GSL Cuts

Sunday, December 24, 2017

Christmas Mini Book Albums

It's almost time for Christmas and time is getting a little short these days so I thought I would share with all of you a special Christmas photo/memory box filled with tiny mini books that you can make to put all of this years Christmas memories in. It doesn't have to be done before the holidays, so that's good, but just knowing that you can fill it with extra special pictures and journaling gives you something fun to plan for and do after the holidays.

This adorable little mini book shelf and drawer set comes complete with instructions and all the pieces that you need to complete it. I did mine in one afternoon and kept it pretty simple but these would be so much fun to do for other holidays and babies too. And you can always add lots more to decorate the outside and insides of the books to make it yours. Join me for a quick tutorial...

1. First wipe all the edges of the chipboard pieces clean and glue together the box and drawer and let them dry completely. Set aside those mini book pieces for later.

2. Measure each of the sides and cut papers to fit and glue with adhesive. I like Scotch quick dry because the paper doesn't ripple and it's super quick to work with. I also cut pieces for the insides even though the mini books will be in them.

3. This Photo Play winter paper line also comes with lots of mini cards so I cut them all apart while I was waiting for everything to dry. I am going to use them for inside my books later.

4. Cut the pieces of paper for each of the mini books as directed in your instructions and lay out the cardboard pieces that you get in the set. Glue them on top and let them dry. Be sure and leave a small space between the pieces like I did so it folds really easily. I like to put on a book or something on them while they dry to keep them flat.

5. Now you can cut off all of the corners and fold the paper over to make sure the miters are even. Then glue them down with a good double sided tape. Not waiting for glue to dry is a good thing.

6. I wanted to give you another idea for the inside besides what the instructions give you so I cut fancy matted pieces of printed paper for each of the sides and glued them down first and then created that little white book to fit in the center. I cut three strips of paper for each book- 3 1/4 inches wide by 11". For the first one I scored it on 4" then 4 1/4 and then 4 1/2. Then measure to 8 1/2 and cut the end off. The second you will do the same way but leave 1/2 inch in the center. And the last you will have 3/4 inch in the center. This way each of the books can lay inside of each other and be glued in the center of your mini book like you see above. Your center piece is 1" wide so you may have to cut a piece of patterned paper to go under it to cover the cardboard.

7. Now you can have fun with stickers and tags and decorate each of the books for whatever you did fun for the holidays. Parties, lights, dinners, friends... all those neat festive things that your family does. Sounds like a fun project right?

And I have a friend that I worked with named Holly so when I found this sentiment and I thought this would make the perfect gift to give for her. Their family does lots of fun things and it's nice to have it somewhere to share with everyone for years ahead.

Thanks so much for stopping by and hope the rest of your holiday is very magical! Teresa

Supply List:

GSLC Mini Book Box

Paper: Photo Play

Adhesive: Scotch Quick Dry Adhesive, double sided tape 1/4", tape runner

scissors, paper trimmer, ruler, jingle bell, white card stock

Saturday, December 23, 2017

Filled with Wonder--The Kringle Toy Store by Betsy Skagen

Christmas is nearly upon us. Part of the magic of the season is when children fill their eyes with wonder while window shopping.

Make sure you leave time to stop by Kringle Toys, where the glowing chandelier casts a warm glow as shoppers come in from the newly fallen snow.

Approaching Kringle Toys, visitors see the faded ghost sign on the brick wall--a testament to the store's longevity.

Outside, someone has forgotten their mittens atop the patio table and some children clearly didn't have time to finish their snowman.

Peering through the frosted bay windows, passersby can see many toys.

Once inside the store, a pink tree is the perfect decor for the candy stripe pink walls. Brown-papered packages tied up with string sit beneath the table awaiting the delivery truck to cart them off to customers. The floor and shelves are overflowing with dolls, games and toys for every good girl and boy..

Tutorial--How to make the Kringle Christmas Toy Store

Begin by adding decorative paper to the inside walls and floor of the Deep Storefront Room Box and 10 inch Bay Window.

Assemble the Storefront and Bay Window and then create your brick exterior.

Making the brick walls was surprisingly easy thanks to Jess Armstrong. I modified Jess' wonderful technique so that I would have slightly larger bricks. Make sure you check out her quick and easy YouTube tutorial.

Begin by cutting sheets of foam core to match your store's outside walls. On one side strip away the paper covering.

Then form about four slightly different brick shapes from thin metal sheets. Press these into the foam core to create rows of bricks.

Paint the entire surface with tan paint and dry. Then following Jess Armstrong's instructions, paint a few of the bricks with a red/brown mixture. Then paint all the bricks with an orange/brown mixture and dry.

Glue the brick walls to the exterior of the building.

Add plastic to the inside of the windows. I used a 3M Film Insulator Kit, but there are plenty of clear plastics that will work. Use extra chipboard and paint to create bay window shelves.

Using extra chipboard from the Storefront Kit, cut two identical rectangles of chipboard and adhere them to the front of the door to give the door extra detail. Paint the door and add insulator film to create a window.

Adhere the sticky side of frosted film to a rectangle of clear plastic and adhere inside the transom window. Use a stencil and Sharpie marker to add the word "TOYS".

Assemble and paint two Kitchen Wall Shelf Units, the Wrought Iron Patio Table a Chair and Set of Stools.

Assemble games and dolls from the Kringle Toy Store Printable and add them and other miniatures to shelves.

Spread Decoart Snow-Tex onto a craft sheet, sprinkle with Diamond Dust and let dry overnight to create piles of snow. Cover round beads with additional Snow-Tex and Diamond Dust to create snowballs and piece of snowman.

Stipple paint textured paper with gray, black and white to create patio base.

Scan and cut the Kringle Toy Store Printable onto stencil material and apply to the wall to achieve a distressed old brick ghost painting.

Use your fingers to dab spay adhesive onto the windows and then add faux snow and glitter to achieve a frosted look. If you don't use gloves, prepare to have sticky fingers for a day or two!

Paint wooden skewers gold and add tiny flags to roof. Add chandelier through roof to add warm lighting.

Finally put a pot of hot cocoa on your stove for all your life-sized visitors who come to enjoy your handiwork. Then sit back and enjoy the season. Merry Christmas everyone! xoxo -Betsy

Great Stuff

Deep Storefront Room Box
10 inch Bay Window
Kitchen Wall Shelf Unit (2)
Wrought Iron Patio Table
Chair
Set of Stools
Paper Calliope Kringle Toy Store Printable
Canvascorp Pink and Ivory Ribbon Stripe
Canvascorp Pink and Ivory Dot
Textured cardstock
Toy Shop
Santa’s Village
Deck the Halls
Tiny Dollhouse Scenes
3M Film Insulator Kit
Tim Holtz Frosted Film
Acrylic paint
Assorted miniatures
Decoart Snow-Tex
Diamond Dust
Faux snow flakes
Beacon 3-in-1
Beacon Fabri-Tac
Hot glue gun

Friday, December 22, 2017

Mini Christmas Sleigh Ornament

It is so close to Christmas, yet I still find myself making new things. If you've been to my blog, you'll see that I have made quite a few new home decor items this year all in my teal, gold and silver colour scheme. Today I am sharing this super cute Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts mini sleigh.

I love all things mini and this is super cute. It's very small, only around 5-6 inches long, yet still has beautifully delicate details. This means that I really didn't have to do much to it, to create a really sweet little ornament.

Being small makes it a perfect size for a Christmas village display, or a tree ornament. If I had a whole group of these, I would pop a small stick in there with a name tag to make a very unique table place card decoration. Imagine one of these on each plate! Maybe that will be my goal for next year.

The sleigh itself slots together very easily. I assembled first today, then coated in gesso. I left the decorative pieces separate. I painted the sleigh in teal paint and allowed to dry. In the meantime, I covered the gesso coated decorative pieces in liquid adhesive (I used embossing glue in a dauber bottle) then sprinkled very fine glitter. I then adhered in place to the sides of the sleigh.

I then added a teal coloured ribbon bow, and piled in some mini pinecones and mini ornament balls. You could hot glue these in place if you were to hang it on the tree. That's really all there is to it. I almost feel guilty about how simple this project is, but that makes it a perfect project to try at home. It proves that not everything has to be overly complicated to look great.

Supplies used:

Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts

Santas sleigh

Wednesday, December 20, 2017

Winter Clock by Sandy Trefger

Hello again everyone! Sandy here with a lovely winter project. Christmas will be here in just a few days. I thought I'd switch from all the Christmas decorating and projects to something more wintry but certainly could be used for a Christmas decor piece.

This will be my last project for now for Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts. I've been on the design team since November 2016 and have had a marvelous, wonderful fun time creating with all these gorgeous chipboard sets. I want to thank Gina of Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts for her generosity of providing so many wonderful pieces to work with and for the opportunity to expand out of my normal creating with paper to also using mixed media and chipboard. I've had a wonderful time. I also want to thank my design team members for their friendship and inspiring ideas. I will continue to use Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts kits and showcase them on my blog when I use them in other projects but I will no longer be on the team as an educator posting here on the GSL blog. Thank you to all of you that have followed along with me here on GSL and also stepped out of your comfort zone to create with chipboard elements.

And now on to how I created this Winter Clock.

Step 1: Lay out all the chipboard pieces you plan to use and wipe the black laser residue from the edges with a damp cloth or baby wipe.

Step 2: Start working with the clock first. Apply glue to the back side of a ring and attach it to the back clock piece.

Step 3: Continue gluing rings to the clock back as shown below. Finish by gluing on the front clock piece. Allow to dry.

Step 4: Paint the clock as shown. I used black paint.

Step 5: For this project, I selected to use just the front piece of the mini chipboard house kit. Paint with your choice of paint color. I used a light turquoise blue.

Step 6: Paint snowflakes and window/door frames white. I painted the deer white as well but decided to not use it in this project.

Step 7: Once the paint on the clock has dried, apply Crackle Accents to give it vintage texture and allow to dry and crackle (usually overnight).

Step 8: Use the circle template from the clock kit and trace a circle onto the patterned paper you wish to use for the inner background of the clock. I selected the signature paper from Graphic 45 Winter Wonderland for a snowy scene.

Step 9: Use an embossing dauber to add embossing ink and glitter powder to the snowflakes. Emboss with Heat Gun.

Step 10: Use a brush to lightly add glue and glitter to the house. Allow to dry.

Step 11: Glue the door and window frames to the house.

Step 12: Glue the house and two of the snowflakes into the clock.

Step 13: Add Platinum Nuvo Embellishment Mousse onto the black of the clock over the Crackle Accents that has dried. This tones down the black of the clock and accents the crackles.

Step 14: Add Art Glitter Glue that dries white to the roof top, above the windows and underneath too as well as under the house for a snow bank.

Step 15: While the glue is still wet, generously sprinkle with glitter. Allow to dry. Once dry, tap off the excess glitter.

Step 16: Glue small white brush trees into the scene as shown below.

Step 17: Glue in the door slightly ajar and glue larger snowflakes to the clock as shown.

Step 18: Tie a bow out of seam binding ribbon and glue to the top of the clock. Glue three gold jingle bells to the center of the bow. Glue an arrangement of winter flowers and other silvery foliage to the lower left corner of the clock and more gold jingle bells.

It's finished! Below is a list of supplies that I used for my Winter Clock.