Blue Steam

I only discovered Steampunk a month or so ago and I am totally hooked.  I find myself staring at objects thinking "what have you got inside you that I can use?"  I'm not sure how safe mechanical looking things are around me at the moment.

I love making trinket boxes and I actually woke up thinking about the idea for this one this morning. (How sad am I?)  This time I have used blue, brown and gold.  I have inked the sides in Faded Jeans distress ink.  I still haven't been able to get any cogs, so I am still making my own from snowflake die cuts.  This time I have inked them with Tea Dye distress ink and then used gold embossing powder to get a corroded metal look.  The bits where the tea dye show through look like rust.

 My image is Jayne Jettpack from Kenny Ks Steampunk Burlesque range.  Kenny K asked us to use pearls and pins for this weeks challenge.  I didn't have what I needed so I have put pearl beads onto normal pins and hot glued them into place.

I have given my butterfly a slightly corroded look using both gold and black embossing powder.  The flowers have also been given a dusting of embossing powder and then heated  a little with my heat gun.

I will be entering my little box in the following challenges:-

Craft your passion challenges - The "F" word - Flowers

Die cut dreams - Flower power - Use at least 5 flowers

Everybody art - Flowers

Kenny K's Krafty Girlz - Pins and pearls

Paper take weekly - Things with wings  - Butterfly

Never Ending

This is my first attempt at a never ending card.  Is that the right name?  I made it for my daughter who turned 18 on Thursday.  How old did that make me feel?

This is what I call the front of the card, or position one.   I have used Bo bunny flocked card stock, silver cardstock, black outline stickers, black co-ordinations card stock and Kenny K Digis

This is position two.  I have used five different images and have used the same four colours for all of their outfits.

This is position three.

And this is position four.  I put a personal message on the top section for her.

Never ending cards are not hard to make, but I did find this one time consuming.  It is well worth the effort though :-)

I am entering this card for the following challenges:

Paper Play Challenges - Use two or more stamped images - I used 5

Paper Take Weekly - Anything goes

Simon Says Stamp Challenge  - Multi-fold card

Stamp Something - Anything goes

Ians gone dotty

My friend from work Ian will be celebrating his birthday tomorrow.  He is great to work with and always remembers every ones birthday.  He is also a practical joker and we have all been on the receiving end of one of his pranks at one time or another.

Since he has opened his card, I thought it would be OK to post it here.

I had to take the picture late evening, so I apologise for the picture quality.

The background paper is by Bo Bunny and the dots are velvet flocked.  the i,age is a digi stamp from Teddy Bo.  I finally bought myself a Martha Stewart Border punch and the matching corner punch, so expect to see this a bit for a while :-).

Ian loved his card and it got a good giggle in the office :-)

I am entering this card for the following challenges:

Allsorts - Green and Blue

Cute Card Thursday - Use at least one punch

Fab N Funky - It's so funny

The Corrosive Challenge - Funny or use a pun

Sparkles Forum Challenges - Punch it

Locked in Green

It is very rare for me to make a green card.  I'm not sure why, but I've given it a go for this card.  I've had a go a putting together a Steampunk Grunge card.  Not sure what I was doing, but I had fun.  Youtube is your friend when it comes to research.

I didn't have any cogs and I kept seeing them on steampunk cards, so I had a go at making some myself using some build a snowflake dies.  Many of the elements of this card have been copper leafed and embossed.  I also embossed the backing paper that I created using distress inks.  For full details on how I put this card together look here.

This is a close up of some of the elements that I made or coloured.  The little key on the right was a gold coloured earring that I took the back off of.  The heart (originally silver coloured) was a charm from a necklace that I bought and posted a little while ago.  The buttons were also originally silver coloured.

Lots of touches of gold pen on this image.  I have dragged a bit of vintage photo ink over the image as it stood out too much from the rest of the card.

This is a clearer image of the dry embossing.

I will be entering this card in the following challenges:

Fab N Funky - Go mad with embossing

Kenny K - Vintage / Grunge

Stamp Something - Use a Digi stamp

Xmas Folds

I have finally started making stuff for Christmas.  This is my first project.  I think I have been in denial for the last month or so, but I know that if I don't start now, I wont get everything finished in time.  I apologise for the number of  pictures in this post, but I think you will understand.

The original idea for my card came from a very talented lady.  Her blog is called Mariannes Papirverden .  I am very inspired by all of her makes.  I actually followed a tutorial on YouTube to make this.

When closed, my card measures 3"x6"

The inner part of the card was made from one sheet of A4 which I cut down to size.  I will lay flat when fully opened.  I have used a version of this fold before as shown here.

The back needed something so I have stamped a lovely little bear which shows up on a lot of my Christmas cards.

This is the front of the matching bag I made for the card showing the same little bear.  The bag is made from one A4 sheet of the same paper I used inside the card.

And the back.

I will  be entering my project for the following challenges:

Christmas Stamping All Year Long - Fancy Shmancy Folds

Crafty Creations - Dies and Punches

Creative Card Crew - Anything goes

Die Cut Dreams - Make a gift bag or box

Lady Raven Split

I really don't need much of an excuse to get my distress inks out, so this weeks challenge at The Crafty Pad was right up my street.  I grabbed my two current favorite colours and started to play.  I have used Dusty Concord and Broken China with some black soot to add the features.

The Corrosive Challenge asked us to "come to the dark side" so I knew I was going to use a Kenny K digi stamp and the challenge at Stamptacular Sunday just cinched it as they asked us to put a diva - girl with attitude on our creation.

If you have been on my blog before you may have seen a card I made called Wanda in red.  On it I used an earring that I bought in a local shop.  The diamonte cross I have used on this one is the other one to the set.  I love using non crafting items in my projects.  I used wire cutters to cut the back off of this stud.  I struggled a bit with the other one when I tried to bend it.  A bit of hot glue is holding it in place.

Acetate Arch

I love playing with acetate and pushing myself to learn new techniques.  I can't say this one pushed me very hard, but I absolutely love the finished article and already have ideas for the "mark II" version.

This one is made from an A4 sheet of Kanban Glittered acetate, co-ordinations black textured cardstock, a Kanban topper and red eyelets and brads.  Oh I forgot the ribbon :-)

I am entering this one for the following two challenges

Charisma Cardz challenges - Glitter it

One Stop Craft Challenge - Not a square