Little Lavinia’s Flight

This month’s challenge at Simply Steampunk Challenges is ‘frame it’, so that’s exactly what I’ve done with this beautiful image from Simply B Stamps; Little Lavinia.

I altered her a little; I wanted to use a hot air balloon rather than the balloon she was holding for more of the ‘soar’ factor.  I also covered her lollypop with a flower as this is for a colleague’s birthday and she is allergic to sugar.  Then I framed her up to make a little picture.

Won’t you come join us and ‘frame it’ with one of Simply B Stamps' awesome Steampunk images?  You have until 24 May to link up your project.  And for a little more inspiration check out how the rest of the awesome DT have framed their projects and leave them a little love on the way.
Aletha
Donna
Jenny
Kay
Lisa
Louise

Simply Steampunk Challenges
 
Ingredients:

Copics

Skin E000, E000, E00 (E95 cheeks)

Hair E23, E25, E27, E29

Dress R24,R29, R46, R59, R89, C00, C1, C3

Paper

Creative Memories Happy Holiday cardstock sampler

Embellishments

Darice hemp cord

Papermania Chronology decoupage

Prima Sunrise Sunset Vintage Trinkets Mechanical Metal Flowers Roses

Twiddleybitz Flourish Frame 6x6

Stamp

Simply Betty Stamps Little Lavinia

Thanks for stopping by!

Morella Momento

Today’s post is a special one; it’s my first as a design team member for Simply Steampunk Challenges.  And I have a simply gorgeous image to share with you, from the Simply Betty Stamps' Classic Collection Steampunks, The Child of Morella.
 

To remember my time on the design team I am going to make a series of projects to go inside a Graphic 45 altered art box, using each month’s release images.  The box came with a kraft accordion album inside, I’ve just cut the pages so I could embellish them.  On the back of each I’m going to add the details of the post and my ingredient list.

Ingredients:

Copics

Skin E000, E000, E00

Hair E50, E51, E53

Dress B37, B41, B93, B95, B97

Chair R24, R29, R46, R59, R89

Candles C00, C1

Candelabras T2, T3, 0

Flame Y00, Y11, Y13, Y17, Y38, YR16, 0

Furniture E23, E25, E27, E29

Skeleton and shoes 100, T2, T3, T4, T5, T8, T10, Spica Clear and Silver

Floorboards E000, E000, E00, E50, E51, E53

Wall V09, V12, V15, V17,V 91, V93, V95

Paper

Kaisercraft Timeless Collection Fob Watch

American Crafts Black cardstock

Embellishments

CTMH Haunted Assortment gems

Prima Say It in Crystals flourish

Dies

Spellbinders 5x7 Matting Basics A & B
Stamps
Simply B Stamps The Child of Morella
 

Thanks for stopping by!

The A, B, C and G of Steampunk Design

They’ve put out a DT call over at the Simply Steampunk Challenges’ site and I promised myself that if I could make a project in time I would try out.  I figured if I could make a project using at least the required four images this month, given all the birthday cards and other things I’ve had to do, then I could commit to doing so each month so I could try out.  Steampunks represent a real challenge for me, something out of my comfort zone so I really wanted to try as a way of expanding my crafting skills.

Well I did it!

Deciding on my project was easy, when I saw the latest release from Simply Betty Stamps, the Steampunk Classic Collection 6, and the range of “The Letter …” images I immediately thought of flash cards but not like the cute ones they use to teach kids to read their letters but grown up ones, a bit like Roald Dahl’s Revolting Rhymes.  I know Betty has a real Edgar Allan Poe thing happening so I checked these out and found some similar references and then I asked and she confirmed these images were Poe inspired so I had my theme.  So for my Simply Steampunk Challenges’ DT call project, I present my Poe Cards.

The first image I used was the Wood Witch on the box lid.

For my flash cards I selected a colour and a theme that started with the letter featured in the image.   For each card I did a front and a back, the front has the image coloured and the back features just the letter.

So for the first one, The Letter A, the colour is aubergine (OK, so work with me here, I did the best match given my limited Copic collection) and attire, inspired by the Steampunk attire of the woman in the image.  There was no text in the banners on the image I received so I added some based on what I saw in the image, somewhat different to that on the image sample in store.

On to The Letter B, a brown book was the obvious choice given the bookshelf featured in the image.  Again the text had dropped off my image so I made up my own, this time nothing like that on the sample.

The Letter C is getting a bit macabre and far from my usual style, it is all in crimson (the darkest shade is Crimson in the Copic range but yes, I know, the rest is rather pink!) and features a cage made to look like it has been covered in blood over time from the witch’s sacrifices.

Finally we have The Letter G, which had to be green given the image but is shaped like a flower because grass would have been rather boring!  It did ruin the matching of colours and themes to the letters but at least “f” is only one along from “g” in the alphabet.

And, yes, if you think the images look a bit stretched, they are.  Had to elongate them to fit the size of the box and, therefore, cards I made.

Copics used

BV00, BV02, BV08, BV17, BV29

C-100, colourless blender

E30, E31, E33, E35, E37

G000, G00, G02, G05, G07, G28

RV21, RV23, RV29

Thanks for stopping by and wish me luck!

Never Stop Believing

I found out on Friday it was a colleague’s birthday, I also had a really good talk with him on Friday night about staying resilient in the face of obstacles (we’re trying to change culture at work!).  In talking about what each of us did to relax I told him about my crafting and we ended up on the topic of Steampunk, which he’d never heard of.  Guess I can’t blame him there, he is male, just turned 47 and his oldest is still only 9 so a bit young to be into that sort of the thing.  But it did mean that I had my theme for his card and this gorgeous image with the sentiment of ‘Believe’ was just perfect given our discussion about believing in the good that we are trying to do to get us through the hard work of change.

Copic colours used:

Girl W-1, W-3, W-5, W7

Frog B93, B95, B97, G94, G99, YG95

Frame C-1, C-3, C-5

Spica

The image is from Simply Betty’s Steampunk Classic Collection 6 and is called Believe.  To further challenge myself I tried a fairly monochromatic scheme, all warm greys for the girl and cool greys for the frame.  Then just the pop of colour on the frog but still in muted tones to keep with the overall look.  I picked out elements to highlight with Spica glitter pens, mostly the outlines.  There were dots at the top that I couldn’t cut around so I added the tiny gems instead.

There’s a new challenge up at the Simply Steampunk Challenges’ site too, it’s to “distress”.  This is their second challenge, I didn’t have time to enter the first so thought I would go with some distressing and enter this into the challenge.

At first I just cut the background papers and inked the edges but I figured that wasn’t distressed enough so I carefully lifted them and used them for the inside.  The papers are from Bo Bunny’s Enchanted 6x6 stack, they were elegant but not too decorative as I was trying to keep this simple being for a man.  I tore them for a more distressed look and then inked the edges with Black Soot Distress ink.  The black frame is a Nestie cut from the same black cardstock as the card itself.  A few smokey gems in the corners I figured was a nice touch of bling without making it girlie.

I used the same papers inside, the first set rescued from the front, and cut another Nestie frame.  I printed the sentiment on the computer and then traced it onto the card and voila, one finished card.

Won’t you go check out the challenge at Simply Steampunk Challenges and play along?

Thanks for stopping by and taking a look at my card, please leave a comment, I'd love to hear your thoughts :-)