7gypsies Trays and Shadowbox Fun!

Time for a give-a-way.

Everyone likes a give-a-way and we thought it was high time.  This one includes the 7gypsies photo tray full of fun do-da's and trinkets.  Some we have shown here, but others will be a surprise and included in the little muslin bag shown above.  Just post a comment by Monday the 1st.  We will pick a winner on Tuesday the 2nd.


If you need a little "tray" inspiration check out the 7g blog.  Janelle recently did a TV segment at Studio 5 with some great ideas on using our trays and shadowboxes.  They are also giving away some of the new Solo Trays, so check it out here. 


Oh, and if that wasn't enough, you can enter one of your 7gypsies trays in the Archivers - 

"One-of-a-Kind Wall Art Contest"

Find out more about it here.


Lots of fun things going on good luck!  


Deb

Salt Water Studio

Last Friday I went to LA with my husband to attend the LA Gift Show (isn't he lucky?).  Part of the gift show is an entire hall called the Global Marketplace where you can purchase items on the spot.  Most of the action was over in the huge jewelry section where women were buying up costume jewelry.  But I wasn't looking for something I could buy at Target.  My friend Stephanie at Ruby Rose mentioned to me when I was in her shop the day before that there was a vintage section in the hall...guess where I headed? (thanks for the tip Stephanie!)

That is where I came across the lovely Georgia Hecht.  Super nice, like someone you would want to have lunch with, nice.  Georgia creates fabulous jewelry from parts and pieces of old jewelry, metals and watches. I will say her displays caught my eye (ever so clever) and the jewelry, well that was what kept me in the booth for more than 30 minutes (and it was a small booth!).  So many pieces to see and try on.  Everything was eye candy.

I better thrown in a disclaimer here...all my photos were taken with my iphone and they do not do the jewelry justice.

Charm Bracelets

This was a long necklace made from a vintage pill case or compact (it was about 1/2" thick).  It would be a lovely gift for someone with the initials MS since they were engraved on the front.

Since Deb and I do the displays for the 7gypsies booth I am always intrigued by how other people display items.  Georgia used books like this fabulous old cover with gold birds.  So beautiful, it really could be hanging on a wall as art.

This necklace was one of my favorite.  It was a long necklace with about 5 or 6 hanging charms including a optical lens and a darling vintage bird button.

 Long necklaces made from vintage buttons and jewelry parts.

Loved the necklace with the round locket with the wishbone on it.

This black necklace was beautiful

Here are two of the unique pieces I purchased:

A long necklace with a little hanging case.  The case is engraved with the initials JRD and is held closed with a little pencil.

When you take the pencil out, the case snaps open to reveal a compartment for paper which I think I will use for pictures. 

 On the back it is engraved with the date 1917, almost 100 years old!

 The second piece is a bracelet made from a vintage shoe buckle.

 The clasp sold me.

At present, Georgia doesn't sell online but you can find her at these two Southern California events which might be fun to visit if you are in the area.  I have never been to either of these shows but the pictures online look like a great mix of handmade items which I always love.

The Vintage Marketplace 
30+ vendors selling vintage home and garden finds and handcrafted items

Sept 9th and 10th
Rainbow, Ca  (south of Temecula)


Glitterfest 
50+ vendors selling all forms of mixed media from handmade jewelry, dolls, paper crafts.
You Tube video showing the 2011 Spring show mix of vendors.
Saturday, Oct 15th
Santa Ana, Ca

And if you are interested in any of the pieces shown in this post.  

Just email me and I will send you Georgia's email address. 

Please know that since these photos were taken at an event some of the jewelry shown may have already found a home.

The Great Ranjini

We wanted to share one more project from the new 7gypsies release.  It was created by Ranjini Malhotra, who is on the 7gypsies Creative Team.  Ranjini has done projects for 7g for several years now.  She is a fabulous artist that continues to always provide us with wonderful and creative projects.  We didn't talk about this project in our posts last week and we thought it needed to be spotlighted and shared so you can appreciate it also.

Ranjini came up with the idea to create an art journal, full of things that she loves and possible things to reference when a spark of inspiration is needed to get the creative juices flowing. She used a watercolor journal with plenty of snippets, photos, inspirational quotes, random musings, and a few lovely watercolor renderings. She started by removing the binding from the journal and replacing it with 7g binding rings instead.  

Global paper and book knob ring

 

Collage tissue "Paris" and Mini Label Stickers "Date"

Off the Wall paper and Naked Venice paper tape

Off the Wall papers and Venice paper tape

Off the wall papers, Butterfly Rubbings and, Ephemera Clear Stamp

Off the Wall paper and P is for Photo 97% Complete sticker

Paper tapes

Off the Wall papers and Collage Tissue Paris

7g "Vintage" tags and Mini Round Hanger

Inspiring...thanks Ranjini for your beautiful work, amazing as usual!

And on a side note, the wait is almost over...

Season 9 designers

An interesting group to say the least,  find out more info here.  

Can't wait!

Enjoy,

Deb

Mixed Media Tutorial

Each member of the 7gypsies Design team was asked to create something for the new release using one of the new papers.  I picked the paper, 'Balloons' that has the silhouette of a girl. Some of the new "Off the Wall" collection paper really screams mixed media or at least that's what came to mind when I got the paper in the mail.  Here's how I created it....

Cut a piece of plywood 7 x 10"

Paint the entire piece with Gesso, let dry.

Once dry, smooth it out with sandpaper.  Use a tack cloth to get rid of excess dust.

Use acrylic paint in some bright colors (don't worry I haven't lost my mind), let dry.

Next, cover the colors with Titan Buff.

NOTE: I added a bit of water to the paint I had squeezed from the bottle so I could still see the paint underneath.

Now a bit of white, let dry.

Once dry, I sanded it back to bring out more of the colors underneath.

Now to start layering...first a vintage library card.  I chose this one on purpose because of the name of the book, "Neat and Scruffy".  I used Claudine Hellmuth, Multi Medium to adhere all the ephemera. 

I felt the library card needed to be knocked back a bit so I used the same watered down white paint I used earlier and a large brush to add a white wash layer.  

Next, a ripped piece of a ledger was added.

I cut out the silhouette of the girl for layering on the library card but there was so much of the paper left that I decided to rip the top the paper with the word Sunlight so I could adhere it to the top of the wood.

Next, the new 7gypsies Alphabet...love it.  I always use Archival Ink because it is fade resistant.  I learned the hard way since my first pieces, on which I used Staz-on, have faded away.  Not good.

People ask me if I write on the board first but I don't.  Sometimes if the phrase or quote is very long I will plan it out on paper just to see the spacing but for the most part I just eyeball it and cross my fingers.

After the lettering, I adhered the black balloon to the piece and circled it with a thin Sharpie.  The string is just red sewing thread that I dipped in Multi Medium and then manipulated to look as natural as possible.

The last steps include adding the ruler to the bottom (I drilled a couple holes in the ruler so I could add the brads to each ends) then hand drawing little flowers along the bottom.  The orange and green color comes from watercolor crayons (Caran d'Ache).  The words "tell me what you seek" was cut from a book.  Funny, it usually takes me a while to find words I want to cut out but this time I quite literally opened the book and saw the words.  I personally think it was a blessing from heaven since I had so much on my plate the week I was working on this.

This is definitely one of my favorite pieces I have made in a while.  In fact I wish it was still hanging on my wall instead of in the 7gypsies office!  I guess when the paper is finally released I can make a similar one.
Cheers to all!

paula