Steampunk Rose

When I saw these  Steampunk Butterfly stamps from Chocolate Baroque I just knew that a set had my name on it!  This card is made using the unusual rose which I love, a corner stamp and also another one which has been used on the background (a fragment reminscent of a rose window).  The main image coloured with Coloursoft pencils was stamped twice so that I could layer up the flowers and leaf; the background was a piece of watercolour paper inked with Distress stains and Adirondack ink, overstamped with the fragment and silver mica powder brushed on before the ink dried.  Pewter WOW embossing powder was used on the rose and on the corners. The main image and the metallic effect piece were cut using  Stampin' Up framelits dies (Sizzix).  A Tim Holtz embossing folder was used to produce the metallic piece which was a scrap of card with aluminium adhesive tape applied (bought from the DIY store).

It has been raining relentlessly here all day - and probably most of last night too, so I made the weather an excuse not to go out but stayed in to play with my new stamps.  Much more fun!!

Technique Tuesday

I was invited to take part in the Technique Tuesday challenge and there is a tutorial over there for this faux tile technique - follow the link to see it and also the work by their design team.  I used another Elusive Images stamp (now Chocolate Baroque), some Tim Holtz vintage shabby background paper and die cuts using up the other half of the Top Note piece which I cut yesterday and also a lattice Memory Box die. The sentiment was produced on the cojmputer and is layered onto an X-cut tag shape also die cut. I can see lots of potential for this idea and will probably be using it again as I'm sure it can look very different depending upon the stamps used.

Make My Monday

This is the final challenge for this year at Make My Monday because they are having a couple of weeks off - well deserved because they have worked hard to bring us some very interesting challenges.  This time they've given us a bingo card choice and I went with the diagonal line of  PATTERNED PAPER, FLOWERS AND WORDS.

The background paper is from a Prima script pad and the die cut piece of patterned paper is a scrap using the Top Note die from Stampin' Up.  The main image is a stampe I've had for a long time but which remains a firm favourite - from Elusive Images (now of course Chocolate Baroque).  It was stamped twice and the daisies were cut out and layered for dimension, colouring done with Distress Inks and Coloursoft pencils.  It is nice to be making something non seasonal for a change and once past the longest day on Friday, hopefully we can start to look forward to the Spring.

Z is for ZIA

For anyone who doesn't know, ZIA is Zentangle Inspired Art - Zentangle is a registered name reserved for the genuine article.  My final tag for the alphatag swap just had to be this because I so enjoy drawing tangles and anyway I was at a loss to think of anything else for which I had something to use which came from Chocolate Baroque.  If you are interested in the  Art of  Zentangle there are several books and also suitable pens available on their website.  I simply stamped the words (Choco Baroque stamp) and then drew some tangles around them before sponging the edges of the tag and adding a ribbon.

Make My Monday

Having completely missed the deadline for the Make My Monday challenge last week I was determined to get my card made in time for this WHITE ON WHITE Christmas card theme.  I used a piece of seasonal music backing paper - Papermania I think from a few years back and then embossed a tree using a cuttlebug embossing folder.  A piece of ribbon and a simple sentiment from chocolate Baroque stamped in grey and there it is - the adornments on the tree are in reality clear irridescent but they look pink on the scan, however we did have the option of adding one colour so maybe this will be OK. Do follow the link and take a look at the lovely cards from their design team.

Noel

How often is it that a card I'm in the middle of working on actually fits a challenge by chance - not often I can assure you but today seems to be my lucky day because this one fits not one but two challenges. I thought it was time I started on a few special Christmas cards (late I know) and when I looked at Hels Sheridan's blog this morning NOEL is the theme of her stamping challenge this week so that one fits and also this week the Make My Monday challenge is to use a favourite flower.  I'm using a bit of licence here because I wouldn't say the poinsettia is my all time favourite but it certainly is my favourite for this time of the year; throw in a bit of steampunk and there's another favourite.  I just hope I'm in time posting for last Monday's challenge.

I started off by colouring some white card using Distress stains (Aged Mahogany and Antique Bronze) and I also did another piece of card using Victorian Velvet and Aged Mahogany to use for the background and sentiment.  The stamps used are from Chocolate Baroque Steampunk Christmas set which I just love and the flowers were stamped onto the card with metallic stain included, embossed with gold powder and cut out.  The NOEL was stamped onto the plainer card and I overstamped the background with poinsettias and snowflakes. All that remains now is to make a nice insert and that is one of my special cards ready to send off - a few more to go so will have to get a move on!!

Would you believe I missed the post for Make My Monday - will definitely have to do better this week

I'm Still Here!

I've been very bad about posting on my blog recently and I really will try harder but sometimes 'things' just get in the way.  I've managed to complete my last two tags for the alphatag swap which has been going on all year and much as I've enjoyed taking part, I am really glad to be down to the final two letters of the alphabet - they were becoming more difficult towards the end.  This one is Y for Yuletide and I've used a lovely tree stamp from Fat Robin set by Chocolate Baroque, stamped onto the background and also stamped onto coloured card, cut out and layered for dimension.  The background of the tag was achieved using Pine Needles Distress ink and Pewter Distressed stain on a glass cutting mat, lightly spritzed with water and then 'mopped up' (technical term!!) with the tag - some stamped snowflakes were added using the same colour ink..  I also did the same with some spare pieces of card and stamped the trees onto that and embossed with silver powder.  Despite searching through my vast collection of stamps I was unable to find one which had the correct word on it so resorted to using Frosty font on the computer.  A piece of matching dyed ribbon was added and that's the 'Y' tag ready.