Steam punk, dylusions and loads of cogs! (tutorial)

 

Products Used:

 

• Tim Holtz Tag and Bookplates die
• Ranger Dylusions-
• Melted Chocolate
• Squeezed Orange
• Dirty Martini
• Stampendous stamp - Clockworks
• Kanban stamp set - Steampunk, Jasper
• Tim Holtz movers and shapers cogs die
• Stampendous Fran-tage embossing enamel
• aged copper
• aged Taupe
• Distress ink
• vintage photo
• rusty hinge
• crushed olive
• Distress Paint
• antiqued bronze
• tarnished brass
• Tim Holtz stamp - time is a companion quote

 

I have struggled to make fathers day cards over the years because when I make them I want them to reflect my dad, or my dad-in-law or my husband. Same with birthday cards for them. Why are men so hard to create for???

Anyway I had recently visited our local Hobbycraft and every time I went in the last month or so I had seen this gorgeous Kanban stamp set and kept umming and ahhing over it. What would I really use it for? Well this last time I decided I would definitely buy. It was on sale for £5 and I doubted it would be that easy to come by in the future. Unfortunately when I looked for it, it was no longer on the shelves and I thought I had lost my chance. Luckily for me though, a very helpful employee had a look in the back for me and found one!

 

Of course when you get new stamps you have to try them out immediately right? So I stamped all three of the characters in the set onto watercolour paper and painted it with my distress inks.

 

I took my stamp pads in the colours I wanted and pressed them into my splodge mat (or non stick craft sheet) then I used my waterbrush/paintbrush and added a bit of water on the side and mixed with the colour as I needed it.

 

I used vintage photo for his trousers, scarf and hat. I added more colour to where the shadows were and dragged the colour with water only away into the lighter areas to create depth. I did the same with rusty hinge for the jacket and trim on the top hat. I shaded the darker areas with faded jeans and used crushed olive for the jackets trim. I used antique linen for the face and tarnished brass and bronze distress paint for the base as I wanted to give it a slightly more metallic look.

 

I liked the colouring so much that I cut it out to use on a tag with the intention of making it a fathers day topper. Not sure I achieved that but I tried!

 

I sprayed my tag with Dirty Martini, Melted chocolate and squeezed orange. I then water stamped onto the dry tag with my inkadinkado clock works cling stamp to fade it into the background.

 

I used the cogs from the same Kanban stamp set and stamped them around the tag (making sure they would at least partially be visible once  I stuck my character down. I embossed these with fran-tage embossing powder in aged taupe. I love these embossing powders. They look make things look so real!

 

I usually use white embossing powder with my dylusions tags so that the image will stand out. Only here, white really wouldn't have worked with the orange and browns. So I chose gold embossing powder and stamped my tim holtz stamp in the corner. It says:

 

 

 Time is a

companion

that goes

with us

on the journey.

It reminds

us to cherish

each moment

because it

will never

come again.

What we

leave behind

is not as

important

as how we

have lived.

 

What a great quote right? Makes you think.

 

 

After the full background was finished I started playing  with placement. I cut some cogs with my movers and shapers cogs die from Tim Holtz and placed them around my character to find the best fit. I overlapped some and put some on top of the other but I made sure that I wouldn't be covering too much of the cogs that I had stamped earlier. I also had a clock charm that I wanted to incorporate into the tag somewhere so I played with the placement of that as well.

 

 

 

 

Obviously the white cogs wont do so, to make them as realistic as possible, I painted a few of them with tarnished brass distress paint and others with antique bronze which I then coated with fran-tage aged taupe and aged copper. The paint itself when heated starts to bubble so if you aren't after that sort of look then I would chose to use a different base or be careful of how long you heat it. I like the texture so I heated them extra long just to get more bubbled up effects. I actually figured this out by accident one day doing just this. I was a little worried about the bubbles and tried to flatten them a little after it had cooled a tad but it left a sort of pocked mark look which reminded me of hammered metal.

 

Once those were all done (I made more than I was going to use just in case) I placed them back on the tag where I wanted them, again overlapping some but keeping them in a slightly more natural placement, like you would see with actual cogs.

After all the base pieces were stuck on, I positioned my steampunk man at an angle on the tag over the cogs. This did cover most of the background ghost stamping but if you look closely you can still see it. I decided I didn't want the clock charm where I had originally put it. The way the position of the man is the clock would have been stuck right in the middle and would have broken up my 'flow' if you know what I mean. It also would have covered up a lot of the painted detail that I was so proud of. I still wanted it on the tag though because of the time reference in the quote so I attached it with some thin brown satin ribbon at the top. Its a little bit bigger than what would work best but I still like it.

So here is the finished tag! In the end I don't know that this works as a fathers day card for my family in particular. Maybe if I attached it to a card base that had a train coming around a corner???Hmm more thoughts!  Anyway, I hope it gave you some inspiration to create your own steampunk goodness.

 

Have a crafty day!!

 

~Sam.~

In one drop of water… (mini tutorial)

This is just a bit of a quick show off/ mini tutorial on a tag that I made a while back. I am seriously in love with Ryn's stamps and if you haven't heard of her, definitely check her out!

 

Products used:

• Tim Holtz Tag and Bookplates die
• Dylusions ink spray
• Dirty Martini
• Calypso Teal
• Designs by Ryn stamp- water droplets
• Inkylicious stamp - Handwritten script
• Uniball Signo Broad white gel pen

I used one of my ready cut Tags on watercolour paper and sprayed it with Dylusions ink sprays in Dirty martini and Calypso Teal. This combination is definitely one of my favourites.

 

I stamped inkylicious handwritten script stamp in the background with peacock feathers distress ink and then stamped Ryn's water droplets stamp onto the tag at the bottom and top corner with stazon black ink. This is important as it enables me to continue using water on the tag without ruining the detail in this stamp. I used my water brush with water only and 'painted' the inside of each droplet and blotted it with a towel. Dylusions inks are NOT permanent. So when I placed the water on each of these spots, it removed the colour slightly. More depending on how long you let it sit and how many times you repeat the process. Make sure you blot the water away otherwise you wont get as strong of an effect because the inky water will just soak back in.

I wanted to bring my water droplets to life even more so I used my white gel pen (current favourite is Uniball signo broad white gel pen) and emphasized where the highlights would be on the droplets. This made it more look more realistic and like it was really coming off the page.

 

I did not have a sentiment or quote that worked (at least none that I liked) so google search really came in handy here. I knew I wanted something to do with water so I played around searching with different keywords and found a quote that I did like. The stark white of plain card would be too strong on this tag so I chose to stamp my quote on vellum with small individual letter stamps and stazon black ink (vellum after all has a bit of a slick surface and I really didn't want it to smudge). I cut them into strips and positioned each where I wanted and stuck it down using a small amount of permanent tape runner.

 

I had some thin wire that had what looked like clear water drops along it which I had acquired in a swap at some point. I wrapped this around the bottom of the tag to add some dimension. Its a bit hard to see but I still really like it.

 

I finished the tag off with some ric rac ribbon in a similar teal/green colour and done!

I hope once again you got a little bit of inspiration!

Have a crafty day!

Sam.

Dandelion Silhouette

Hi Everyone,

 

This is a my first project for Crafty Genius and I really hope you like it

 

 

This is an A5 Card that I made when I was playing with my dylusions.

 

Using the London Fog and Crushed Grape I spritzed onto Hammer White Card to create a background and then rolled with kitchen roll.

 

I cut the card to size

 

 

I then stamped using the BEAUtanicals dandelion, and then stamped the loose dandelion seeds several more times using Black Soot Distress Ink. When  it was dry I then highlighted with a white inkssentials pen.

 

I then layered the section onto black and then purple standard cardstock.

 

I put that to one side and got a white piece of cardstock and then embossed with the Inkables Offset Dots using my big shot and then cut and layered onto the same purple cardstock.

 

I stuck the embossed layer onto the card using double sided tape keep it flush, and stuck the stamped layer on using double sided foam to add dimension.

 

I love this card as I was a centre stamp and lots of layers and blooms etcetera kind of card maker and it's lovely to do something different.

 

Thanks for Looking I hope you like it.

 

x x Bev x x

www.craftywithsplattitude.blogspot.co.uk

 

Dylusions, Masks & Koi carp

Well now for something completely different. The amazing Sam came to stay with me on Sunday & we went to a crafty get together on Monday which was great fun. She did a demonstration of how to make the glorious tags she makes. Now I'm normally a tidy crafter so this was a bit of a step out of my comfort zone to say the least but wow was it fun! I'll show you the ones I made with her at a different time as now I want to share the ones I made today.

The techniques Sam showed us included spraying with Dylusions, using Masks, using Distress Paints and many many others. Luckily enough my own Dylusions arrived yesterday so I am now able to play. Aren't they pretty! I'm in love already!

Sam had showed us some beautiful techniques with masks and as I don't have any of my own I decided to make some on my trusty Cougar. I had some A4 plastic zipper wallets from Asda in the house & cutting the edge off gave me a nice piece of plastic to work with. It cut beautifully and at only 55p per folder it's a bargain price and I will get 4 masks from it.

Here are the results - this one is Birds Cards Background 1

This fish scales one came out slightly wrong as my cutter stood itself down part way though the cut, but I actually really like the effect so it was a happy accident.

I used tags & sprayed Midnight Blue and Calypso Teal Dylusions through the gaps in the mask. The one on the right has cosmic shimmer spray applied as well.

I also experimented with spraying the whole tag with Midnight Blue & Calypso Teal. I then applied the mask & sprayed cosmic shimmer water thorough the gaps before removing the mask & blotting the tag with some kitchen towel. This removed a bit of the ink from the sprayed areas making them lighter.

The tag on the right was made by taking the sprayed side of the mask & applying it to a plain tag.

This tag was made using Crushed Grape & Cherry Pie Dylusions, placing the other mask over the tag & spraying with water, then dabbing with a piece of kitchen towel.

I like all of the effects & am so pleased I an make my own masks

I had a think for a while about how to complete my tag - this is what I came up with:

I've stamped & embossed a swirl from the Inkadinkado set Dot Flourishes and embossed it with green and holographic embossing powders to make the pond plant.

The sentiment 'I am here for you' is from the Stampin' Up hostess set Occasional Sayings

The Koi are amazing rubber stamps from Designs By Ryn I stamped them, sprayed them with Dylusions, then cut them out & embossed them with clear embossing powder to make them look even more realistic.

I hope you like them. I've had a great time playing & am looking forward to making more. Thanks for the inspiration & tutoring Sam x

Lucy x