Steampunk Inspiration

Time is running short on the "No Body Here" challenge at Lost Coast Designs.  You have just today and tomorrow to enter your creation.

I made this card/tag with the challenge in mind. I love the steampunk stamps available at Lost Coast and this mechanical horse is one of my favorites. I smudged up the tag for a bit of a vintage feel.  The background was created by tearing bits of Rinea foiled paper and layering them onto a piece of cardstock. Once the cardstock was covered I ran it through in a gear embossing folder.

I love how it turned out and can't wait to send it on it's way!

Be sure to stop by and add your creation to the challenge -

No Body Here.

Supplies:

Lost Coast Designs - Steampunk Mechanical Horse; Words
Rinea Copper/Gold Glossy; Mocha/Gold Glossy; Silver/Gold Glossy; Ebony/Gold Glossy Foiled Papers
Imagine - VersaFine Clair; Sponge Daubers
Tag
Fibers
Sizzix - Embossing Folder

Altered Trading Coins!

Have you heard about a fun new twist on Altered Trading Cards???  Turn them into a 2.5" circle and you have an Altered Trading Coin!!

Recently a friend posted a video she found on YouTube by Craftyhodges sharing her new Altered Trading Coin creations and it's pretty cool! It looked like so much fun I decided to give it a go.

Now I have to admit I keep all sorts of scraps, mistakes, experiments and other bits of paper because they might come in handy someday.  I am so glad I did because I've started putting them to use by making these coins.

These are cut from the DecoArt Acrylic Pouring Medium experiments that I either poured, swiped or dripped onto 110lb cardstock.

These are failed experiments or cards I wasn't satisfied with.

And these are just "clean up" tags or cardstock pieces that I either stamp off my stamps, pick up medium off of my craft mat, or use up extra medium from stencils and other projects. 

They were all cut into 2.5" circles and this is what I made....

My friends....

(Stamps - Lost Coast Designs)

He's a brave soul...the background is an experiment for a faux leather that I layered on a few different stamps, added the steampunk guy and stamped word.

(Stamps - Lost Coast Designs)

This background is a piece of cardstock that I poured using DecoArt Pouring Medium & Acrylic Paints. I added some sparkles with a bit of glitter.  Mona is stamped directly on the coin using VersaFine Clair ink.

(Stamps - Lost Coast Designs)

This background was pounced into a puddle of "run off" from an acrylic pouring session recently. The steampunk biker was stamped directly onto the panel then colored using a bit of alcohol markers and white gel pen.

Aren't these guys darling?  I won them from the Crafty Nomad's recently week long blog celebration. They are from Crafty Individuals and they are just so sweet. I love them and couldn't wait to use them.

(Stamps - Bunny - Crafty Individual; 

"Dream" - Lost Coast Designs)

The Dream ATC was made on a piece of cardstock that I used DecoArt Acrylic Pouring Medium and Paint which was swiped onto cardstock using a baby wipe. The bunny was stamped using VersaFine Clair then water colored using new paints from Kuretake.  Of course I added a bit of sparkle on his little crown. 

(Stamps - Background - Joy Clair; Bunny - Crafty Individuals

"Wisdom" - Lost Coast Designs)

And finally this background was a piece of cardstock I used to stamp off extra ink from a recent project. That's why there are several different images and lots of colors. It was just a mish-mash but it looks pretty good I think.  The bunny was water colored using the new Kuretake paints.

So, what do you think?  

Pretty cool huh? 

I'm thinkin' these little gems are a swap waiting to happen - LOL!!

Steampunk Inventor Gothic Arch

Last Sunday was Thomas Edison's birthday...he was and in my mind will probably always be one of the great inventors of our time.  In honor of his birthday they named February 11th National Inventors Day and I made this fun Gothic Arch to celebrate them both!

There's a little bit of everything on the arch...vintage ephemera, stamping, die-cuts, Vintage Creative Medium (my favorite), Metallic Creative Medium (Bronze, Silver, Gold and Copper); lots of embossing powders on the Gothic Arch base (red, copper and patina) as well as the fun vintage images.  I love when I can mash 'em all together to make something like this.

If you'd like step by step instructions 

and a complete list of supplies you can find it here - 

Mixed Media Gothic Arch

Happy Valentine's Day Friends!!

First I wanted to share my steampunk inspired Valentine's Day Tag with you!

And I also have a selection of vintage Valentine's Day cards from my collection...

Enjoy!

Hope you all have a lovely day!!

All Geared Up!

My first project of the year... yeah!!  I decided that I was going to get back into projects and alter some of the pieces I've bought over the years.  I don't know about you but when I see a bargain I can't pass it up so needless to say I have LOTS of things in my stash that I want to use.

I decided the first project was going to be something for me! You all know how much I love clocks well as it happens I had a clock kit in my stash.  I was a Walnut Hollow kit that was on clearance at Hobby Lobby a few years back.  (Gotta love Clearance...he's a great guy!)  It was about 1/3rd the regular price!

The kit was how to dry emboss using a plastic template and several different tools (included in the kit).  Well you know me, I don't like to follow directions so I immediately tossed those in the trash and did my own thing ;)

I did figure out why it was so cheap...the glue on the wood piece gave way and popped one of the sides loose.  Luckily the rest of the body was very sturdy so it's just a minor set back.

To help hide the defect I decided to paint the whole thing black...

This not only hides the crack but it will look nice as too!

So I decided that the way they wanted to emboss was WAY too time consuming so I used my fav. cuttlebug embossing fold and embossed a couple pieces of the metal included in the kit.  Please note - the dry embossing technique was very popular many years ago - it was before embossing folders became popular making the technique in the kit pretty much outdated.

I inked the entire panel with Orange Zest StazOn ink,

then went over the high spots with Ganache.

I cut the metal into 1" strips. Poured quite a bit of Aleene's Quick Dry Tacky Glue on the frame which I spread out using my fingers.

I then began laying the strips along the edge - aligning them with the outside edge - the inside edge would be covered by the clock piece so it worked out well this way.

Once the glue dried, I put the clock into the frame...this was no easy task mind you - apparently in addition to the crack, it must have shrunk some too because it was a very tight fit. After the clock was in I trimmed off the excess metal and burnished all of the edges with the paper stump included in the kit.  Finally I glued in the glass piece over the clock and added the battery!  It is now residing on my end-table in the living room.

So, fess up...do you have any kits/projects in your stash that you bought years and years ago???  Please tell me I'm not the only one!