Kissing Reindeer Standing Dome by Betsy Skagen

Despite one politician's recent coffee cup hullabaloo, I am over-the-moon delighted that the season has arrived to greet each other with holiday greetings--whether it be Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas or Happy Kwanzaa. 

As crafters, many of us have been making holiday items for months, so if you are anything like me, Betsy Skagen of Paper Calliope, you are more than ready to share some holly jolly spirit.

 

Tutorial How to Make the Kissing Reindeer Standing Dome

As Gina's November 2015 Guest Designer, I chose this project because the shape of Gina's Standing Dome Frame Oval reminded me of a piece of furniture that used to stand in my grandmother's front hall. That, however, is where the similarities end. A relatively stern woman, my grandmother would never have had something so sparkly and frivolous in her possession.

Step 1: Paint fence, backdrop and base of Standing Dome Frame Oval and the Moon String Along  with gesso. Let dry. Do NOT paint the Flourished Deer with gesso as the layers get too thick for the intricate cuts. Trust me on this, I know. If you don't trust me, trust Gina because she had to drop everything and send me another pair of reindeer when I messed up the first pair. Good thing she is so efficient that she puts Santa's workshop to shame.

 

Step 2: Paint both sides of Flourished Deer, back drop and base with a rich brown matte acrylic paint. Let dry.

Step 3: Paint both sides of moon with a matte yellow acrylic paint. Let dry.

Step 4: Paint both sides of fence with a gloss red acrylic paint. Let dry.

 

Step 5: Lightly coat one side of moon with Mod Podge and cover with extra fine glitter. Let dry. Repeat on other side of moon.

 

Step 6: Adhere blue glitter foam sheet to front of backdrop. Flip over and use a utility blade to carve out the oval.

Step 7: Using a strong adhesive, assemble the Standing Dome Frame Oval (the backdrop, fence and base).

Step 8: I found it tricky to get the deer to adhere the deer in a way that they stayed perfectly upright. I tried a few different solutions and this was what worked best for me.

First, determine the placement of your deer and lightly mark the location of their front and back hooves on the base with a pencil. Use masking tape to temporarily adhere the deer in place.

 

Then find four long nails with large flat heads. Temporarily place one nail upright against the back of a front deer leg and determine where to pierce the base so that the nail best supports the deer leg. Mark this spot on the base. Repeat this for a front and rear leg of each deer.

Remove the deer from the base. Use a hammer and pierce the base where you marked with each nail. Flip the base over and insert the nails so that the flat head is snug against the bottom of the base.

 

Return the base to its upright position and adhere the deer hooves to the base with strong adhesive and adhere the deer legs to the nails with narrow strips of brown or white duct tape.

Step 9: Determine the best height to hang the moon and cut off the unneeded stem of chipboard. Adhere the stem to the back of the backdrop.

 

Step 10: Add faux snow to the fence, base and reindeer legs. Make snowdrifts to hide the nails. Let dry.

I hope you found inspiration in this tutorial. Don't forget that in just a few days Gina's Lasercuts will become Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts. Happy Holidays! -Betsy

 Gina's Designs

    Standing Dome Frame Oval

    Flourished Deer

    Moon String Along

Great stuff you will need

    Foam blue glitter sheet

    Gesso

    Matte acrylic paint in brown and yellow

    Red glass acrylic paint

    Four 3" nails with flat heads

    Mod Podge

    Aleene's True Snow

    Extra fine glitter

    Beacon Fabri-Tac Adhesive

Winter Lantern with Guest Designer Betsy Skagen

For those of you who don't know me, I live up north. Waaaaaay up North. I live in Minnesota where the winters get bitter cold and dark winter nights come early. 

I'm Betsy Skagen of Paper Calliope and while my fingers may be cold, my heart is warm from the opportunity to be Gina's Designs' November 2015 Guest Designer. I created this week's project to light up some of those approaching long winter nights. 

Tutorial--How to Make the Rustic Winter Tealight Lantern

Step 1: Assemble the bottom and sides of Gina's Dimensional Diorama. Leave out the interior sections and the metal revolving piece as you will not be needing them. Adhere with a strong glue, such as Beacon Fabri-Tac.

Step 2: Using the Christmas Shape Set, Snowflake Shape Set and Winter Shape Set, pre-determine the scenes you want to create for each side panel. Make sure to design one of the scenes so that you will be able to push open the vellum panel to slide in a tealight. In the picture below, I left the vellum slightly bent so you could see how I access my tealight. Notice that the sled is actually attached to the vellum and not the lantern. This enables me to open the panel to operate the tealight. 

Step 3: Paint both sides of the chipboard pieces you selected with two coats of Tuscan Red acrylic (gloss) paint, letting dry between coats. 

Step 4: Paint the interior and exterior of the Diorama, the remaining lid piece and the Let it Snow Chipboard element, with two coats of gloss red paint, letting dry between coats. 

Step 5: Remove the handle from an old pail and paint the wooden part with two coats of gloss red paint, letting dry between coats. 

Step 6: Adhere the chipboard scenes to the exterior edges of the diorama's open panels. Adhere the Let it Snow element to the lantern lid.

Step 7: Use stiff dry brushes to stipple burnt umber, cocoa bean and Tuscan red paints in random places along the edges and corners of the lantern, chipboard elements and handle. Repeat this process numerous times to build up a texture that mimics corrosion and rust. 

Step 8: Cut the vellum to fit the panels. For three of the panels, place a strong adhesive on the interior edges of the diorama's panels and adhere the vellum. For the fourth panel, only attach the upper half of the vellum so you can access your tealight.

Step 9: If you wish, you may punch a hole in the top sides of your lantern to insert the pail handle. I chose to keep mine merely decorative and did not actually attach the handle. 

Step 10: Install and glue in the lid to the lantern. 

Step 11: Repeat Step 7 of creating rust along where the lid meets the rest of the lantern. 

Once it is dry, your lantern is complete. It would look great on a mantle or make a festive centerpiece for a holiday meal. I would love to see the lanterns you make--please email me pictures of how you use them to light up your holidays! 

In the meantime, don't forget that Gina's Designs is soon changing their name to Gypsy Laser Soul Cuts!

Until next time, Betsy

  

Great stuff you will need

• Dimensional Diorama
• Christmas Shape Set
• Snowflake Shape Set
• Winter Shape Set
• DecoArt Americana Acrylic Paint, 2-Ounce, Tuscan Red 
• Americana Multi-Surface Satin Acrylic Paint 2oz-Cocoa Bean
• Deco Art Media Fluid Acrylic Paint, 1-Ounce, Burnt Umber
• Beacon Fabri-Tac Permanent Adhesive, 4-Ounce
• Instapark® LCL Series Battery-powered Flameless LED Tealight Candles (2-Dozen Pack)
• Silhouette Vellum Paper for Scrapbooking

Fall Home Decor with Guest Gloria Stengel

Good morning! I am so happy to be guest designing for the next two months for Gina's Designs! I created a home decor piece as my first project. 

This piece is 12" x 12" and fits into a standard glass-less frame or shadow box. I love to decorate for fall and Thanksgiving, and this piece is going directly onto my front entry table! I love the contrast of colors with the "grungy" white of this piece. 

Here is a little tutorial on how I made the canvas.

I chose items from the Fall Shape Set and painted them with a few layers of white gesso. Gesso acts like a primer for the chipboard. I do NOT recommend using gesso if you plan to spray your pieces with mists or inks because gesso can act like a resist! Also, make sure to allow each layer to dry before adding the next layer.

I pained the shapes with various acrylic paints, allowing each layer to dry. I used a foam brush and was able to achieve some texture on each shape. For the white banners, I simply added ink to the edges. To add some shimmer to a few of the pieces, I mixed a bit of glimmer mist or metallic paint with the acrylic paints.

I added a few coats of gesso to the Birds and Ivy Collage Frame. This frame is approximately 8" x 8". I decided I did not want the birds, so I used a craft knife to cut them off. {I know, poor birds!}

I rotated the frame and distressed it with brown ink.

To crate the "canvas" I covered a thick piece of 12" x 12" chipboard with paper and sponged the edges with ink. I glued Thanksgiving and fall-themed images and paper to the openings of the frame. (You could change this up by adding photos instead.) Once I was happy with the placement of the images and the orientation of the frame, I glued it to the base piece.

The next step is the fun part! I chose the painted chipboard elements that I wanted to use and searched for other items in my craft stash to go with my theme.

I mounted the November border onto a piece of scrap chipboard before gluing it to the top of the canvas. I then added the flowers and leaves cluster to the left side of the border. The postage images were perfect for my theme!

The painted leaves give extra dimension to the frame, plus they make great holders for bits of decorative paper!

My favorite part of this frame is the decorated rake! It has been over a decade since we had any leaves to rake! Living in southern California sure puts a cramp on your fall leaf piles, that's for sure!

To give interest to the FALL banner, I added decorative paper behind each letter before adhering the letters to the scalloped banners. When I work with other chipboard, it can tend to get "soggy" when too much paint or ink is added. The Gina's Designs chipboard does not! Instead, each element took on the consistency of a thin, wood veneer!

The little pumpkins turned out adorable, if I say so myself! I love the vignette that I created.

It is hard to see in the photo, but the yellow wheat shape has a lot of shimmer to it from the metallic paint that I added. 

I hope that you enjoyed my project today! 

Gloria Stengel

Gina's Designs Product Used:

Fall Shape Set (Layout Size)

Collage Frame - Birds and Ivy

Other Products:

acrylic paint, glimmer mist, brown ink, white gesso, decorative paper, floral elements, twine

Fall Home Decor

Hello chippie fans, and welcome back.  Barbara here, and while I enjoyed my month of October Halloween projects, I am on to Fall, so I decided to do another home decor wall hanging that can be inserted into the frame I've been using for the past several postings.  If you put your project on a sturdy piece of chipboard or mat board that fits snugly in the frame, you can simply remove one and insert another, whatever the season.  How's that for being frugal!  Check out my previous posts and you will see what I mean.

I first adhered the scrapbook paper to a piece of 12"x12" mat board.

Each chipboard piece was painted with acrylic paints in Fall colors. 

The bottom layer of the  FALL banner was painted with Rusty paint, while the top layer was first painted with black, then I spread gold crackle paint over that.  To really age the letters and bring out the cracks even more, I added a wash of black paint and dabbed the excess off with a paper towel.  These were adhered along the top right with foam tape, and berry garland added.

The black bird was painted with black, of course, and details were added to the beak and eye.

The oak leaves and acorns were painted with yellow and brown paint mixtures to give each piece shading and depth.  I stamped the sentiment onto a scrap of manila card stock with black archival ink.  I punched the corners with a ticket punch.  I wanted to match the colors in the paper, so I blended yellow and orange distress inks and edged with a brown ink.

The cider jugs were painted similarly, then given a coat of clear crackle paint.  One jug was lifted with foam tape for dimension.

I cheated a bit and googled apple barrel images and found this one, which I printed off and adhered to my apple barrel chipboard shape.  I cut a slit along the top edge so I could insert my apples, which were painted with yellow and red paint mixture.  The leaves were a mix of light and dark greens, and the stems were painted with brown.

Gina's Designs Supplies Used:

Fall Shape Set

Other Supplies Used:
12x12 Memory Box Blackbird paper
12x12 mat board
Rusty Paper Paint
Gold Crackle Paste
Acrylic Paints
Distress ink pads
Rubber Stamp
Black archival ink pad
Ticket corner punch

I hope you enjoyed my Fall project today.  It was quick and easy, and at this time of year, we really need that. 

Gina's Designs Lasercuts has a fabulous selection of Fall-themed chipboard shapes, so be sure to stop by the online shop for all of your chipboard needs!

Thanks for stopping by, have a wonderful week, and Happy Fall ya'll!!!

Barbara