Faux Metal Wall Hanging with Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts and DecoArt

Hi everyone!  I hope that wherever you live, you all are keeping warm!  We've certainly been having some crazy weather lately.  But, when it is freezing cold outside, I can't think of a better thing to do than hunker down in my craft room and get busy with some craftin'!

I love this  Flying Heart Wall Hanging, along with the Gears Texture Sheet 6x6, from Gypsy Soul, and I've been holding off using it until I had a good idea for decorating it.  Scroll to bottom to see close-ups.

I always lay my pieces out to see how they look, and move them around if I need to.  This is the arrangement I think I will be sticking with but, of course, that could change.  I never really know.

Faux Galvanized Metal Technique:

Step 1:  Paint both sides of the chipboard backing pieces with black acrylic paint.  Let paint dry.

Step 2:  Dry brush a coat of silver metallic paint over the surface, leaving some of the black paint showing. Let paint dry.

Step 3:  Brush a wash of silver metallic paint plus water over the surface again, leaving a smaller amount of the black paint showing.  Let dry.

Step 4:  Run chipboard pieces through die cutting/embossing machine with embossing folder.

Step 5:  Lightly sand the embossed areas to enhance the design.  Use a damp baby wipe to pick up a small amount of black paint and edge the pieces, as shown.

Gears Texture Sheet

Brush crackle paste over the Gears Texture Sheet 6x6 on one side and let air dry.

Turn  over and brush crackle paste on each corner, again let paste air dry.  These corners will hang off of the background piece when attached diagonally.

Brush coat of Yellow Oxide over gears sheet, then a coat of Quinacridone Gold.  Use baby wipe to wipe away some of the excess gold, leaving a bit more of the yellow to show through.  You will need to do this same process for the corners on the back of the sheet.  Glue gears sheet to square background chipboard piece, as shown.

Large Heart and Wings

Add a thick layer of crackle paste to the heart and allow it to air dry. 

Paint heart with Transparent Red Iron Oxide and let dry.  Add a light coat of Interference Gold over heart and let dry.

Use a baby wipe to pick up a small amount of carbon black acrylic paint and wipe over surface of heart, letting the color go into the cracks.  Wipe away excess before it dries.  Add a tiny amount of Primary Magenta over the surface and let dry.  Then add one more light coat of Interference Gold to bring back the shine.

Paint wings with silver metallic paint, then with 1-2 coats of Titan Buff.  Sand some of the buff color off of the wings to reveal some of the silver. 

Add a wash of Cobalt Teal Hue with water to add the blue tint. Next, dry brush Worn Penny paint over the wings with a stiff brush.

Apply a coat of clear crackle glaze over the wings and let air dry.

Use damp baby wipe to pick up Carbon Black antiquing cream and cover wings, let dry.  Wipe away excess  antiquing cream, which will bring out the cracks made from the crackle glaze. 

Repeat the wings process for the words, as shown below.

Corrugated Chipboard Pieces

Paint corrugated chipboard pieces with a coat of white gesso first.  Spread patches of crackle paste over both pieces randomly, as shown, and let air dry.

Paint both pieces with Bright Brass metallic paint, let dry.

Then add a coat of Rich Espresso metallic paint.

With a damp baby wipe, pick up a tiny amount of Carbon Black acrylic paint and hit the tops of the corrugations, as well as the edges.

Glue both pieces to backgrounds, as shown. Remember to leave some space for the large key at the top of the square piece, and be sure not to cover up the single hole that is centered on one edge of the rectangular piece.  This hole will be at the bottom of the wall hanging.

Small Heart

Cover heart shape with clear glue and pour texture pebbles and texture sand over it.  Set aside to dry.

Paint with a wash of Transparent Red Iron Oxide and let dry.  Then add a coat of Quinacridone Burnt Orange to give it a really deep color.  Let dry.

Pick up a small amount of the Champagne Ice metallic lustre and hit the high spots.

Keys

Paint both keys with white gesso, let dry.  Then paint both with Worn Penny acrylic paint and let dry.  Emboss keys with Stripes embossing folder.    Pick up Burnished Brass Metallic Lustre with your finger and rub over high spots, then seal with Gloss varnish.

For added depth and dimension, I added the carbon black antiquing cream over the keys to age it.  (See photo of finished project).

Crown

Paint crown with white gesso, then silver metallic paint, let dry.  Use stiff brush to dry brush Rich Espresso over bottom section of crown, let dry.  Glue diamond gems to the top of each point on crown.

Finish gluing all the pieces to the base, as shown.  Add metal embellishments to the bottom half, as shown.  Hang more metal pieces from the center hole at the bottom.  After I put it all together, I realized that the red in the hearts was the only red on the piece, so I just added little splotches of Transparent Red Iron Oxide to the corrugated piece on the bottom section to bring it all together.  

Here are a few closeups of the two sections.  

Supplies Used:

GSL Flying Heart Wall Hanging
GSL Gears Texture Sheet 6x6
Teresa Collins Circle Décor 8.5x11 embossing folder
Teresa Collins Cut n Boss machine
Sizzix Stripes embossing folder (for keys)
Texture Pebbles (Brea Reese)
Texture Sand (Brea Reese)
DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylics
  Quinacridone Gold
  Carbon Black
  Carbon Black Antiquing Cream
  Titan Buff
  Transparent Yellow Iron Oxide
  Quinacridone Burnt Orange
  Cobalt Teal Hue
  Primary Magenta
  Interference Gold
  Transparent Red Iron Oxide
DecoArt Dazzling Metallics
  Bright Brass
  Worn Penny
  Rich Espresso
  Shimmering Silver
DecoArt Metallic Lustre
  Champagne Ice
  Burnished Brass
DecoArt Media
  White Crackle Paste
  Clear Crackle Glaze
  Gloss Varnish
Metal pieces (Tim Holtz Idea-ology)

I hope you enjoyed today's project, and I encourage you to stop by the Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts shop to see all of the fabulous laser cut chipboard available.

Thanks for stopping by, and have a super creative day!

Barbara

Altered Valentine's Heart Box with ColourArte

Hi everyone!  I hope you all are enjoying a warm home and a place to craft.  Today, I have another video tutorial to share with you.  I bought this cheap little wooden box from my local craft store, and I love altering these things.  I thought it would be fun  to make it more elegant and perhaps look more like it is holding some precious gem or special trinkets, or maybe even a love letter from days gone by.  What would you keep in yours?

Anyway, I'm going to show you how to make a molded focal image with plaster and use German Dresden scrap borders to add elegant textural elements to the box.  Then I will show you the beautiful ColourArte Vivid Ultra Metallics I used to add color, shimmer and shine to the surface.

Here is my video tutorial.

CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE TO MY CHANNEL

Here is a complete list of the supplies I used for my box.

Colourarte Supplies Used:
Vivid Ultra Metallics
True Metals Dragon Gold
Siam White
Ginger Flower
Royal Orchid

Other Supplies Used:
Wooden Heart Box
Faster Plaster (or Activa Permastone)
Prima IOD Trifles Mold
German Dresden Scrap
Brea Reese Texture Pebbles (Momenta)
Brea Reese Texture Sand (Momenta)
Liquitex white gesso
Decoart gloss varnish
Dual tip glue pen (Paper Studio)
Aleene's fast grab tacky glue
Baroque Art Patina Gilder's Paste
Grumtine (Grumbacher)

I hope you enjoyed my project today, and that I've inspired you to alter a heart shaped box, or any items you may already have on hand.  The techniques are the same, and the results are so amazing when you finish.  

Click on the link to purchase ColourArte products and to check out all the inspirational videos and blog tutorials by the other talented designers on the team.  

Thanks so much for stopping by, and have a warm, crafty day!!!

Barbara

Magical Moments Snowman Mini Album with Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts

Hi everyone!  Welcome back to my first blog post of the New Year.  I was thinking about all the Christmas and New Year's celebrations and get togethers, and the opportunity for photos to capture those special moments.  Now, you are going to need a place to display them, and what better place than a specially made Snowman mini album.  This is a new one from Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts, and I am tickled to share my ideas with you.

Front Cover

Back Cover

There are six chipboard pages, and I traced each side onto print paper and cut them out.  Remember, the front and back of each paper will need to be mirrored to fit each side of the chipboard  properly.

Apply adhesive to the back side of each paper piece.  I like to use my Xyron Creative Station for speed and efficiency, but you can use any adhesive you have on hand.

Adhere papers to each chipboard page, front and back.  Trim off any excess paper, if necessary.

Punch holes in binding edge of each chipboard page.  I used a Cinch tool, but if you don't have one of these, you can punch two or three holes in each page and using binder rings to hold the book together.

Edge each page with white acrylic paint.  I used Adirondack Snow Cap in a dabber bottle for quick application.

Use the chipboard pieces from the Winter Snowman Banner to trace each shape onto various pieces of the paper.  I decided to glue a snowman to each page inside my album, so I cut 12 pieces of each shape, remembering to mirror them so they would fit properly.

With the exception of 10 of the snowman body, I ran all these paper pieces through my Xyron Creative Station.  I edged the chipboard pieces with the white acrylic paint. 

These pieces are not symmetrical, so I figured out which way to lay them on top of each other.  I  marked them with a directional arrow to indicate which way to place the chipboard snowman on top of the album page.  The top hat has a direction, too, as does the scarf.  You will know right away that it is not quite right if you place it down wrong.  Then I adhered the paper pieces to the chipboard pieces.

I used gem stickers in various sizes for the eyes, nose, mouth, and buttons.  I used German Dresden scrap pieces from my stash, one for his hat band and another to center over the scarf.  Lastly, I used a waterbrush and Blue Ice watercolor to add shading and delineate his arms down to the mittens.  

I also painted the tiny German scrap pieces with the Blue Ice watercolor to tone down the shiny gold color before adhering them.

I decided to turn each of my snowmen into a pocket on the remaining interior pages.  Just run a line of white glue along  the outer edge to attach him to the page.  I worked in assembly line fashion, where I continued to do the same step for each page.  This allows the glue to dry while I'm working ahead.  By the time I get back to the first page, the glue is usually dry. 

Now you will have room for tags, more photos, ephemera, or any items you want to slip into the pocket, and still have room for photos on each page background.  Then come back and decorate each snowman with his clothes and facial features, just the same as for the cover snowman.

Paint snowflakes and word ribbons with white paint, let dry.  Brush a coat of gloss varnish over the word ribbons only.

Add a coat of white crackle paste over the larger, more solid snowflake and let dry.

Paint the snowflakes with a wash of Cerulean Blue acrylic paint.  If you want a darker color, just add another coat after the first coat dries.

Paint a darker wash of the Cerulean Blue paint over the word ribbons, as shown.

For added shimmer, add Vintage Silk Opal Magic wax to the word ribbons and snowflakes.  You can see how it add highlights to the word ribbons.

Make three rosettes following the directions with the rosettes dies.  Adhere them to the front cover of the mini album, as shown in the finished photo at the top of the post.  Adhere the word ribbons above the rosettes, and glue a couple of the snowflakes over the rosettes.  Additional bling was added to the snowflake centers, too.

I cut tags from coordinating solid color card stock and added matching stickers from the paper collection.  These were slipped into the snowman pocket.  More photos or journaling can be added to the back of each tag.

Below are pictures of each page of the album.  

Back Cover                                   Front Cover

Supplies Used:
GSL Snowman Mini Album (coming soon)
GSL Winter Snowman Banner
GSL Snowflake Shape Set Minis
GSL Snowflake Shape Set

GSL Word Ribbons 2 (Moments)
GSL Word Ribbons 3 (Magical)
BoBunny Snowy Serenade paper collection
BoBunny Snowy Serenade sticker sheet
Lily White Sugar Dust glitter paper (Doodlebug Designs)(Hobby Lobby)
Sizzix dies (Snowflake Rosette)(Mini Snowflake Rosettes)(Tag, Crescent Combo)
   (Tag, Super Crescent)
Adirondack Snow Cap acrylic paint dabber
ColourArte Twinkling H20s Blue Ice
DecoArt Media Crackle Paste, Gloss Varnish
DecoArt Acrylic Paint (Cerulean Blue)
Prima Opal Magic Wax (Vintage Silk)
Water brush
Xyron Creative Station
Xyron Permanent Adhesive
German Dresden Scrap (online)
Black and clear gem stickers
White glue

I hope you enjoyed my project today, and if you are in need of a pretty little album to keep your holiday mementos and photos in, this adorable mini will do the trick.  Thanks so much for stopping by, and have a wonderful New Year!

Barbara