Extra Steam Power

Hi everyone!

     Welcome to the first 'Extra Steam Power' post at Sandee and amelies Steampunk Challenge 

Today I am sharing a Rusty Steampunk creation

Here you only get to see a sneak peek

Do you want to see more?...

Do you want to know how it was made?...

....Then hop over to Sandee and amelies Steampunk Challenge and all will be revealed!

Hope to see you there!

Happy Crafting!

Laura

xxx

Aged Beauty

Hi everyone!

Over at Sandee and amelies Steampunk Challenge this month we are focusing on -

Ravages of Time

 Thinking of peeling wallpapers, rust in all its glorious forms of appearance, peeled paint, crackle, patina, weathered wood,

I love making things with a weather worn aged effect...There are so many paint techniques that can transform card into a tarnished treasure!

    I started this creation with a Paperartsy substrate...they are great! They take so much punishment (I know because several times I have stripped back the layers of a creation to re-do it). This toughness comes in handy for a creation where layers and sanding come into play...

     First I covered it with a coat of gesso as a primer - I wanted to use Quinacridone Gold which is transparent and would loose some of its vividness if painted directly onto the brown surface of the substrate. The white paint makes a good base for the transparent paint to shine...

    When the Quinacridone Gold paint was nearly dry, I patted the substrate with the palm of my hand to remove some paint. I didn't want to wipe the surface with a cloth in case I removed too much - by patting it with my hand, I removed patches of paint and the effect was wonderful - one to remember and worth getting paint covered hands for!!!

      I then covered the substrate with crackle glaze. After leaving it to dry I painted it with a thick layer of  Decoart Phthalo Green-Blue Liquid acrylic paint mixed with some white acrylic paint. This  formed a gorgeous turquoise.

      I covered the substrate with a thick layer of this which formed wonderful crackles - revealing the rusty Quinacridone Gold and also the white patches.

When dry I sanded around the edges revealing the layers of paint and adding to the distressed peeling, aged look. I dry brushed some Raw Umber and Quinacridone Gold around the edges of the substrate.

 

     Now was time to decorate...

   I wanted to focus on time so a clock die cut seemed best....my recipe for creating rust is very simple

Dab on some Evergreen Bough DP

When dry dab on some Vintage Photo DI

Then dab on some Picket Fence DP

Then covered with Quinacridone Gold and sprinkle with Vintage Photo Distress Embossing powder when wet.

This method was used to create both the cogs and the clock surround.

The clock face was made from printed paper which was stamped with my favourite script stamp in Potting Soil Archival ink. A clock was cut out from printed paper and dabbed with Frayed Burlap DI. The clock hands were painted with Antiqued Bronze DP and a bronze screw brad was used to attach them.

    The word TIME was stamped using Evergreen Bough DP. It is stamped onto pattered paper which was then cut out and had twine stuck to the ends. Twine braid was wrapped around the substrate and the word time stuck onto it.

The background was decorated with a script and text stamp - using Potting Soil Archival ink and Picket fence DP. Several stamps  - the numbers, gears and quote were added using tissue paper - the stamp was stamped onto the tissue paper - the image was torn out and stuck to the substrate with Matt multi-medium. 

Hope you like it! Why not come over and check out the wonderful things the rest of the team have made to inspire you!

Happy Crafting!

Laura

XXX

Glamour Girl

Hi everyone!

 It is a very special challenge over at FSC this time -

Welcome Everyone To FSC's 100th Posting

To celebrate our success and to say a huge thanks to each and everyone of you fashionable crafters for joining us each fortnight (many from the very first challenge) we are starting this auspicious occasion with a 'Blog Hop'.  There will be prizes on offer to go along with this weeks theme which could only be ...

'Glitz & Glamour'

Even though this will be our first Blog Hop lots of you will already be familiar with the concept.  If not here's how it works. 

All you have to do is click on the the name below and Hop to the next blog and leave them a comment. You keep hopping until you have left all the Design Team a comment.

Leaving them a comment is important as each DT member will be doing a draw from comments on their blog's for the chance for you to win their fabulous inspirational make. As well as one lucky winner receiving the €20 voucher to spend at our sponsor's store.

Below is the name of the DT member where you will Hop to and leave your comment (don't forget to leave one for me lol).  If you get lost you can always pop back to FSC and start over.

AVRIL

We have more news for you.

Starting from today FSC is changing to monthly.  Each challenge will now be starting on the second Sunday of the month...So now there is even more time to join in with each challenge!

And so...onto what I made for the Glitz and Glamour Challenge...

I must admit I was stuck at first because my style isn't Glitz or Glamour...and I wondered if I had any stamps that would fit the challenge! I was hunting through the stamps I own when I came across this one that I got several years ago - I think it was free with a magazine! - Just shows why us crafters never throw anything away!

I decided to make a tag and started with the tag base...I dabbed some Black Soot DI and Picket Fence DP onto a craft mat and spritzed with water then swirled the tag to get a marble effect. When dry I stamped it with text, script, music and flourish stamps in Jet black Archival ink and Pumice Stone DI.

I added Antique Linen through a Gothic style stencil to add some texture effects and then added some splatter with watered down Black Soot DI, Picket Fence DP and Tarnished Brass DS.

I covered some card with Black soot DI and then stamped some film strip stamps over them with Jet Black Archival ink and used these to begin to decorate the tag...now I was heading for a 1920's film set look....the height of glitz and glamour (in my eyes!)

 I again covered some card with Black Soot DI and stamped some pillars with Jet Black Archival ink. They had some added decoration in the form of Liquid Pearls in Platinum Pearl and Onyx Pearl.

 I added some pearl beads to one pillar

I painted a piece of card with Carbon Black Media Acrylic paint and wrote The Golden Age in white gel pen - adding swirls as well before cutting the edges of a film strip stamp and sticking them around the edge and adding a tiny bit of Onyx Pearls Liquid Pearls to each corner

 Two Art Deco style stamps were used and I painted them with a splash of Black Soot DI and Tarnished Brass DS. I then applied a large blob of Glossy Accents glue.

 The lady "All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up"........was stamped in Jet Black Archival ink before being very fussy cut with an ultra sharp craft knife!! 

 I painted her skin with Tattered Rose DI and her costume was painted with Black Soot DI and Tarnished Brass DS.

 I added some jewellery accents with some Copper Pearl Liquid Pearls and a tiny pearl bead.

 A sheer white ribbon tops the 'Golden Age' tag...

 So do you like this tag? Would you like to have it?

 All you have to do is join the blog hop and hop around all the DT posts at Fashionable Stamping Challenges and you could win this tag!

 Enter this Glitz and Glamour challenge and you could be the winner of $20 to spend at Flonzcraft Stamps! And of course you could be picked as one of our Catwalk Spotlights!

  Remember we are a stamping challenge so please feature a stamped focal image on your creation.

 

Hope to see you there!

Happy Crafting!

Laura xxx

 

 

Hint of Steampunk

Hi everyone!

I am here today to show you a tag I made ......and as it is a lovely sunny morning I took the photos outside! I am so glad summer is here (hope it stays a while!)

      I discovered a passion for Steampunk a while ago...quite a while ago actually (while checking my blog I was shocked to see it was in April 2013!) - when over at Sandee and amelies Steampunk challenge they sparked my imagination with 'Fairytales, into our Steampunk world'....I really knew nothing about Steampunk and I had doubted I could do it - but the title was way too tempting and I dived in ....

     I loved making the wicked witch house, but I still felt Steampunk wasn't for me - I didn't think it fitted into my style and then I realised that you don't have to dive fully into the Steampunk world....sometimes it works by adding just a hint of Steampunk...and really Steampunk goes with everything....

    And that was what my idea was behind this tag...to do a shabby chic style tag but show that Steampunk fits in really well....

     The tag was one of many that started off as some experimenting with Gesso through stencils. I was just messing around with some Gesso and stencils and different application techniques....This is one of them and all it needed was to be covered with Distress ink - I chose Brushed Corduroy - a colour I very rarely use - think I might have to change that! and I stamped some text and gears on with Walnut Stain DI.

     Then I made the decoration. I started by cutting a top hat out of card and covering with dictionary paper. I then wound some hemp string around it and stuck on some tiny watch cogs.

I stuck the top hat onto a piece of card that had been antiqued with a dab of Walnut Stain DI and had a piece of paper lace stuck to it

I then stuck this to a piece of card that had been stamped with gears using Walnut Stain DI

This was then stuck onto a piece of card that had a crackle effect stamped onto it. This was then added to a piece of card that had been painted with Decoart Fluid Acrylics in Raw Umber and then was stamped with gears using gold paint.

 The hat was tuck onto the card using foam pads 

The words were made using stamps and stickers....

'Steampunk' was stamped with alphabet Stamps using Jet Black Archival ink...the word 'goes' was made using Label Letters stickers. 'With' was done with a chit chat sticker and 'everything' was stamped with another alphabet stamp- this time using Potting Soil Archival ink

I attached some twine to the top of the tag and added some twine ribbon tied into a bow

And there is my tag - a mix of vintage shabby chic and Steampunk...

Hope you like it! Thanks so much for being here!

Happy Crafting 

Love from Laura 

xxx

Simply Serenity

Hi everyone - It is Sponsor Spotlight time again at Our Creative Corner. 

Our generous sponsor this month is Tando Creative.  Come and join in this months challenge over at Our Creative Corner to be in with a chance of winning a fabulous prize! 

And here for you is a sneak peek of today's spotlight....

If you are interested in finding out what I have made and how it was made then hop 

over to Our Creative Corner

 

Hope to see you over there!

 Happy Crafting 

Laura

 xxx

Smile!

Hi everyone!

      Over at Our Creative Corner it is time for our wonderful Jan to host her first challenge! And she has chosen a lovely subject for us!

What makes you smile 

Close your eyes for a few minutes, relax and think about something that makes you smile..............
It could be a special person, a favourite place, a quote, an incident, the list is endless!
 
Your June challenge is to create something that will make us smile. It could be a scrapbook or journal page, a canvas, a tag, whatever your imagination dictates.

I love this challenge - what makes me smile? Loads of things! How to choose? Now that will be tricky!

I gave this lots of thought and came up with loads of ideas...I could have gone for so many things but in the end I decided to go with two very simple and longtime passions of mine - History and Photography.

When I was studying Photography A Level, part of the course was to study History of Photography and most of the class greeted the idea of discussing the history of photography as a huge bore, but I adored it....I loved the old photographs, the development of the techniques. I think what fascinated me most was the glimpse I saw of a person's life....I was always wondering who, when, where, why....what happened to them?

So this project began with an old photograph...which means the creation definitely makes me smile...

 Old photographs vary in tones and this one is a grey/.brown sepia so that led the way with the colours chosen with me focusing on cool browns - Frayed Burlap, Antique Linen and Walnut Stain.

I got a tag and covered it in Frayed Burlap DI, I wiped it with a damp cloth afterwards to give a mottled aged look.

I then dabbed it with some music and script stamps using Potting Soil Archival ink, and Walnut Stain and Frayed Burlap DI's. I love dabbing stamps with different toned inks across card - building up lots of delicate layers

 I then cut two pieces of pattered paper to layer onto the tag

On top of that I added a postcard I had stamped onto card that had been covered with Frayed Burlap DI. I stamped the postcard detail with Walnut Stain DI - I chose this because it doesn't do as precise a stamp print as Archival ink - instead it gives a more aged look.

 A piece of lace was attached to the bottom of one of the pattered paper pieces and the word Paris was stamped onto card covered in Antique Linen.

 A picture of the Eiffel Tower was cut out of pattered paper along with a section that had script printed onto it.

 I stamped a ticket stub onto card covered in Frayed Burlap DI

 A rose was dabbed with Frayed Burlap DI and stuck into the tag with three leaves that were inked with Antique Linen DI and edged with Walnut Stain DI and then crumpled up to add texture

 An ivory button was added with a hemp string bow

Pieces cut from a filigree metal circle added some metal accents to the tag

Foliage diecuts were inked with Frayed Burlap DS and Antique Linen DI

A strip of calendar tissue tape was almost covered up...!

A beige damask style brad was added to the tag

A doily dabbed with Frayed Burlap DI was stuck onto the top of the tag

 And to finish it all off.....a hemp string bow....

And there is the heavily layered vintage photo inspired creation that I hope will make you smile....

 Why not make something that will make you (or us) smile!

Our wonderful sponsor this month is Tando Creative - You could be the lucky winner of a bundle of Tando goodies if your number is chosen by random.org! Don't forget to come along and see what wonderful things have been made with Tando items this month for the Sponsor Spotlight!

You could be our winner chosen by Jan and appear as our Top Talent! You could also be one of the Top 3 and be featured on our Pinterest board....

Come and share your creations with us at Our Creative Corner this month

Hope to see you there!

Happy Crafting!

Laura 

xxxxxxxxxx