Steampunk Blog Hop

***UPDATED July 5th: Bookmark and ATC giveaway is closed.

Winners are Penny -Bookmark & Elle - ATC. Congrats ladies! Please send me your mailing info so I can get these out to each of you.***

***UPDATE June 23rd: Commenting for Blog Hop prizes has ended. Commenting for my bookmark and ATC giveaway is open until Saturday, July 4th at 11:59 PM.***

Welcome, crafty enthusiasts! It's blog hop time with a spectacular array of steampunk creations with sixteen sponsored prizes up for grabs. My contribution to this sojourn is themed Sea, Land, & Air as I join in with a steampunk inspired bookmark and ATC.

The bookmark base is made from water spritzed and crinkled kraft cardstock topped with Stamperia Mechanical Sea World patterned papers including the glossy accent embellished fussy cut seahorse.

Some distressing with Tim Holtz Distress inks, chipboard gears from Creative Embellishments and cut out letters/words from the Mechanical Sea Worlds packaging completes the main part of the "Free to be Me" bookmark in order for it to maintain its functionality as an actual bookmark. Where I had more freedom to add dimensional pieces was with the "ribbon & charm" part that hangs outside of a book.

Supplies: Mechanical Sea World patterned papers (Stamperia), kraft carstock (CTMH), Glossy Accents, Walnut Stain Tim Holtz Distress Ink, Distress Collage Medium (Ranger), mini gear chipboards (Creative Embellishments), Cerith Seashell Stamp, Ancient Anchor Charm (Emerald Creek Craft Supplies), Timber Brown StazOn inks (Tsukineko), Shrink-It (Aleene's), Natural Hemp Cord (Darice), Tim Holtz Idea-ology Jump Rings (Advantus), glass beads (Misc.)

For that, I used hemp cord tied with glassbeads, a shrink plastic seashell stamped with the Emerald Creek Cerith Seashell stamp and an alcohol ink coloured anchor embellishment. I am so pleased with how this came together and that it is perfect for a steampunk enthusiast's use in a practical way.

Up next is this little up-cycled gem of an ATC. I like to reuse/repurpose what I can in art pieces and this one incorporates corrugated cardboard and shell plastic packaging as key elements in its design. It was an add-on item to my initial intention of just having the bookmark as a stand alone piece for this hop. As I waited for the hop day I wanted to make something that expressed the current world wide reflection of the status quo situation and came up with this. 

The "Unlock the Spirit of Change" ATC starts with a base piece of corrugated expose cardboard topped with a distressed piece of the Stamperia Mechanical Sea World patterned paper. After splattering it with Broken China Distress ink and Vintage Photo Distress inking the edges, I applied Tim Holtz Grit Paste mixed with Burnt Sienna Finnabair Fluid Acrylics through the Crafter's Workshop Mini Specimens stencil.

Supplies: Mechanical Sea World pattern paper (Stamperia), Mini Specimens stencil (The Crafter's Workshop), Finnabair Burnt Sienna Liquid acrylic, Mermaid Teal acrylic paint, Lucky Emerald Antique Brilliance, Ingvild Blome Stamp-N-Add Butterfly Wings (Prima), Tim Holtz Distress Grit Paste, Distress Collage Medium, Broken China, Vintage Photo and Ground Espresso Distress ink, Patina, Pool and Express Alcohol ink, Gold Mixative, Glossy Accents (Rangers), mini gears chipboard (Creative Embellishments), Mod Podge Industrial molds (Plaid), VersaMark ink (Tsukineko), Vega Gold emboss powder (Emerald Creek), Spirit metal tag (Dollarama), Tim Holtz Ideaology Hex Fasteners (Advantus), metal washer (Home Depot), cardboard and plastic packaging (Misc.)

On top of that is a collection of Creative Embellishments Mini Gears chipboard, Industrial Mod Podge molded gears, lock and key coloured with a combination of alcohol inks and Finnabair paint and wax. The butterfly was created from left over plastic shell packaging coloured with Patina and Pool alcohol inks and then heat embossed stamped with a Prima butterfly using Emerald Creeks Vegas Gold Emboss powder. The butterfly is mechanized with an alcohol ink coloured Prima metal wing screw embellishment hopefully giving the illusion that it is wound to fly as it is set free. There is much symbolism in this piece with elements purposely chosen that marry themselves well to express the message through a steampunk theme.

Now onto the give away part...

As for my blog's giveaway... it is both of these creations. Yes, you can become the owner of one of these crafty creations and yes, I am willing to snail mail them internationally so two lucky people can enjoy them. To be entered into my blog's Sea, Land and Air giveaway draw, you simply have to complete these two steps:

1. Be a follower of my blog or my IG account here or become a follower of either and 
2. Leave a comment below on this post stating which you would like to win e.g. ATC, bookmark, or either one.

My blog giveaway ends Saturday, July 4th at 11:59 PM. Please note that this is a different timeline than the Steampunk blog hop sponsored prizes which ends Monday, June 22nd.

As for a chance to win one of the 16 sponsored prizes for our Steampunk Hop - we're proud to say these are small businesses run by artists. Let's show them some love!

1) A Vintage Girl - $20 prize package

2) Angel Dream Crafts - $20 gift certificate (shipping not included)

3) Linda Israel Art - $50 gift certificate (shipping not included)

4) A Matter of Crafts - $20 gift certificate (shipping not included)

5) Expressions Craft - $25 gift certificate (shipping not included)

6) Nellys Artistic Creations - original artwork (see link for examples of her work)

7) Gecko Galz - $25 in digital products

8) Creative Embellishments - $50 (shipping not included)

9) Emerald Creek - $25 gift certificate

10) Electric Pandemonium - choose a $45 original artwork piece (shipping not included)

11) Thompson's Craft Supplies £20 (approx $25) (shipping not included)

12) It's Oddly Appealing - original artwork (see link for examples of her work)

13) The Funkie Junkie Boutique - $25 gift certificate

14) Hobbilicious - £15 (approx $19) (UK shipping free)

15) ITD - prize package worth £25

16) Stamperia - a pizza box prize pack

To have a chance of winning one of the 16 coveted prizes, leave a comment on this post, along with your email address or social media contact (IG, FB, etc) and what country you're from, from now through Monday, June 22nd. Sixteen winners will be picked randomly from all comments left from all of the artist's participating! The winners will be contacted via email/social media so it's important you leave your address/social media contact! Good luck and enjoy the hop!

For your next stop on the Steampunk hop, please head on over to Monica Longard's MonDo Creations.

If you are just beginning the Steampunk Blog Hop with your visit here on my blog, below is the full list of all the inspirational talented makers:

It's Oddly Appealing

Roni - Ink Stained

Krystal Overby - Electric Pandemonium

Crafts From The Fairy Den

Chaitali Dekhtawala 

Nellys Artistic Creations

Jane Austin

Priya Mishra

Archana Sehgal

Bhavani Balaji 

 You Are Here ➽➽➽➽➽ Cassandra - Scrap Savvy Creations

Monica Longard - MonDo Creations

Shraddha

Amy Love's Designs

Kanika Jain

Empire of the Cat

Shwetha's Art

Sonika Agarwal

In Search of my Creative Side

The Journey is the Start

Ina Grehan

Crea-Red
Kim Slade-Fuller 

Orquide'art

Juli Loves Paper

Leslie Lineberry

Linda Simpson

Jessica Larios

Riddhi Jani

Lynne Joncas

Zoe Bateman

Pooja Sharma

Nicole Palos
A Vintage Girl 

A big thank you goes out to Cathy Frailey (owner of Bleeding Art challenge blog and the coming in September Steampunk Challenge blog) for organizing this hop. Be sure to visit all the hop stops for some fun mixed media steampunk creations and be sure to leave some love!

TTFN,

Blessed - Magenta

Hello Crafty Friends! Today, I am up on the Magenta blog with my monthly DT post sharing this mixed media card creation. From my last post, you know that I have been playing with a faux plaster/stone floral mixed media technique with a variety of paste bases.

I started by spreading out some Golden Light Molding Paste on a craft mat. Once it was not sticky to the touch, I spritzed the Script and Postmark stamp with water and then pressed it into the paste in a variety of places. Next, I spritzed and pressed the Poppies stamp into the paste.

Once dry, I added watered down black acrylic paint so it would seep into the script and cracks. After letting it set up a minute or two, I removed the excess off the top surface with a baby wipe. Then, I painted the poppies with Dina Wakley Scribble Sticks using a waterbrush. Once dry, I matted it on a 4" x 6" black card base with a layer of cereal box board to give it a little dimension. Lastly, I added a slightly distressed sticker sentiment.

Supplies: Script and Post and Poppies stamps (Magenta), Light Molding Paste (Golden), black acrylic paint (DecoArts), Dina Wakley Sedona and Olive Scribble Sticks (Ranger), Tim Holtz Big Chat sticker (Advantus), black cardstock (Bazzill), white cardstock card base (Staples)

Once again, I am pleased with how this one turned out. I have two more faux plaster/stone floral paste bases that I have yet to play with. Looking forward to trying them out too.


TTFN,

*****

Magenta products used:

Poppies 


Script and Postmark

Doodle Flower

*****

Bleeding Art May Challenge

Hi crafty friends! I have to start out with a Yeah for mid May! I have been waiting for this day for two months. Today, is my first official post as part of the Bleeding Art Challenge Blog Design Team. We host a monthly mixed media Anything Goes Challenge which draws such a variety of styles from around the world. My inspiration creation for this month's challenge is a faux plaster/stone floral mixed media canvas.

I started by creating a taped off 5 1/2" x 4 1/4" area on a craft mat and then I spread Ranger Texture Paste with a spatula in the space. I let it set up enough that if I could gently touch the surface and it would not lift or move the paste. I then spritzed the Magenta Doodle Flower stamp with water and then pressed the stamp into the paste near the top right section and repeated the process for the bottom left part to create the floral focal point. Next, I took the Script and Postmark stamp and spritzed it with water before pressing it into the surface in multiple places to add dimensional texture interest.

Once it was dry, I coloured it with Tim Holtz Distress Ink products. I spritzed the whole piece with Vintage Photo Distress Spray Stain and then blotted up all the colour on the panel surface leaving it to well in the script, flower outline and post mark impressions. Next, I spritzed the whole thing with Antique Linen Distress Spray Stain. Once it was dry, the Antique Linen was too light so I used a small brush and added some Distress Vintage Collage Medium which also worked to seal the colour. Then, I coloured the flower using Wild Honey Distress Ink for the flower petals and Peeled Paint for the stems and leaves. I decided at that point the the panel background colour didn't provide enough contrast to the flower's colours so I used my fingers to dab on little bits of gesso being careful to stay on the flat surface and not fill any of the cracks. 

While the floral panel was drying, I turned my attention to creating the background base. I covered a 5" x 7" dollar store canvas with black gesso. Once that was dry to touch, I adhered the black tissue paper with collage medium, crinkling and scrunching the tissue as I went along covering the entire canvas. Once the tissue was glued down I then added a coat of the medium on top and set it aside to dry. Once it was dry, it has a bit of a gloss sheen but only in some sections that I wanted to get rid of as well as I wanted the crinkled tissue texture to show more so I simply ran my emboss buddy across it depositing some powder over the surface that did the trick.
 

Now, I was ready to it all together. I adhered the panel with two layers of cereal box board beneath it to pop it up a bit onto the canvas. Next, I created the bloom word strip on my computer using a type writer font for the text in white and word highlight in black and printed it onto cardstock. After cutting it out, I adhered it with Multi Medium Matte to the panel to finish it off.

There you have it... my finished mixed media seasonal panel. I love the vintage antiqued faux stone/plaster cast look that I achieved. I am thinking I will do a series of these and then hang them together in as a collage.

Supplies: Flower and Script and Postmark stamps (Magenta), Texture Paste, Tim Holtz Antique Linen and Vintage Photo Distress Spray Stains, Wild Honey and Peeled Paint Distress Inks, Tim Holtz Distress Collage Medium and Vintage Collage Medium, Multi Medium Matte (Ranger), gesso (Liquitex), canvas (Dollarama), black tissue (misc.)

Head on over to the Bleeding Art Challenge Blog here. As you will see from the design team inspiration, there is an eclectic mix of projects and styles. Such ingenuity and creativity all packed together. The challenge starts mid month and you have a month's time to enter.

Happy Crafting!

TTFN,

A Mother's Love - Guest for the Funkie Junkie Challenge

Hi crafty friends! Today, I am delighted to be sharing a shabby chic card as a Guest Designer over at the Funkie Junkie Boutique Blog for their newest challenge.

I was excited when I learnt that Sarah Emily's theme for this challenge was a Mother's Love.... perfect for a shabby play with Prima pretties using the Apricot Honey collection. I started with a 6" x 4 3/4" piece of the B side of "Tiny Blossoms" patterned paper applied Ranger Opaque Crackle Paste through the Finnabair Tapestry stencil. I then turned to the Prima mold created lock embellishment by brushing on Finnabair heavy white gesso. 

I love up-cycling - finding ways to reuse or re-purpose things in my creations. You might be surprised to learn that I created the lock embellishment from a fiber drink cup holder tray. You can find out how I did that in this post here. 

While both pieces were drying, I began fussy cutting flowers from the "Tiny Blossoms" & "Apricot Honey" patterned paper. Once the paste had dried and done its crackle thing, I added Rose Prima Pastel Confections watercolour paint. When I was happy with the colour density and look, I finished the panel with paint splatters. Using my finger, I dipped it into my watercolouring water, and then picked up some of the Lemonade watercolour paint and dabbed it onto select parts of the gessoed lock embellishment giving it a pretty shabby distressed look. Then, I once again turned my attention back to more fussy cutting along with cutting out a mini card from the "Happiness looks good on you" paper and distressing its edges.

With everything dry, I was ready to start assembling. First, I distressed the edges of the panel and them adhered it to a 6 1/4" x 5" white card base.

Next, I used scrap pieces of cereal box board and glued them down in the centre. Then, on top of that, I arranged and adhered the a layer of the fussy cut flowers along the edges to pop them up a bit for added dimension.

Next, I adhered two more layers of box board to the back of the distressed Love card and glued it into the centre. I filled in any areas with scrap pieces of flowers and leaves. Then, I adhered the lock embellishment, the AC Thickers "Be Kind" rose gold foam glitter letters, the bitty butterfly and added pink tiny glass beads along the edges of the Love card and called it done.

I was so happy with the results! It was such a pleasure to make this card and I want to thank the design team for having me join in. I hope you all enjoyed my take on the challenge and that it inspires you to get messy and create. Here's another look at my completed card.

You can head on over and leave some love on my Guest Designer post here and you can get the challenge details and link up an entry here.

Stay safe and happy crafting!


TTFN,

Texture Filled Tag

If you are like me, you have a stash of started projects. You know those ones that you start, then put aside as more pressing projects come along. Today's tag fits that bill. I had started it for one of Tim Holtz Tag challenges eons ago but hand not finished it. It was bagged up and put in a drawer with the background completed but it still needed all the embellishment details and words added. This week's Simon Says Stamp Monday - Add Some Texture challenge was the perfect time to dig it out and finish it off as it is chock full of various textures.

The burlap base was stenciled with texture paste and coloured with Distress Ink. Next, I adhered the torn piece of patterned paper with gel medium. While that was setting up, I stamped the compass rose onto tissue paper. Then, I collaged it onto the background and inked the edges with distress ink.

Next, I took the scanned and printed photo of a family member and added colour to it to add interest, corner punched the corners and inked the edges. It didn't quite pop enough off the background so backed it with white cardstock. The crinkle ribbon was coloured with Antique Linen spray stain and adhered to the tag prior to adding the diecut, distressed and rolled cardstock flowers and leaves. Then, I adhered a piece of pattern paper to the back of a plastic fragment piece ad fashioned a paperclip into the whole and onto the metal Treasure pin clipping it onto the ribbon. Lastly, I inked the edges of the word strips and adhered them along with the crown and the metal initials and tided off the paper ribbon at the top.

It has been a while since I crafted with my collection of Tim Holtz products, and it was fun to play with them. You can't go wrong when you are inspired by Tim. I really like how this turned out and think it would be fun to make more tags along this vintage vein featuring other family members. Be sure to check out the design team creations over at the Simon Says Stamp Monday -Add Some Texture challenge here.


TTFN,

Card of the Month - Creative Scrapbooker Magazine

*** UPDATE: Yeah! I made it onto Round 2. Voting ends April 12th. ***

Hello fellow crafty friends! Some of you might remember this card that I shared after it came back from being published in the Winter 2018 issue of Creative Scrapbooker Magazine. Well,  Creative Scrapbooker Magazine combed through their past publications and picked cards for their new Card of the Month People's Choice contest. To my surprise, they picked my foiled alcohol ink card as one of the entrants. 

I am so grateful and excited to be chosen for the inaugural match up. There are 5 rounds of voting during the month of April and each round is time sensitive. This contest if just for fun. There is no prize other than the honour of being crowned Card of the Month. It would be so awesome to make it to the top so I am asking if you would please be so kind to go and vote for my card. You will find it in bracket 14 down near the bottom. You can head to their site for voting here.

You can vote in one, a few, or all the brackets. It's up to you. Your email address is used to vote and so you can log on to vote in subsequent rounds. 1st round voting ends April 5th at 11:59 PM EDT. Your vote would be greatly appreciated.

Here is a close up of the card that shows the foil accents and texture details.

Supplies: Silhouette Spring Flowers stamp and alphabet chipboard (Magenta), Yupo paper (Yupo), Tim Holtz Citrus, Pool, Turquoise Alcohol Inks and Blending Solution, Black Soot Archival Ink, Picket Fence Distress Paint, Multi Medium Gel (Ranger), Bora Bora Green foil (Prima), stones (Emerald Creek), cardstock (CTMH)

To make this card, I started with a 3 1/2" x 5" piece of yupo paper which I covered with alcohol blending solution and added drops of Citrus, Pool, and Turquoise alcohol inks in three rows from bottom to the top tilting the card to move the colours around. Once dry, I placed a green foiling sheet over top and burnished it onto the yupo background. Once peeled away, it sticks bits of foil to some of the tacky areas on the background.

From there, I stamped the Magenta Spring Silhouette Flowers with Black Soot Archival ink. Next, I adhered the panel to a white card base. Then, I added the white acrylic painted "You Rock" chipboard sentiment using the Mini Alphabet chipboard letters and added some green foiling to them. Lastly, to complete the card, I glued on some tiny stones along the bottom of the panel.

If you give this technique or silhouette stamp a try, be sure to share it with me. And thanks for voting!

TTFN,

Spring is... Art Journal Page

Today, I am sharing some spring seasonal celebrating with an art journal page inspired by the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Spring Mood Board and Kathy Raccosin's The Daily Marker 30 Day Coloring Challenge. 

Often, if I have an excess of a medium when crafting, I use it up on a blank page in an art journal or on an index card. For today's art journal, I started with just such a page where I had deposited the remaining modeling paste on a pre-gessoed page after applying it over the smallest Duo Flowers mask on this card. Because the Pebeo modeling paste that I had used was rather fluid (owing to its more plaster like texture), I had used the Duo Flower mask as a stamp pressing it down to transfer the paste getting multiple impressions with which I had created a design for future use. Thus, my starting point was to use the outside stencil piece of the mask, aligning it with my previously created impressions and using a Fuschia Inktense watercolour pencil crayon to outline each one.

Then, I activated the crayon by watercolouring each flower with Hot Pink Nuance. Once that was dry, I used the Flowers and Leaves stencil and a Teal Green Inktense watercolour pencil to add in the foliage around the flowers. I activated that crayon by watercolouring with Cerulean Blue Nuance and added a touch of Grass Green Nuance to each one. Next, I used an Apple Green Inktense watercolour pencil and free hand drew in leaves. I then activated those by watercolouring those with Grass Green Nuance. As they were drying, I dipped the watercolour pencil crayon into water and added the now activated Apple Green to the flower centres and darkened the leaves outlines and centre lines. Once all that was dry, I added a really watered down Bright Yellow Nuance to the background and dabbed it up with a paper towel to leave a subtle yellow.

To finish the page off, I added some splatters of Grass Green Nuance and used Copic Opaque White ink to add some further details to the flower centres and the leaves as well as to add splatters to the whole page. I ended up white heat embossing the edges after attempting to paint them with white acrylic paint that didn't really define them enough. Then, I muted the gloss of the emboss by painting over it with Matte Multi Medium Gel.

Lastly, I stamped the quote stamp on a strip of white cardstock with Black Soot Archival ink, trimmed it to size, distressed the edges, and adhered it to the page.

Here is the beautiful mood board put together by Simon Says Stamps Monday Challenge blog's Design Team member, Macarena.

You can check out the challenge details, see the inspirational seasonal creations from their design team, and see other participant entries here.

TTFN,

*****

Magenta products used:

MC41 Flower Duo - set of two Masks

Hot Pink Nuance MNU005

TM216 Flowers and Leaves

Cerulean Blue Nuance MNU011

Grass Green Nuance MNU009

Bright Yellow Nuance MNU002

Robin Williams Quote 2 - 07.921.G