A Graphic 45 Christmas Past Triptych

Hello everyone!  I hope you are all enjoying your week.  Today I want to share a pretty little vintage style Christmas Triptych.  Triptychs are just about my most favorite projects to make.  When I saw this beautiful laser cut triptych from Gina's Designs Lasercuts (soon to be Gypsy Soul Lasercuts, effective 1 December), I knew just what I wanted to do with it.  Don't you just love when that happens?

The triptych has six pieces, as shown; three solid bases and three decorative frames.  Look closely as there are subtle differences, so be careful to take note when putting it together.

Paint the three decorative frames with Emperor's Gold using a sponge dauber.

You can see in this closeup how closely this resembles gold leaf.

Next, brush a coat of Crackle Paste White over the frames, being careful not to cover the intricate laser cuts.  Set aside to dry and crack.

Brush a light coat of Interference Gold mixed with Primary Elements Ancient Coin powdered pigment over the cracks to give it that aged, shabby chic look.

In the closeup, you can see how transparent the color is, allowing the white to show through a bit.

Cover the three base pieces with the Graphic 45 Christmas papers on the front.

Cut strips of Tyvek from used postal envelopes to make hinges.  (TIP: I like using Tyvek because it is not only strong, but it is also very thin and practically unnoticeable when placed beneath paper.)  Measure about 1-¼" up from the bottom and glue the Tyvek pieces between backing pieces, leaving about ⅛" to 1/4" space between the backs.

Cut three consecutive pieces of Graphic 45 Christmas paper to cover the backs.  I was a bit more precise cutting these pieces out as I will not be able to cut away where my hinges are.

Paint the hinges with black paint to match the background paper on the back, and Emperor's Gold on the front to match the frame pieces.

Adhere the paper to the backing pieces

Trim away the excess paper from the tops.

 Adhere the decorative frame sections to the front sides of the backing pieces.

I used three framed prints from the Graphic 45 Christmas Past papers die cut sheet.  I backed them with black chipboard for strength and for dimension.  Each print was edged with brown and black distress inks to define the edges, and then I coated each one with a Clear Crackle Glaze.

 I got a little impatient and thought the crackle glaze was not working, so I added a coat of Crackle Accents over the top.  Much to my surprise, I got this really cool "cracked glass" effect.  That is what I love so much about mixed media ... the experimentation and surprising results.

I colored some German Scrap Holly Berry Leaves with StazOn Cactus Green and Claret, picking up the color from the ink pad with a fantastix brush.

 I colored the branches with StazOn Spiced Chai and the fantastix brush.

 The StazOn goes on transparently, so it allows the shininess of the German Scrap to show through.  I wanted to tone down the shininess, so I added some Olive metallic rub on to the leaves with my finger.  You can see the difference in the photo below, where the leaves on the left are colored with the metallic rub on.

 I glued the framed prints and holly berry leaves to each section, as shown, and began adding embellishments from my hoarded stash.

Front side of Triptych

Here are closeups of each section.

The reverse side of the triptych was decorated with these pre-printed Christmas embellishments from more of my hoarded stash.  The pretty little chipboard snowflake on far left section is from Gina's Designs and was colored with a Krylon gold pen, adding Diamond Stickles for extra glitteriness.

Reverse Side of Triptych

And here, again, are more closeups of these sections.  Here you can see the pretty snowflake from Gina's Designs.

Gina's Designs Supplies Used:
Triptych - Arch Top
Snowflake Shape Set


Other supplies used:
Graphic 45 Christmas Past Paper Collection
ColourArte Radiant Gels Emperor's Gold
ColourArte Primary Elements Ancient Coin
DecoArt Media Crackle Paste White
DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylics Interference Gold
DecoArt Media Crackle Glaze Clear
Ranger Crackle Accents
Stickles: Diamond, Platinum
Krylon gold leaf pen
K&Co Brenda Walton Evergreen Icon ChipBox
StazOn Midi ink pads: Claret, Cactus Green, Spiced Chai
Mini Metallic Rub-Ons Earth Tones Kit #2 (Craf-T Products)
German Dresden Foil Scrap: Holly Berry Leaves
Embellishments (my stash)
Bronze metal accents (TPC Studio)
Fantastix brush (Tsukineko)

I hope you enjoyed my Christmas project today and are inspired to check out the fabulous chipboard shapes from Gina's Designs for your Christmas makes.

Barbara