Crafty Cardmakers Challenge #94: Steampunk

 Firstly I'd like to thank everyone who joined in with my challenge, it was really difficult to choose winners and a Top 5. I'd particularly like to thank the people who shared the inspiration behind their creations, it was a privilege to read your stories.

The new challenge at Crafty Cardmakers is hosted by the lovely Julie and she has chosen the theme "Steampunk."

If you need a bit more idea of what Steampunk is there is a great definition here.

We have two great sponsors for this challenge:

Di's Digistamps 

with a

 $10 gift voucher

and

The Stampman

with a £10 gift voucher for their store

So here is my interpretation of the Steampunk theme.

I created a wall hanging for my nephew. 

The quote is  Oscar Wilde and it's one of my favourites.

Actually this little wall hanging took a lot longer than I was expecting mostly because I change my mind a lot and go with the flow with my mixed media projects. I used a lot of different media here. Paint, DI's (Walnut Stain, Vintage Photo and Old Paper), various stamps, shrink pastic, brads, metal embellishments, grunge board shapes, watch parts, wire and a bulb I stole out of a torch (it was broken).  

I'll be honest, I can't really afford a lot of the Tim Holtz products like his light bulbs, chains and  alchohol inks. So I use my promarkers instead of alchohol inks for changing the colour of metal and try to repurpose things when I can. Also as I've been crafting for years I do have a rather massive stash (most of which I bought whilst I was able to work) which I try to use rather than rushing out to buy new products.

Here are close ups of each frame:

Please ignore the horrible wall paper. One day my craft room will be awesome and look exactly as I envision it.  But at the moment I make do with it's rubbish decor, at least I have a great work space!

I really hope you'll join in with the challenge and make sure you visit the Crafty Cardmakers blog and check out the wonderful inspiration from the DT.

Thanks for popping by and I hope you are well.

Babette

Just a quick post tonight as I'm totally distracted by Horrible Histories, I don't even have the excuse of having children to watch it with, it's just so funny it deserves to be appreaciated by everyone. The songs in particular have been awesome this season, I've been in stitches at most of them.

Anyway, onto my card. I followed the sketch from Sketch N Stash for this card. As always it's a really nice one.

TGF - Blush Babette

Lili of the Valley & Nitwit Papers - Perfect Pair

Ribbon and gems from stash

Roses are hand made

I would like to enter this card into the following challenge:

Sketch N Stash - Challenge #115

A close up. I also added a bit of glitter to the roses, the necklace and her hair clips.

I hope you're having a great evening or weekend. I'm planning to be really lazy and try to catch up on the tv I've had taped since being in hospital. Thanks for popping by my little part of blogland.

Thrill

If you've never played Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan! you'll not have any idea what the title of my post means and you're only  missing out on one of the most awesome DS games ever, so go out and find it! But be warned it is in Japanese so you have to guess what the screen is telling you unless you can read kanji which I can't - but hey I still managed to beat the game.

Anyway enough of my nonsense and onto my card. 

Lili of the Valley - All Our Dreams

Lili of the Valley & Nitwit Papers - Perfect Pair

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Sketch Saturday - Week #262

Totally Gorjuss - Challenge 188: Hey Baby

A little close up

I've recently discovered Pinterest and spent a few hours last night staring at pretty cards and rather fortunately; after mentioning my inability to capture my shading on photos, stumbled across a really good little tutorial by deconstructing jen on photographing your cards which can be found here if you are at all interested. I think I have a way to go but her tips really helped my improve my photos and now I'm going to see if I can find a nice free equivalant to Photoshop so I can mess around even more. Oh and there are also lots of really nice sketches on her blog too which is a plus.

I hope that you're well and thanks for popping by for a visit.

Time for Flying Rockets

After trying out a Tri-Shutter card for the last challenge over at Crafty Cardmakers I wanted to give the style another go. I had an idea of what I wanted to make but could I find the stamps I wanted? Could I 'eckers like. In the disaster area my craft room I spotted the cute stamp set I used instead. It was one of the many gifts my hubbie brought me back from the US of A on his last trip to see his family. This card took several days to make I'm really not that au fait with making fancy fold cards but I think I'll get quicker as I get used to them. 

I have absolutely no idea what this stamp set is called

Art Institute Glitter - Antique Gold 

Papers from stash 

Greeting created on computer

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Passion for Promakers: Week 201 - All That Glitters

Crafts 4 Eternity: R#127 - For the Boys

Any tips on how to capture shading better? 

There is noticable shading on the robot in real life

At least I've managed to capture the shading I did on these two

Also you get to see the awesome multicoloured glitter I used for the flames

Thank for popping by my blog, I'm very grateful for your visit.

Late entry

Do you ever have one of those days where nothing seems to go right crafting wise? It's been like that for me today, it took me ages to choose papers for this card and even now I'm not happy with them. Then to top it off I messed up the first version I coloured of the stamp I've used and had to start over as I really couldn't save my work. Oh well, I think if life is only ever this complicated I shouldn't really complain much.

Lili of the Valley - Messy Messages

Fancy Pants - Off to School

WeRMemory Keepers Washi tape

Liquid Pearls - Lemon Yellow

Buttons and rafia from stash

 I'd like to enter this card into the following challenge:

Sketch Saturday: week #261

The image is coloured with Promarkers and coloured pencils. I even got out my old stamping pens to colour the greeting. They'll now go away again for a really long time as I've somehow got covered in red ink from them, seriously you'd think I was at infant school if you saw the state of me.

 Isn't he adorable?

Right that's it from me I'm going to go sit in the garden and read a book as I've been inside for far too long in my opinion. I'll be back later to catch up with everyone. I hope you have a lovely evening.

 

Cat

As I mentioned the other day I've been trying out new things and after making one card with kraft I wanted to give it another go. I decided to try a different style of colouring this time round. So here is what I came up with. I saw that Come and Get it Challenges is running a challenge called "All about cats". Seriously, how was I not going to join in with that? 

Craft UK - Cats 1

Stmpin' Up - Tiny Tags

Brads and ribbon from stash

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenge:

Come and Get it Challenges - All about cats

This was a really simple card to make, I stamped the image in capuccino adirondack then used aquatone crayons to watercolour it. I layered the main image onto brown card then added the embellishments and that's it - job done.

The image reminds me of how Seth used to look before he lost his tail (and got all super weird due to his diabetes)

Speaking of  Seth he's at the vets all day today for glucose curve testing. Hopefully that will help us work out where to go with the insulin - the hubbie and I are really worried that we're not injecting him properly but I guess we'll find out today if that's the case.

Thanks for visiting and I'd love it if you left a comment I appreciate any tips or critique.

A Little Bit Girly

This is going to be a super quick post as I've been looking after my twin neice and nephew and I'm absolutely knackered. I managed to get into the craft room today but didn't manage to finish what I started as I also had to take Seth to the vets. Poor kitteh is not well and has to go to the vets all day tomorrow for glucose curve monitoring.

So I'm just going to share a card I finished a few days ago, it started off life as an entry to a Farm Fresh Challenge but basically I ran out of time. Then I ignored the card for a bit before finally deciding to finish it off. It still feels a bit unfinished to me but I can't really think of what to add. Anyway, here it is, the main image is paper pieced  I even stamped denim onto blue card for the skirt.

TGF - Hats Off Anya

Marianne Creatables - Chinese Rose

Close up

I'm not entering this one into any challenges as I'm too tired to look any up! Thanks for popping by to visit, your views and comments are always appreaciated.