Working Skeletons

Hello crafty gypsy friends!  I'm over on the Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts blog today sharing a little skellie triptych made with the Arch Top House Silhouettes.

The first thing I did was match the personality of my three skeletons with paper bits, outlined them with pencil and cut out.

I lined up the silhouettes with about 1/4-inch between them and added Linen Hinge Tape on each side.

A scoring tool or some such thing will help adhere the linen tape strips to each other.

I added black gesso on the edges and on the linen tape, then used matte medium to adhere the paper to each side.

A gold marker on the edges for a little pizazz.

The Funeral Director

The Pharmacist

The Auctioneer

Thanks for your visit today!

Cheers,
Susan

Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts Used
Arch Top House Silhouettes

Other Supplies Used
Tim Holtz Halloween Paper 8x8
Black gesso
Dresden trim
Antikamnia Calendar skeletons
Gray and black watercolor pencils
Matte medium

Wit & Sarcasm Fun!

Hello crafty friends!  I'm on the Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts blog today sharing giggles, guffaws, and chuckles.

Generally, I'm the person who comes up with a snappy retort about 20 minutes after it was needed.  *sigh*  I admire people fortunate enough to have a quick wit.  For the rest of us, there are Susan's Wit & Sarcasm Flash Cards!  Ha ha.  I just made that up.  See? I *am* funny (or so I keep telling my husband...).

The base materials are Simple House Ornaments, Artist Trading Coins, and the 2.5 Inch Trading Coasters.  The construction process is pretty simple but I admit to agonizing over caption and image pairing.  I spent hours scouring the internet for free high resolution 50s housewife images and also bought a few pre-made downloads (those are much, much easier...).

I fussy-cut as many shapes as I could handle at one time.  This is really just carefully cutting with sharp scissors, good lighting, and reading glasses/magnifiers.  Seriously!  I perch drugstore 1.75 reading glasses on the end of my nose while I'm cutting and it is most helpful!

From a long list of collected sarcastic and witty comments, I choose according to the figure's "personality", printed on card stock and cut into strips.

Next, I coordinated the figure with the background papers and used Mod Podge/adhesive medium to adhere to the first side of the chipboard.  I gave that a few minutes to set up, then flush cut around the edges.  You can use another coordinating paper for the reverse/magnet side, and adhere the same way or paint the reverse side a fun color.

Next, adhere the figure and trim off the edges as needed. Don't worry about the rough edges at this point -- sanding is one of the last steps.  The coins can be cut with scissors.

Add the captions --tweezers and Zig glue pen are great for this-- and sand all the edges once that glue is dry.  Ink the edges and add magnet squares as needed.  Fun!

I have a stand at a weekly market and it has been a lot of fun watching people look through them, recognize themselves and friends, and whisper to each other about the captions.

Thanks for your visit today!

Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts Used
Simple House Ornament #C17O Set/2
Artist Trading Coins #D81M Set/3
2.5 Inch Trading Coasters #C23L Set/3

Other Supplies Used
Collage sheets from Alpha Stamps
Mod Podge
Assorted My Mind's Eye 6x6 paper pads
Sand paper
Brown ink for edges
Zig blue glue pen
Magnetic sheets cut to 1 1/2" squares (from Amazon)