Steampunk Cycling

Hello everyone, I have a couple of cycling themed cards to share with you today, using a range of Steampunk stamps featured during last month's shows on Hochanda.

To create my first card, I stamped the penny farthing image from the Steampunkery stamp set, and then masked the image using masking tissue. I created a series of hills using Peeled Paint, Twisted Citron and Shaded Lilac Distress Ink, and added some trees from the Tall Trees stamp set, using dark green Versafine Clair Ink. I added a bit of pencil shading to 'ground' the smaller trees. I used Salty Ocean Distress Ink to create the sky, masking off a circle for the sun. I stamped the sentiment from the Punky Expressions stamp set, and added some birds from the Landscape Edges stamp set.

I removed the mask and coloured the penny farthing with Inktense pencils. Finally, I matted the background onto a large black card blank.

For my second card, I wanted to create a collaged feel, using lots of stamping to build up backgrounds. I started by using a patterned Crafty Individuals tag, and added some images from the Eccentric Edwardian stamp set in vintage sepia tones. I also added the gentleman on the bike as the focal image, using darker brown ink.

I made a larger background in toning colours on a piece of kraft card, picking the same images that I had used on the tag to create the background. I picked a grey card to mat the background, as it was a colour that was already on the tag background. I added a cheery tan ribbon to the tag, and stamped a sentiment from the Punky Expressions stamp set onto a small piece of scrap card.

I hope that you have enjoyed my Steampunk inspiration this month, and that you will try some of the ideas for yourselves. Thanks for stopping by, xx

A Wheelie Quick Card!!!

I am sharing a card today as part of the Fifteen Minute blog post which is airing on the Design Team Blog. Regular followers will know that this blog post features cards and projects made in fifteen minutes or less, and we aim to show that you can create designs that are both stylish and have that wow factor, but do not need to spend hours to achieve the end result.

My card was made as a Birthday card for my lovely Husband, who celebrated his Birthday a couple of weeks ago. He likes plain and simple cards, and even though his Birthday falls on a particular day, he definitely does not want anything Hallowe'en related! He is a cycling enthusiast, and so I felt that this design would fit the bill perfectly.

I started my card by cutting a strip of smooth cartridge paper, and masking off the central area with a piece of masking tissue. I stamped the front wheel of the penny farthing from the Steampunkery stamp set in various colours across the top and bottom of the background. I simply used masking tape to cover up the rest of the stamp before I inked the stamp, and removed the tape before I stamped it each time. Once I had stamped the wheels, I removed the msking tissue, and stamped the sentiment from the Birthday Words stamp set across the middle, using black ink. To finish, I simply added the background to a large black card blank.

Do head over to the Design Team blog to see what my Team Mates have created in the post today, it is a jam-packed post, and you will definitely be inspired! Thanks for stopping by, xx

Steampunk Flowers

Hello everyone, I hope you caught Lesley's fabulous Steampunk shows last week on Hochanda, featuring an eclectic mixture of Steampunk images. I love working with this versatile genre of stamps, because you can use the images in so many different ways; very grungy, adding lots of texture, or more feminine in style, altogether prettier, using brighter colours.

I have created a floral card, loosely based on the idea of dandelion clocks, which could be for a friend's Birthday, or just to show that you care, using a sentiment from the brand new Punky Expressions stamp set which will be available on the website in the next few days.

I started to create my card by blending Wilted Violet, Salty Ocean, Abandoned Coral and Fossilized Amber Distress Ink onto a piece of smooth Cartridge paper. I based my colour scheme around the papers that I had chosen for the flowers that I was going to make further along in the project. I spritzed the background with water, to create a mottled effect, blotting the background here and there with a piece of tissue. I stamped the large script stamp from the Eccentric Edwardian stamp set over the background, using Salty Ocean Distress Ink. On a spare piece of card, I stamped the small clock three times, and cut it out. I added a bit of yellow ink to age the images slightly.

I die cut some flowers from some Crafty Individuals paper, and scrunched them to give them a bit of texture and movement, inking the backs of the flowers with blue ink. To complete the flowers, I stamped three stems using an image from the Diamante Delights stamp set onto the background using grey ink, and some leaves from the Bold Blooms stamp set onto some scrapbook paper, which I cut out. I added the clock faces to the centre of the paper flowers, and used some 3D foam behind the central flower.

You may have caught sight of one of my old samples on the show created using images from some of our Steampunk stamp sets, featuring the fabulous beetle from the Steampunkery stamp set as a focal point. I have again used paper flowers to create this design, but added cogs in the centre, dropping beads into the middle of each one, and stamping onto the leaves this time.

I will be back later in the month with more Steampunk ideas to share with you, do keep checking the Design Team blog to see more fabulous ideas from my Design Team mates. Thanks for stopping by, xx

Rainy Day Blues

Hello everyone, it's the final week of the current colour challenge on the Chocolate Baroque Challenge Blog. The colour scheme is a monochrome scheme, blues and teals, and perhaps it has been a bit more difficult than some for everyone to use, as we have had less entries than normal. I have created another card to provide a bit more inspiration perhaps, and maybe help you come up with some ideas for a project to enter into the challenge. As we have had so few entries involving Chocolate Baroque stamps this month, there is a really good chance that you could win the prize by taking part. So all I can say is, why not have a go, you never know, you might be lucky!

I have had the idea for this card rumbling around in my head ever since the Seasonal Fragments stamp set was released, but just never got around to making it. I stamped and embossed the raindrops image several times around the edge of the card using seafoam embossing powder. I then covered the card using Salty Ocean Distress Ink, leaving a paler area in the middle. I stamped the sentiment from the Loving Sentiments stamp set using Nautical Blue Memento Ink.

I stamped the top part of the large sail boat from the Steampunkery stamp set onto a pretty blue scrapbook paper from Crafty Individuals and cut out the section that I needed. (I used five images). I stuck the images down and trimmed the excess off, and then added the spare pieces to the edges of the background. I then drew umbrella handles with a fine-tipped marker pen. Finally, I edged the background with the Nautical Blue ink, before adhering it to a white card blank.

Thanks for stopping by, xx

Set Sail

Hello everyone, this is my final marine themed post for the Design Team this month. I have really enjoyed working with these stamps, and have lots more ideas for them. Hopefully once I get Christmas over, I will have a bit more time to play with them.

My project this time around uses the large ship image, which I wanted to portray sailing through a forest at the bottom of the ocean. I stamped the images and then embossed some cogs from the Punky Flowers stamp sheet. I coloured the background using Distress Inks, mixing lots of blues and greens, and then stamped a cog fragment from the Steampunk Butterfly stamp set over the top.

I coloured the images with Inktense pencils and added some fronds at the bottom of the page using the legs from the octopus taken from the stamp of the month set. Finally, I added a sentiment taken from the Steampunkery stamp set.

 Thanks for stopping by, Judith xx

Forgotten Friday- Time Travel

Hi Folks, well I have to apologise for the patchiness of Forgotten Friday over the past few weeks. As you know, I have been travelling here there and everywhere. My little weekly post is the casualty of that travelling I'm afraid. Anyway, I have managed to create something today, so that is a cause for celebration.

I needed to create something along a Steampunk theme, and was rummaging through some of my Chocolate Baroque stamps. I happened across a couple of stamps that I hadn't used, so decided to make something with those, using another one that I had used, but not since I was creating DT samples with the stamps. I made a background stamping the flying clock with Versamark, and embossing it with clear embossing powder. I then coloured the background with Tea Dye Distress Stain, and picked up splodges of ink in various colours over the top, drying each application between the layers. I stamped the words 'Time Flies' with black ink in the gaps. I used some of the left over ink to colour a manilla tag with the wrinkle free distress technique. I embossed a section of a cog mask on a couple of corners of the tag by running it through my Big Shot, and then swiped some Distress ink over the top of the raised areas.

I stamped the beetle onto a spare piece of card, and coloured it with Distress Markers and a water brush, then highlighted the shaded areas with neat markers for depth. I added some cogs and jump rings to the tag, and a couple of stamped words to fit the theme of 'Time Travel'. The word 'Time' comes from a larger stamp taken from the 'Artful Affirmations' stamp set from Chocolate Baroque, if you were wondering.

The eagle eyed amongst you may have spotted the teeny cogs on my tag as well, they are watch parts.

Why don't you have a rummage through your craft stash and see if you have something forgotten or neglected? Make something and leave a comment on my post, and I'll pop along to take a look.

I am going to enter my card into the Steampunk Junkies challenge. This time around, the theme is Time Travel/Anything Goes.

Thanks for stopping by, xx

Pretty Steampunk Beetle

Hi folks, I'd like to show you another sample using the new Steampunk stamps recently released over at Chocolate Baroque I have chosen to use a feminine colour palette for my sample and picked some lovely pinks and oranges, which I have offset with a bright green.

I started by making a background with Pan Pastels, and then sponged through the Reverse Chicken Wire template from Crafter's Workshop with Versamark ink. I went over this with more of the same Pan Pastel colours that I had used for the background. I stamped the large cog and flower stamp from the Punky Romance stamp plate, using Versamark ink again, and covered this with Pan Pastels as well.

I cut out some flowers and leaves from handmade paper, and coloured these with Pan Pastels. The flowers were coloured with pink and orange, and the leaves were coloured with two shades of green. I stamped the darker areas of the leaves with the little coggy tree from the Steampunk Christmas stamp plate.

I stamped the beetle onto white card twice, and coloured it with Polychromos pencils. I decoupaged the layers, and brushed some gold mica pwder over the top, before adding Glossy Accents to the beetle's body and the clock face.

I scrunched the flowers, fixing them together with brads, and attached them to the card. I stuck cogs into the centres and filled these with Glossy Accents. I then filled the centres with seed beads. I added a sentiment and a couple of cogs to finish.

These stamps are such fun to work with. Why not pop over to the Design Team blog over the coming days to see what my Design Team mates have been making with them? Thanks for stopping by, xx

Steampunk Guys

Hi Folks, just to let you know that there are new stamps available over at Chocolate Baroque right now. The stamps are based on a Steampunk theme:

Called Steampunkery and Steampunk Travel, the stamp plates are full of all sorts of quirky images and great phrases to go with them. Glenda also has a giveaway on the Design Team Blog until 16th June, so if you leave a comment over there, you are in with a chance of winning both sets of stamps.

I have made a card using a Crafter's Workshop template to create my background. I stippled Black Soot through the template onto a piece of card that I had already coloured with Distress inks. I distressed the edges of the card, and then coloured them with Pine Needles and Black Soot Distress inks. I used a piece of a printable paper available from the website, called Edwardian Gentleman, which I tore and distressed to complete the background.

I made a frame from aluminium adhesive tape stuck to grungepaper, which I embossed, then ran through a cog embossing folder. I coloured this with alcohol inks, then rubbed some black acrylic paint over the top, wiping off the excess. I placed some of the Edwardian Gentleman paper in the recess of the frame.

I stamped the large hat from the Steampunkery stamp plate onto kraft card, and then masked this, before stamping one of the men from the Eccentric Edwardian stamp plate over the top. I am not the only Design Team member to hit upon this idea, great minds think alike, as they say!

I created some cogs using the shattered stains method; coating some grungepaper cogs with Rock Candy Distress Crackle Paint and adding Distress Stains on top. The stains seep through the Rock Candy, and create a great effect. A few bits of hardware complete the project.

I had a few bits and bobs left over at the end of this project, and it struck me that one of the men on the printable page was just the right size to wear the Steampunk hat as well. So, I made a tag with some of the pieces that were on my craft desk. I used a piece of paper from the Prima Almanac paper stack as a background, stamping over the top with a stamp from the Eccentric Edwardian stamp plate. I stamped the phone on a parachute onto a piece of tissue paper and added it to the background, then I placed my man and his hat onto the tag. I tried to keep the hat very muted to tone in with what the man in the photograph was wearing. I added another one of those colourful cogs to complete the tag.

This was just a bit of fun, but I might just have saved myself a job in the Alphatag swap in a few months' time, lol!