Mini Album Display Case

Happy New Year's Eve!!! To end the year out, I have a quick and easy project for you; the Mini Album Display Case. The kit includes the display case with a drawer and cover pieces with spines to assemble four mini albums.  The display box and drawer are in the fabulous hardboard.  The mini album pieces are laser cut from chipboard.

After the case and drawer were assembled and glued, I applied paper from the paper stack "French Kiss" from Glitz. The metal handle was from my stash.

I only assembled three of the four mini albums since I was not sure how I wanted to use them. This also allowed space for me to decorate the front covers. Until I figure out what I want to store in this great case, I am going to use it as a home decor piece! 

The assembled cabinet measures 5-1/2 inches tall by 4-1/2 inches wide by 4-1/2 inches deep.  The mini album covers measure 3-1/2 inches tall by 4-1/4 inches wide. and the spines measure 1-inch wide by 3-1/2 inches tall.

Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts Products Used
Mini Album Display Case

Blog Hop with Gina's Designs and Creative Paperclay!

It's time for a fun Halloween Theme Blog Hop! Gina's Designs Lasercuts Design Team has teamed up with the Creative Paperclay Design Team for this fun blog hop. We are all excited to show off our Halloween projects and even more excited about the fact YOU can win a prize.

The Prize Package includes:
1 pound package of Paperclay
1 sample package of Sandits and
$25 shopping spree to Gina's Designs Lasercuts

How to enter - each of these will get you one entry
1) Stop by each blog on the hop and leave a comment
2) Pin each project on your Pinterest site
3) Share this post on your Facebook page
4) Like Creative Paperclay Facebook page
5) Like Gina Designs Facebook page

I used one of Gina's new Stand Up Sentiments for this spooky project! I painted the word and the base with black acrylic paint. Once that was dry, I applied several different colors of Stickles/glitter glue.

The ghost and pumpkins were all made with the Creative Paperclay! This was the first time I used this product and it was very easy to work with. This is an air-drying product so no need for a special oven. The eyes on the ghost are two brads. The pumpkins are all different shapes and sizes. Once I had the shape, I used my craft knife to make the groves in the pumpkins. The end of a paint brush was used to make the hole on the top to insert the stems into. When the pumpkins and stems were completely dry, I used Dried Marigold, Spiced Marmalade, and Pumpkin Pie inks on the pumpkins and Walnut Stain, Shabby Shutters, Peeled Paint, and Bundled Sage on the stems.

The chipboard ghost and web were painted with white acrylic paint. Black glitter was used on the spider. Black Soot and Walnut Stain was used on the hat and the bats. The lines on the hat were made by a very special tool - the pencil :)  I placed red paper on the back of the bats to give them a more creepy look.

Creative Paperclay design team can be found here.
Gina's Designs design team can be found here.

You can also click the link ( An InLinkz Link-up) and it will show the blogs as well!

Gina's Designs Products Used

Stand Up Sentiments 

Border Halloween 

Spooky Shape Set

Creative Paperclay

Other items used
Stickles: Platinum, Silver, Brushed Corduroy
Recollections Glitter Glue: Ebony, Chestnut, Glitz
Distress Ink: Black Soot, Walnut Stain, Shabby Shutters, Peeled Paint, Bundled Sage, Dried Marigold, Spiced Marmalade
Stampin Up! ink: Pumpkin Pie
Black acrylic paint
White acrylic paint
Red paper
Black glitter 

Trim Organizers a Gina's Designs DT Project!

Hello everyone! I'm back with two more trim organizers. I did one awhile ago (click HERE if you want to check it out!) and realized one was not enough for my happy stash of lace. These boxes are quick and easy to put together! Once the boxes where assembled, I painted them both on the inside with brown acrylic paint.

Both boxes were covered with paper from the KellerKurtz & Company paper stack, lace and box feet from Tim Holtz. For the button borders, I first applied gesso. Once the gesso was dry, I embossed both the button border in the above picture with Aged Ivory Embossing Enamel by Stampendous. Once cool, pink twine was inserted into three of the buttons.

For the button border in the pictures below, I started out the same way. This time while the Aged Ivory was still in it's melted state, I added some sprinkles of Aged Rose Embossing Enamel and applied heat.

While the border was cooling, I worked on the five loose buttons (these are included when you order the button border!). I left the chipboard in it's natural color and just applied Walnut Stain Distress Ink to the outside edges. Pink twine was then inserted into all five. When the border was cool, I glued them onto the button border.

 

Now all I have left to do is put my lace on the paper covered cards!

Gina's Designs Products

Trim Organizer

Button Border

Just Bee Cuz - a Gina's Designs DT Project

Happy Friday!!! I hope this blog post finds you all well. Today I have three ATC cards for you. 

You might recall a journal page I did several weeks ago featuring the same concept. One of the other designers loves bee's, and since I wasn't parting with my journal page, I made these for her.

The background, for the most part, is the same as the journal page. I won't bore you with a re-run, but if you missed it, just click on the link above and it will take you to that project!

 The ATC-sized honeycomb was cut apart and used on each of the cards. The "just" is up on two pop squares.

The crowns were colored using a silver metallic marker. The bee between them is from the small honeycomb & bee set.

The three solid hexagons were clinging to the honeycomb. I popped them out and reused them.

Gina has four different sizes of honeycomb & bee sets in the store. Why don't you buzz on over and see what goodies will inspire you?

Gina's Designs Products Used

Honeycomb & Queen Bees ATC Sized

 Honeycomb & Bees Small

 

Other Products Used:

Paint: Daler Rowney: Medium Yellow, Cream, Yellow Ochre, Lemon Yellow, Brilliant Red, Orange

Folk Art: Daffodil Yellow

Liquitex: Burnt Umber

Gesso

Rub-on Alpha Stamps from my stash

Stamps: RubberMoon - Mixed media 

Prima - #96081

White cardstock

Ink: Tim Holtz Distressed: Spiced Marmalade, Mustard Seed, Vintage Photo, Walnut Stain, Black Soot

Bling

Silver Metallic Marker

Blog Hop Winner!!!!

The winner of my blog hop giveaway is:

Sharon Estes!

Congratulations!

Sharon, to claim your prize I need you to:
Email Contest@ginasdesigns.net  
In the subject line put "Birthday Blog Hop Winner - The Craft Hoarder"
Give your complete mailing address
Please mention that you have won the Music Symbol Shape Set

If we do not receive your email by Friday, June 5, 2015 at 5PM  CST,  a new winner will be picked.

 

To see the winner of the grand prize, please go to Gina's Designs Blog.

 

Thank you everyone for hopping! 

 

Gina's Designs Birthday Blog Hop!!! (Closed)

Welcome to Gina’s Designs 3^rd Birthday Blog Hop!

The Birthday Blog Hop will run from today, May 22, until May 29 at 8pm CST.  You should have just come from Deann's blog - CraftDee1. If you didn't, don't worry! Just pop over to Gina's Designs Birthday Blog Hop post and follow all the blogs in order.

We are having two great giveaways associated with this blog hop.

The first one is the Birthday Prize Giveaway!

The Birthday Prize package includes:

Filigree Frames Shape Set , Dressforms 1 Shape Set, Butterflies & Dragonflies, Grape Vines, Feathers Shape Set, Dressforms & Wings Shape Set, Steampunk 2 Shape Set, Clockwork Penny Farthing, Garden Fairies Medium, Garden Fairies Large, Damask Singles, Button Shape Set, Skylines, Landmarks, Collage Border Splash, Mermaids Shape Set, Stackable Labels Shape Set, Steampunk Shape Set, Vintage Ladies Silhouette, Dressforms 2 Miniature Shape Set, Candelabra Set, Dressforms 1 Miniature Shape Set, Barbed Wire Deco Frame Square, Barbed Wire Deco Frame Rectangle, Alarm Clock, Layered Border Victoria Small, Flourish Frame Sienna, Flourish Set Amanda, Wishing Well, Butterfly of Gears, Longstem Rose, Grape Vine Frame, Barbed Wire Frame Circle, and a Brush Caddy !!!!!

To be entered into the Birthday Prize giveaway, you need to:

1. Stop at all 15 designers’ blogs for a secret word.

2. After you collect all of the 15 words, create a sentence.   

3. Email your answer to Contest@ginasdesigns.net for a chance to win the

 Birthday Prize!

 This is why you will want to make sure you stop at each blog. That prize package is fantastic! 

Now the second giveaway will be done on EACH of the designers blogs. The shape set I am giving away is the Music Symbols Shape Set!

This is such a great set! They are the perfect size for any project. I needed a music note/symbol set for a special project for my niece's recital. 

Gina was kind enough to make one and she then listed it in the store. As you can see, you will be able to get a lot of use out of this set!

To be entered into my blog's giveaway, 
1.  Subscribe to my blog. 
2.  Leave a comment on this blog post.

THAT’S IT! So easy!

So many great ways to win some fabulous chipboard pieces! My word for the Birthday Prize giveaway is chipboard.

I am the last stop on the blog hop. If you do not have all 15 words, the blogs that you should have visited are listed below. Make sure you submit your sentence to contest@ginasdesigns.net by
May 29, 2015 - 8PM CST
Good luck!

Kim - AngelDream Crafts

Angela - A Crafty Blether

Barb - In the Studio With Barb

Melissa - Ribbons, Lace, and Good Intentions

Mary B - The Damsel of Distress

Shanna - Shanna's Designs

Kathi - Kathi's Creations

Amy - Amylove Crafty Kingdom

Kim C - Kreations by Kimber

Lynne - Scrappy Squirrel's Nest

Dianna - Diana's Crafts Blog

Nichola - Pixie Hill

Carla - Carla's Creations

Deann - CraftDee1

Mary - The Craft Hoarder

 

Gina's Designs DT Project - Steampunk Chest

Happy Friday! I hope you are all well and have some great plans for this weekend. What I have for you today is what I call my yearly steampunk project!  This chest was in my stash and is going to a friend who likes steampunk ( I hope she does!).

 The drawers have one of the plates from the Keys and Plates Set, several gears, and gears that were part of the Steampunk Frame.  The flat metal key from my stash as well as the purple bling on the key plate.

 On the top, I used the medium dressform from the Dressform and Wings Shape Set. The set come with three different sizes!  By the bottom of the dressform is one of the clock hands from the Clock Hands Shapes Set. The Heart with Gears is coming soon to the store. You can substitute with one of the hearts from the Steampunk Hearts set. Also on the front are flowers from my stash, a domino, and Tim Holtz's gear, pen nib and word plate.

 

 Above you can see the smallest size dressform and wings! The stamp in the right corner was actually found in the bead section at Hobby Lobby. The paper on the entire project is from Recollections - Regent Street.

This air balloon was part of the Steampunk Frame with the gear on the left added from the Gears Shape Set.

 On this side,  you can see I attached part of the Texture Plate - Gears to it.

This is a close-up. I applied different colors of inks to the raw chipboard. In the picture below, you can see that I used the same texture sheet with texture paste. Once the texture paste was dry, I applied different purple inks and Lindy's Sprays over the top of it.

There are several different texture sheets in Gina's Store. Stop by and check them out! Also used on the back was a spring, a plastic light bulb from a key chain, a mini card, metal gear from ButterBeeScraps and flowers from my stash.

Don't forget Gina's Designs is celebrating three years of being in business so you will get a
Free Birthday Shape Set with all orders over $20.00 during the month of May! 

If you are not already a member of Gina's Designs Craft Group on Facebook, get over there and join! We will be announcing other fun birthday activities there!

Gina's Designs Products

Clock Hands Shape Set

Dressforms & Wings Shape Set

Steampunk Frame

Texture Sheet Gears

Gears Shape Set

Keys & Plates Shape Set

Heart of Gears (Coming Soon!!) - you could substitute with Steampunk Hearts

Gina's Designs DT Tutorial - Should I Gesso?

Hello fellow chipboard lovers! I know many times you have read on this blog that I started my project out by using gesso. Gesso (which is pounced jesso) is primer. It gives your paint or glue something to hang onto as well as giving a tone that will allow the true color of your paint to be seen. 

In the picture below, the vintage lady on the right is how Gina's Designs chipboard will look when you receive your order. The lovely lady on the left has a coat of gesso applied to her.

 The ladies from above have invited a few of their friends to help show the effects of using gesso on Gina's chipboard pieces.

 

 First up are the sprayed ladies! I used the same amount and the same color of Lindy's spray on them, but the outcome was very different. The lady on the right has the gesso applied to her.

Next we have the painted stripe girls. I hope you are able to tell from the picture the differences. Starting from the top, I used a heavy body paint (Titanium White) and you can see the head on the left still is showing some of the brown undertone from the chipboard. The next three colors are your basic acrylic paint. You can tell the yellow and pink on the left have soaked into the chipboard. Since the lady on the right had a layer of gesso first applied, the brightness of the colors can be seen. While it is true the black paint looks good on either piece, my preference is to still gesso!

I embossed both sets of wings from the Dressforms and Wings Shape Set and a key plate for a project I am working on. I used gesso on the bottom piece, but not on the top nor on the key plate.  You can definitely see the difference! 

 Here is another shot of them on a different background. The wings on the right has gesso applied to it.

Again, the same amount and the same color of embossing powder was used on the items.

Gesso is available at art supply stores as well as your big box craft stores. There are so many brands of gesso out there for you to chose from. My recommendation, start with a small, cheap jar and experiment!  If you are looking for that true color, use gesso. If you don't want to give your pieces several coats of paint, use gesso. Looking for the darker color to come through like the embossed pieces above? No gesso!

So it is up to you, to gesso or not to gesso....only you can answer that question!

If you do have questions, please feel free to leave them in the comment section!

Gina's Designs Products Used:

Dressforms & Wings Shape Set

 Keys & Plates Shape Set
Vintage Ladies Silhouettes Set

Other Products Used:.

Lindy's Stamp Gang Embossing Powder - Magic Moon Pearls

Hampton Art Stamps Embossing Stamp Pad - Emboss!

Studio 71 - Gesso
Lindy's Stamp Gang Starburst Spray - Blue Hawaiian Blue
Americana Paint - Lamp Black & Poodleskirt Pink
Liquitex Heavy Body Paint - Titanium White
FolkArt Paint - Daffodil Yellow