Sweet as Honey-a layout for Gypsy Soul Lasercuts

Hi there crafters! Going through my albums last week I realized I had yet to do a layout featuring one of my two youngest kitties....and she's almost a year old already! Honey and her sister Maggie were born in my hubby's workshop along with 3 siblings, and their young momma couldn't take care of them so I bottle-fed them and was able to find homes for 3 of them. These two were both spoken for but the adoptions fell through. What can I say? They are now my babies.

Hubby named this little girl Honey so

I decided to do my page with a honeycomb/bee theme and found some perfect pieces in my Gypsy Soul chipboard stash! I echoed the theme with stencilling   on the page and stamping on the chipboard with honeycomb patterns.

The honeycomb patterned chipboard was painted peach then randomly stamped in orange and heat embossed with Ranger Antiquities in California Stucco. I then stamped randomly again with Versamark ink and heat embossed with clear embossing powder.

The bees were simply heat embossed with Lindy's Golden Angel Wings.

he clear alphabets and drips were brushed with Butterscotch alcohol ink and I think they sort of look like they're made of honey! Thanks so much for stopping by and I wish you a fabulous week!

Gypsy Soul Items Used

Honeycomb & Bees ATC sized
Collage Border Spring

Other Items Used

 Ranger embossing powder and alcohol ink

Versamark Ink

clear embossing powder
Crafter's Workshop stencil
Pink Paislee papers

Prima and Recollections flowers

Clear Stamp Storage for Gypsy Soul Lasercuts

Hey there everybody! We all know a crafter can never have enough storage for all her treasures; while I'm not much of a stamper I have managed to accumulate a pretty substantial collection of clear stamps-many through prize packs or design team kits-and had them all in a shoebox.....well we all know the old saying: "out of sight out of mind" and I found I was hardly ever using them. I decided to create a decorative way to keep them out in the open and a little better organized.

I used some Authentique papers  to cover the chipboard and added some fussy cut elements and paper strips. I fashioned feet from some knobs I found out in hubby's workshop and added some flourishes cut from a GSL texture sheet.

 This was a very simple project to put together but I'm so excited about this new storage-and I had a blast sorting my stamps and arranging them by theme. So many of the dimensional items in the GSL store can be used in a variety of ways and can be decorated to suit any room theme or decor. Have a                                                  wonderful week and happy crafting!  

 Gypsy Soul Items Used
Texture sheet-flourished
8.5 square shadowbox-coming soon

Other Items Used
Authentique Renew collection
yellow acrylic paint
white glue

                                                                           

Greetings from Shanghai! A layout for Gypsy Soul Lasercuts

                      Well hello there crafty friends-or          

            你好朋友   

as they say in Shanghai China, where my son has spent the last 10 months in university learning the language.

He's coming home for the summer tomorrow (yay!!) so I decided to create another page with some of the photos he emailed me, as well as a couple items he sent back with some friends of ours from hi trip to Hong Kong in February (the gold coins and the red envelope behind the photo)....as well as some great pieces of Gypsy Soul chipboard from the Oriental shape set!

This building is one of the dorms on campus at Fudan university where Graham was staying and I thought the paper with the touches of red was perfect to showcase it.

I had so much fun with the chipboard lantern strip! I started out doing all of them with the pleated paper in different colours/patterns, but didn't really like the effect so I decided to change it up a bit and just fussy cut and pop up a few bits for dimension on some of them-and I found that brown diecut lattice in my scrap box and loved the way it looked on the long lantern! The strip was heat embossed in gold to coordinate with the gold coins and the writing on the envelope. I also popped up the two red lanterns that were printed on the paper for a little more dimension and interest.

For the fan in the lower right corner I fussy cut some flower designs from the reverse of the paper and layered them over each other. The edges and lower part were all heat embossed with the gold that I used on the lantern piece.

I stencilled  with texture paste on the page, did a little punching on some of the edges ,and misted in gold and red. 

Keep in mind that you don't have to go to China to find uses for this lovely chipboard set....it would be great for scrapping a visit to a Chinese restaurant, a page about your Chinese zodiac animal (I'm a horse!) or even what your fortune cookie says! I'm sure you could think of lots of other interesting ways to use these pieces-and I'd love it if you'd share some of your ideas with me!

Wishing you a wonderful and creative week!

Gypsy Soul Items Used
 Oriental Shape Set

Other Items Used

Kaisercraft Serenity paper
Prima stencils
Heidi Swapp and Dylusions mists

Mixed Media Beach canvas with Gypsy Soul Lasercuts and Xyron

Hello crafty friends! I had so much fun getting inky and painty and messy creating this canvas! The beach-themed Items are a great size for this 8" x 10" canvas but would also work beautifully on a larger one-or even a smaller one if you just wanted to focus on a few items  or create a more clustered effect.

The canvas base was primed with gesso and then spongepainted with blue and tan acrylic paint. I ran the chipboard waves(painted blue) and the diecuts( birds, cattails, and the design in the upper right corner) through the Xyron sticker maker machine then added them to the canvas. They were then lightly sponged with the same acrylic paints.(Thanks so much to my good friend Melissa for the bird and corner diecuts!)

The shell pieces were each done separately; I mixed microbeads with texture paste for the starfish to give it a rougher texture and I rubbed white texture paste onto the sand dollar with my finger just enough to give it a sort of chalky look. The two shells were sponged a bit and I very lightly brushed on some of the mists I was going to be using. The Xyron machine was wonderful for all these odd-shaped pieces! I did add thick glue dots to some of the pieces just because they were layered over the one next to them and parts of them were lifted a little higher off the canvas.

The fence was painted tan then run through a woodgrain embossing folder which had been dabbed with a white Distress Paint dauber (aptly named Picket Fence) and the lighthouse was painted white then distressed with the tan paint and a bit of light brown ink which I rubbed in with my fingers. Did I mention I like to get messy when I craft?!

I then misted lightly over the canvas with tan and turquoise mists and a touch of opaque white. I lightly brushed a little turquoise mist over the waves to define them and then rubbed a bit of blue ink along their edges.

I inked around the edges of the canvas with tan and blue inks and then pronounced it done! Thanks heaps and piles for stopping by and I hope you have a chance to get inky and painty and messy this week!

Gypsy Soul Items Used

Beach Shape Set
Seaside Decor-coming soon!
(waves)

Other Items Used

Xyron Sticker Maker
Ranger Distress Paint-Picket Fence
Tattered Angels, Dylusions, and Mister Huey's mists

A Night in Paris-tags with Gypsy Soul Lasercuts and Altered Pages stamps

Hello crafty friends....I have a confession to make: I'm deathly afraid of ruining a nearly completed project by smearing or otherwise messing up a stamped image! Does that make me a stampophobe??

I wanted to make the stamped images dimensional on these tags so stamping on separate paper and cutting them out worked perfectly These stamps from Altered Pages were so great to use that I actually DID stamp one small one directly onto my tag!!

I used Gypsy Soul's  Large Decorative tags as a base and covered them with patterned paper.

The stamps have so much detail and stamp really clearly; I love the little table with the wine and glasses.! I just coloured the images with markers. The Eiffel tower chipboard piece was run through an embossing folder with a checkerboard pattern then heat-embossed in gold.

For the second tag I fussy cut the stamped tower and coloured it with a gold metallic marker the heat-embossed it with clear embossing powder. The Gypsy soul cameo was painted with acrylic paint then also heat-embossed with clear. I ran the middle layer through an embossing folder first.

These tags were so much fun to make; as always I loved working with the Gypsy Soul pieces-the stamps were also a pleasure to use and just may have helped me get over my stampophobia!!

Thanks a bunch for stopping by and Vive La France!!

Gypsy Soul Items Used

Chipboard Tags Decorative Large
Eiffel Tower 6 inch
Fashion Cameos

Other Items Used

Altered Pages stamps

K & Co paper
Recollections ink and flowers
Tombow markers
Lindy's embossing powder (gold)
Stampendous embossing powder (clear)

"home away from home"-gypsy wagon for Gypsy Soul Lasercuts

Hello friends! I've been looking forward to playing with this wonderful little wagon since the first day I got it and finally got brave enough  this week!



I looked at a lot of photos of gypsy wagons online for ideas and this is the one that inspired me most with its warm vintage pastels and rich details.

Did you know that popsicle sticks can be dry-embossed? Who knew?? I noticed that many of the vintage wagons had beautifully carved and painted patterns in the woodwork and created the effect  of carvings with a small border embossing folder and some acrylic paint.

Most of the wagon was painted with acrylic paints and then rubbed with gold paint to soften the colours and create an antiqued effect. The lattice strips and shutters were cut with Memory Box dies and painted top coordinate with the backgrounds. The flourishes and stair rails are Gypsy Soul pieces and the furry friends are fussy cut from Graphic 45 papers.

 I had some really nice embossed felt in my stash which I painted and used for the roof; the fringe was also painted as were the wheels....by the way you can purchase packages of these awesome wheels from the Gypsy Soul store to use on anything you like!

This was such a fun project to create and it even caught my hubby's interest; he doesn't usually have a lot to say when I'm creating but he had some really good suggestions while I was working on this project.

Thanks a bunch for stopping by and I hope you get the chance to tackle a fun project like this-the sky's the limit  with decorating options!

Gypsy Soul Items Used
Gypsy Wagon
Fairy Door-Kelly (stair rails)
Victorian Corners 1

Other Items Used

Graphic 45 Raining Cats and Dogs papers

Memory Box dies
-small Madison window shutter
      -Tessatina Border

birthday cards for Gypsy Soul Lasercuts

Happy Birthday!
What-not your birthday? Not mine either but I'm sure it must be somebody's birthday! After creating my recent birthday reminder project I realized there was a major shortage of cards in my stash that were ready to be mailed or delivered when I needed one. I figured it was a good time to put a couple together and a great chance to use some great chipboard pieces!

For the masculine card I distressed and layered squares and rectangles of paper after inking the edges.
The "happy birthday" piece was run through an embossing folder then painted with brown acrylic paint. I rubbed gold paint lightly over the surface to highlight the embossed gear pattern.

The gears and tools were painted with the same brown paint before I heat-embossed them with Distress embossing powder to create a rusty effect.

 

The feminine card includes some fussy-cutting as well as inking and distressing; I loved the pattern in the green paper and wanted to make it stand out. The chipboard pieces were run through an embossing folder then painted pink. I rubbed them with an iridescent white ink to emphasize the raised pattern.I then rubbed a bit of pink ink along the very edges.

I love the way the round frame echoes the shape of the metal sentiment and the way the butterfly adds dimension! Now all I have to do is remember to check my birthday reminder tags far enough ahead to actually send someone one of these birthday cards in time!! Hmmm...maybe I should stick the tag on something I use often-like my tea kettle?? Or my laptop??

Gypsy Soul Items Used
Birthday Shape Set
Gears Shape Set
Miniatures Shape Set-Guy Thing
Delicate Frames and Ornaments Shape Set

Other Items Used

Donna Salazar Antiquities 12x12 papers
Kaisercraft Rustic Harmony 12x12 papers
Ranger Distress embossing powder-Vintage Photo
Prima roses