The Cat's Meow Tiny Matchbox Theatre by Sandy Trefger

Hello everyone! Sandy here today with a quick, fun little project for Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts.  I love cats and have quite a few living here at my house. So I thought I'd use the GSL Tiny Matchbox Theatre chipboard kit to make a fun wall hanging that I'm calling the "Cat's Meow."  The matchbox is so easy to put together.  I've done a YouTube video on how I assembled mine, painted and patterned it with some Graphic 45 Raining Cats & Dogs.  This would make a great gift for any theme that you might have in mind.

Here's my tutorial video:

Supplies Used:

• Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts Tiny Matchbox Theatre #C40D
• Graphic 45 Raining Cats & Dogs 12x12 paper collection
• Black Painter's Pen
• Assorted Silk Flowers
• Seam Binding Ribbon
• Dark Brown or Black Alcohol Marker
• Glitter Pen

Thank you so much of checking out this post and my tutorial video.  Be sure to check out the Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts store and order several of these very inexpensive Tiny Matchbox Theatre Chipboard kits to have on hand when you need a quick project.  I'll be back here on the blog July 5th with another project.

Happy Crafting!

~Sandy

P.S. Check out my blog/website for more of my creations at: www.sandytrefger.blogspot.com

A Charming Victorian Wall Shelf

Detail can be a thing of beauty. I have always loved hand painted details on furniture and combining that with the wonderfully scrolly Victorian Wall Shelf Miniature is a match made in heaven!
I love working in 1:12 scale and this is a perfect piece for the WIP doll's house I have been slowly working on for about a year. The beautiful and graceful scroll work on this piece inspired me to enhance the already lovely shape and add pretty gold details.

 Here's where I started out....

Glued the bits together. Make sure you put your brackets in right way up! Just sayin'......

I gave it a good coat of gesso and then a coat of white acrylic paint.

I have a nice little collection of old watch faces and wanted to use one for the circle that was just crying to be a clock.
I chose one and dry fit it into the hole, then drew a circle around it to mark where the edges were on the circle.

And yes! This next picture is meant to be upside down. The shelf part of the clock would have inhibited me from doing a consistent paint job on the details, so I flip the piece over and did my rough guide/sketch of my design....

And then began to paint it on. I used Lumiere Metallic Acrylic in Sunset Gold and a #4 round brush. I like this brush because it holds it pointy tip and allows for fine lines and it's stiff enough that I can paint little swirly circles and dots.

I am right-handed, so I paint from the left to the right, that way I don't drag my hand through any wet paint.
Here is what the completed gold paint looks like.

I wanted to age it up a bit...the white is a little too bright for me, so I used a little water and Quinachrodone Gold to 'yellow' the white and make the gold look just a bit richer.
Quinac Gold is a semi translucent acrylic paint that I use a lot either by itself or with a little black to give the appearance of age or grime to a piece. (this is a variation on something I learned from the amazing and very funny Michael deMeng)

I smoodged around a bit of the quinac and water and then wiped it down with a bit of damp paper towel. I reapplied as I need to to get the color I wanted.
It goes without saying that you want your detail painting to be completely dry before you do this!

 The finished shelf!
And with some fun goodies displayed on it...

Supplies:
Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts
Victorian Wall Shelf Miniature

Additional supplies from Alpha Stamps
Even tinier books-set of 12
Three Miniature Vases
Small Mulberry Blossoms
Amber Candy Dish Set

Acrylic paints
Gesso
Glue

Thank you for stopping by!

Beach Dreams

Hi Everyone, 

Jess here with a fun postcard inspired post for you. 

I've been dreaming of the ocean.  I grew up near the beach and every summer all the girls in our family used to spend a week in York, Maine.  I am now in Arizona and don't get to the beach nearly enough.  I think this postcard is as close as I will get this year.  Here is how you can create your own. 

I started with a piece of paper mounted on a piece of mat board.  I randomly added crazing medium and then added Distress Crayon to show off the cracks.  

Both umbrellas were colored using Distress stains.  I did not prime them with gesso.  I wanted them to look slightly faded and the stain seeps into the chipboard.  Once the stain was dry I covered them with Emerald Creek's clear embossing powder. It's not completely covered.  I left some blank spots so it looks a bit tattered and sun faded.  

The waves are all embossed using various embossing powders and then layered.

The sand dollar was punched with white acrylic paint using a dry brush so some of the chipboard color is still visible.  The starfish and shells are embossed. Don't the starfish look real?

The sand is torn paper that is inked with Disttess Ink and then glued in layers. I love how her foot is buried in the sand. All of the little pieces are tucked into the sand. 

 My sentiment is the finishing touch; 

I added some shadow around it, and the lady.

Anyone want to take me to the beach this summer?

Jess

Sand on the Seashore Shadow Box by Ginny

Hey there Paper Peeps! Ginny here with an extra special project I created as a gift for my Daughter in Law for her Birthday. The story behind this project is our first vacation we took all together after she joined our family. We went on holiday to the beach as we do for Christmas and had a wonderful time. She and I happened into a craft store and she found a little package of glass bottles and mentioned how much she liked them. A light bulb went off and I decided right then and there to create a shadowbox for her and include a tiny bottle filled with sand from the beach from our first family trip.

I altered many chippies to embellish a recycled candy box to create the shadow box.

 



There's the little jar of sand. I wrapped a bit of twine around it and added some tiny key charms.

 

A vintage jewelry finding was layered onto the altered chipboard for accent.

 



Loads of flowers to coordinate with the beachy color scheme and to disguise the structure holding the tiny sand jar. There's a printed bible verse in the frame with a lovely sentiment to let her know how much we love her.

I created faux netting by spraying cheese cloth then twisting it in and around the flowers and inside the box.  A few little loops of roping completes the nautical embellishing.

1. Wipe down the chippies to prepare them to be altered. 2. The base is finished with a layer of flat white acrylic paint and the flourish pieces are dabbed with Distress Paint in Peacock Feathers. 3. I'm incorporating the portion of the chippies that would usually be discarded to create the front opening of the box. It's been finished with the Distress Paint  and the snipped Deco Frame pieces are also. Using 3D Matt I adhered the flourish pieces to the frame base and allowed it to set. 4. The Deco Frame pieces are added to the box front and ready to attach to the candy box. I filled in the frame with Sugar Glitter Paste then sprinkled in 3D Powder and Micro Beads. This took quite a while to dry but well worth it!

A generous coat of Glitter Paste tops off the frame. I decided to grunge up the sides just a bit too which you can see in the finished pictures : )

Gypsy Soul Chippes~Deco Frames 6 Inch, Doodle Frame Rectangle.

Okay that's all for me. Wishing everyone a happy and productive day : ) G

Happy Dad's Day Card by Pam Bray

Hi Gypsy Soul Lasercuts Fans!!! It is Pam here today sharing with you my Happy Dad's Day Card using some of Gypsy Soul Lasercuts fabulous chippies along with Graphic 45 Vintage Hollywood Collection.

I created my card by scoring a piece of 12" x 8" Kraft card stock to measure 6" x 8" when folded. Cut pattern paper to fit the front; emboss. Distress top and edges with distress tools. Ink edges. Adhere to front of card. Adhere pattern paper to top of one of the banners from the Banner Build Dovetail Set. Distress and ink edges.

Stamp prepared banner from the Banner Build Dovetail Set using stamp and black ink.

Adhere prepared banner to front of card. Add Vintage Hollywood Journal Epherema Card to front if card once it is distressed and inked. Add one of the frames from the Filigree Frames Shape Set to the front of card.

Add fussy cut flowers to top of frame.

Add letters.

Fussy cut second set of flowers; add to top of first with pop dots.

Decorated inside of card.

I hope you enjoyed my tutorial on making my Happy Dad's Card and try creating a few special occasions using Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts Supplies. Hugs Pam

Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts Supplies:

Filigree Frames Shape Set

Banner Build Dovetail Set

Other Supplies:

Graphic 45 Vintage Hollywood Paper Pad and Epherema Journaling Set

Sizzix Geometric 3D Embossing Folder

Sin City Stamps: Memories Stamp Set

ABC Letters

Colorbox Nutmeg Blends Ink

Archival Black Ink

Distress Tool

Sanding Block

Xyron Creative Station and Adhesive

Pop Dots

Dishwasher Tags

Hello, Friends! It's Gloria with you today. This is my last project post as part of the Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts team. It is hard to say good-bye! I want to thank Gina for the opportunity to design with her amazing chippies over the past few years! I have enjoyed it immensely!

My project for today is one that I have been dreaming of making for quite some time. A few years ago one of my scrappy pals made a set of clean/dirty tags for her dishwasher. I have long admired them and wanted to make a set of my own. (For more information on the original design, see the post on my personal blog.)

For the base of my tags, I used two of the large tags from the Tags in a Box Extra Tag Set. These tags are nice and big, approximately 8" tall and 4" wide. I created two tags, one to place on the dishwasher to let your family know that the dishes are CLEAN (and in need of being put away), and one to indicate that the dishes inside are DIRTY (which means they can feel free to load their own dishes).

I used the vintage homemaker themed paper by Graphic 45 called Home Sweet Home. This is an older collection, but I have been saving some of it for this project!

Let's make some tags!

Use a black pen, ink, or paint to color the edges of two large tags from the Tags in a Box Extra Tag Set and two small (3 1/4" x 1 5/8") tags from the Small Tag Set. I found that if I first painted the edges of the tags with white gesso, that the black pen "stuck" to the tag better.

Select two frames from the Waterworks Shape Set. I had two sets, so selected two of the square frames. Trim one of the faucets from an extra frame. Then choose a propeller (fan shape) from the Propellers Set. Sponge all the elements with silver or other metallic ink. Allow to dry.

Trim decorative paper for the front and back of all the tags. Attach the paper with a gel medium. Brush another layer of medium over the surface of the paper to seal it. Allow to dry.

Use sticker letters (or chipboard letters, if you wish) to spell out "CLEAN" on one of the small tags, and "DIRTY" on the other. I used some old sticker letters that I found in my stash. Brush another layer of gel medium over the top of the letters to seal them. Allow to dry.

Assemble the first tag by gluing the waterworks frame to the top of the tag. Trim out a decorative sign from the paper and glue inside the frame. (You can see that I fussy cut some elements from the paper as well.)

Glue the "CLEAN" tag to the bottom of the larger tag, as shown. Fussy cut an image from the paper and attach it to the right side of the waterworks element.

Add a decorative brad to the fan shape and glue it to the upper left corner of the small tag. Tuck some postage images, cut from the paper, under the fan. Add a decorative strip to the bottom of the large tag.

Glue a few paper flowers to the tag, as well as some twine. Coat the entire project with more gel medium to seal it and protect it from getting wet.

You may add more or less decoration to your tag, as you desire. Match your tag to your kitchen decor.

We will repeat the process with the other tag.  Glue the waterworks frame to the bottom of the tag. Trim out a decorative sign from the paper and glue inside the frame.

Glue the "DIRTY" tag to the top of the larger tag, as shown. Glue the extra faucet to the top of the tag, making it look like the word "dirty" is dripping out of the faucet. Fussy cut an image from the paper and attach it to the right side of the waterworks element.  Add a few postage stamp images to the lower right of the waterworks frame.

Glue a paper flower to the tag, as well as some twine. Coat the entire project with more gel medium to seal it and protect it from getting wet.

You could make one tag double-sided, with "clean" on one side, and "dirty" on the other, but I chose to make two tags so that each tag had one flat surface.

If your dishwasher has a magnetic surface, glue magnets to the back of each tag. My dishwasher has a decorative wood front, so I added some hook and loop tape to the back of a large clothespin. I can attach the appropriate tag to the clothespin as needed.

Thanks for looking!

~ Gloria Stengel: Scraps of Life

Supplies Used:

Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts:

Tags in a Box Extra Tag Set

Small Tag Set
Waterworks Shape Set
Propellers Set

Other:
decorative paper, paper flowers, ivory and natural twine, sticker letters, large clothespin,  black ink or paint, silver ink or paint, gel medium or decoupage medium, white glue, foam tape, hot glue