowy window sills. Surrounded by bottle brush trees.

Here's how it began.....

I dry fit the pieces of the Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts Stage. 
I took them apart and cut and glued the papers I chose in place. The papers I used were all Bo Bunny from the Christmas Village Collection or the Double Dot Vintage line in Pink Punch.
I inked the edges of all the pieces and also inked in some 'folds' in the curtains by smoodging (my own word) ink on with my finger and a Qtip in places where I imagined shadows would be.

I glued the stage together and set it aside to dry.
I painted white snowflakes from both the Snowflake Shape Set and the Snowflake Shape Set Minis.
I did the same with the Pine Tree Shape Set.
Set them aside to dry.
I cut houses from the Christmas Village paper, added glitter to all the wee lights (I used lots of different Stickles glitter for that and White Lace Stickles for the snowy window ledges) and let them dry.
After they dried, I cut and scored pieces of card stock and glued them on the back of each house.

I used Stickles Diamond to glitter up all the snow flakes and trees, glued bits of cork painted white to the backs of the trees in various depths (only the trees I used inside the stage to give some depth) and did the same to the snowflakes I used in the stage.
I glued in all my bits, and added some extra details (cut and glittered) from the Christmas Village paper.

And the stage is ready to go!

Have fun playing!

SUPPLIES
Stage
Snowflake Shape Set
Snowflake Shape Set Minis.
Pine Tree Shape Set

Additional supplies
Bo Bunny Village Christmas Scrapbook Paper
Bo Bunny Double Dot Pink Punch Vintage
Stickles glitter glue in Frosted Lace, Diamond, Lime Green, Orange Peel, Christmas Red and Glam Pink
White Acrylic paint
White Dresden Trim (you can get it HERE)
Bottle Brush Trees are available at lots of craft stores.

Captivating audiences everywhere...Zelda the Dancing Pig by Betsy Skagen

Audiences go hog wild when Zelda the Dancing Pig enters the stage. Adorned with a sparkling heart pastie on her juicy hocks and a bow on her tantalizing pigtail, Zelda is sure to never be a boar.

Zelda travels with the carnival, where loud barkers sell out her shows hours in advance and carnies are sure to swine-dle a few naive gents.

 With her name in lights, Zelda loves to ham it up. The higher she kicks her hooves, the more audiences  squeal with delight. To be sure, every night more than a few hearts are a-bacon.

 To make your own Zelda Stage, first assemble the Square Shrine Shadowbox, leaving the top unattached.

Cover the interior and exterior with red acrylic paint and let dry. I never seem to remember this lesson, but it is a good idea to not paint the notches where you will later assemble the rest of the box. Otherwise, like me, you will be scraping paint from those notches with a sharp blade in order to fit them together.

Apply embossing ink to Banner Border Strips, cover with silver embossing powder and heat set.

Add red glitter hearts to the banner and then adhere the banner to the interior of the box front.

Cut a silver doily by a third and adhere to the inside of the box.

Glue a bow onto the tail of a toy plastic pig and a miniature foil heart onto the pig's leg.

Isn't she cute! Make a hat for the pig from a red doily and sheer red ribbon. Glue the pig onto the stage.

Assemble the rest of the box and glue glass beads to the stage base.

Glue a heart ribbon across the top of the stage, Add silver letters and adhesive bling.

Use a design program such as Illustrator to make posters. Print them out. First roughly tear along all the edges.

Next ink the posters with brown ink and trim them with scissors. By tearing them first you will give the posters a worn and distressed look.

Glue the posters to the side of the stage and your stage is complete.

Great Stuff

Square Shrine Shadowbox
Banner Border Strips
Beacon 3-in-1 Adhesive
Embossing ink
Silver embossing powder
Silver doily
Red doily
Red ribbon
Red hearts
Glass beads
Cute toy pig
Bow with pearls
Silver letters
Adhesive bling
Heart ribbon
Miniature foil heart
Miniature posters

A Midsummer Faerie Theatre by Nichola

"Tis almost fairy time"

That line is from my favourite Shakespeare play, A Midsummer Nights Dream. It's the inspiration for my project this month, A Midsummer Faerie Theatre.

I haven't used glitter in the past couple of projects *gasps!* so I made up for it on this one. Even my little Titania, Queen of the Faeries, has glitter encrusted on her wings. The image I've used here is from The Graphics Fairy, which is an excellent source of quality free images by the way.

Inside the chipboard Stage there are glittery branches, moss, flowers, leaves, toadstools... all the good stuff.

This month Gypsy Soul is pairing with Altered Pages, who supplied us with these Muse Dragonfly rubber stamps. Now, I've got to be honest, I am not a stamper. I rarely use stamps so including them was a challenge for me. I've stamped the image on to thick card, cut out, then applied some gold embossing powder to the body of the dragon and damselflies. They're finished off with some glitter and tucked into those sparkly branches.

Gypsy Soul is also partnered with Xyron and I used their 3" Sticker Maker to not only add the trims you see on the piece, but also as an adhesive to apply embossing powder to the top bunting and moon.

If you'd like to see how this piece came together there's a video walk though of it's creation HERE. 

Thinking of making your own version? Here's a round up of all the supplies used:

Stage
Banner Border Strip
Gypsy Soul Shape Set (available soon)

Altered Pages Muse Dragonfly Rubber Stamp
Xyron 3" Sticker Maker

Flat-Back Gold Star Studs - 12mm*
Mini Floral Dresden Borders - Antique Gold
1/2 Inch Pale Pink Paper Roses*
1/2 Inch Red Paper Roses*
Demon Box Feet*
Medium Pine Cones
Small Pine Cones
Art Nouveau Winged Women*
Nouveau Goddess - Raw Brass Stamping

Green Pearl Radiant Rain Shimmering Mist

Leaves from Petaloo Botanica Sugared Blooms
Vintage image from The Graphics Fairy
Acrylic paint
Spackling

ColourArte Twinkling H2O's
ColourArte Radiant Rain Mist
Twigs
Glue
Glitter
Embossing powder

Stage - Thor's Fishing Trip by Jessica

Hey crafty people! Today I'm bringing you a project based on the Norse legend of Thor going on a fishing trip where two whales are caught before they continue the quest to find Jormungand.

If you want to read up on this myth, here's a handy link: Thor's Fishing Trip

This stage was designed in the classic 1920's theater productions, where the water could be moved back and forth by stage hands to give the impression that the waves were actually moving.

Actors would be positioned behind flat stage props as they acted out the scene.

The set features a viking ship with a dragon or possibly serpent head, "moving" water, a whale against a night sky.

This was my first project using glitter and now I'm finding glitter all over the house!

What are you going to make for your stage?

Materials
Stage
Ocean Creatures Small

Dragons Shape Set

-------
And a whole lot of glitter! <3

Film Noir Stage by Trish Alger

Hello, this is my final project as Guest Designer for Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts this February. The array of exciting choices at Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts set my imagination in thousands of directions. 

 

When I spied the stage I knew Film Noir was the theme.  I limited my color palette to a gray scale and dove in. Please browse with me through the steps; I'll share some tips and provide the supply list at the end. Let's go...

Rather than paint the pieces and then assemble them, this time I glued the stage together first (except for the top curtain piece). Tacky glue worked great to hold the pieces in place as they dried. (E6000 was not as friendly to work with.)

  I used some leftover spray paint to change the color. (A shade that looks like aluminum.) I placed the stage in a shallow cardboard box and sprayed in light, even, sweeps out-of-doors. Let it set for an hour for most of the fumes to dissipate.

 

 The top curtain section was covered in black gesso.

 

 I wanted the other leftover spray paint for the filmstrip. (This shade looks like chrome.) Then I taped off the curtain sections for stripes.

 

 Again, I placed the stage in a shallow cardboard box and sprayed in light, even, sweeps out-of-doors. Let it set for an hour for most of the fumes to dissipate.

 

 This is the backside of the pieces to show the difference.

I wanted the filmstrip to stand out visually, so I mixed some gum Arabic, water, and PearlEx macro pearl.

 I love the subtle shine it gives the filmstrip.

 

 Here is the stage all striped out.

My black stripes were too intense for me so I toned them down with some PearlEx micro pearl.

 Then the film reel and my mysterious dame needed a coat of black gesso.

 

 The film reel received a coat of PearlEx silver.

 The tone difference is amazing.

 My mysterious dame needs a gun in her silhouette. I altered her handbag with my X-acto knife.

 

 

 I needed a cool film noir movie image for my screen and to set the dramatic theme. AlteredPages.com had a great one. I printed the image on white cardstock and adhered that to some chipboard for stability.

 

 I added pop-dot adhesive to the back.

 

 Here all of the parts before assembly.

 

 Notice the raven was given a coat of black gesso and then added to top edge of my stage. It rests just perfect up there.

 

 Assembly time. I used tissue paper to prop up parts while they dry.

 

 Love the look and negative space.

 

 The filmstrip needed to be adhered with some elevation. Clear pop-dots, stacked up, performed well.

 

 Almost there. Some dramatic placement.

 

 Love how the negative space creates interest.

 

 My mysterious dame needs a place.

 

 A different angle. She creates another dramatic shadow.

 

 Let's add a mirror to the top of the stage.

 

 Here is the stage in many types of lighting and backdrops:

Outside...

 

 Studio lighting...

 

 Indoor natural lighting:

 

 I wanted to show the amazing differences in each lighting situation. I can't wait to see how this scene looks each day at differing times. 

Thank you so much for being with me this month! It has been an amazing creative journey. Please let me know what you think, of what you have seen, and any crafty ideas you have come up with.

Ciao for now,

-Trish Alger

justchickenscratch.com

My supply list:

Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts Supplies   
-Stage   
-Hollywood Shape Set   
-Lady Silhouette (Coming soon!)
-Raven from Steampunk 2 Shape Set  

Other Supplies;

Rust-Oleum

-Spray paints, aluminum and chrome

AlteredPages.com

-Film Noir digital image

-Mini mirror

-Aleene's Clear Tacky Glue

-Pop Dot Adhesives white and clear

Jacquard Products

-PearlEx Silver, Macro Pearl, Micro Pearl, Gum Arabic

Scotch

-ATG Adhesive

Liquitex

-Black Gesso

Eclectic Products

-E6000

White Cardstock

Scrap chipboard