Steampunk Time!

Hi, servus and thanks so much for stopping by today! As always on the fifteenth I am sharing my make for our "Anything Goes - Steampunk/Industrial" mixed media challenge over at SanDee&amelie's Steampunk Challenges alongside with the other lovely ladies from Team B!

I love ATCs (Artist Trading Cards) and APCs (Altered Playing Cards) and found that I haven't been doing any of these lately. Sometimes I just seem to forget about favourite techniques or projects as there are so many new techniques out there that I want to try and learn...but I am not sure anymore that this is what will make me happy in the long run. For quite some time now  I have been feeling I would love to find my "home" and also be able to "come home" as an artist - to my favourite techniques, my favourite colours, themes, formats,...

So I decided to pick up doing the really small formats again and created an APC duo for this month's challenge:

I still had some prepped playing cards in my studio (covered with old book pages on both sides) and what sparked mojo this time was a "stained" card on which I had "cleaned" my palette knife during a different project...

...when I simply had added drops of DecoArt media fluid acrylic paints (English Red Oxide, Cobalt Turquoise Hue and Diarylide Yellow) and dragged them across the surface using a palette knife.

As I try to never waste any paint or other media I had scraped the excess across a third and fourth card (sometimes I do this on simple white scraps of card stock too that I always have ready at my desk...these can be used in so many ways on future projects!)

To soften the edges of the scraped on paint and also tone down some areas, I added a scraped on layer of white DecoArt Americana premium Gesso here and there. As the premium Gesso is very liquid it creates a transparent effect if being applied very thinly (which was exactly what I needed).

Once that had dried, I applied DecoArt media white Crackle Paste in some spots (using a very small palette knife this time). I put the two cards on the heating to speed up the crackling process. 

Using black Staz-On stamping ink I added some images from the Tim Holtz "Dapper" stamp set. 

I had painted two Calico Craft Parts gears and two pieces I had die cut (using the Tim Holtz "Industrial" Sizzix die) with DecoArt Dazzling Metallics "Moss Pearl" and "Teal"...

...and dabbed on a bit of DecoArt media Carbon Black Antiquing Cream with my fingertip to add a bit of a worn look to them. 

The words I wanted to use were stamped onto some yellowed paper from an old magazine and fussy cut. 

When all had dried and was ready, I glued everything in place using matte DecoArt Decou-Page. 

Then I finished up the APCs with some doodling with a white gel pen and washi tape. 

To make the crackles from the paste more visible (and also because I found the cards were still looking too clean) I applied a mix of DecoArt media Raw Umber and Carbon Black Antiquing Creams here and there and wiped back until I was content. 

The finished pair of APCs:

I hope you like them! If you want to get the chance to win a fab bundle of DecoArt media goodness or boozybear steampunk chipboard pieces, simply hop over to the challenge blog, check out the makes of my two wonderful teams to get that mojo flowin' and play along! 

Hope to see you over there!

Hugs and happy crafting!

Claudia

xxx

"Steampunk City" ATCs for SanDee&amelie's Steampunk Challenges

Servus, hi and welcome to the mid-month projects share over at SanDee&amelie's Steampunk Challenges!


The challenge theme is once more "Anything Goes - Steampunk/Industrial" - so you are free to create whatever makes you happy (as long as it meets our few challenge rules of course).

Team B - which I am part of - have again put a lot of love and labour into creating some awesomely inspiring projects for you! And we already have a lot of amazing entries from our wonderful players (not to forget about the fab makes of Team A)...so there's a lot to find and check out over at our challenge blog (and I am so proud of what the small challenge blog that Sandra and I set up four years ago has become!!!)


This time my April project was done using stuff from my latest Tim Holtz haul. ;)

There's a lot of traffic going on on my "Steampunk City" ATCs! Zeppelins are floating by and shiny metal dust flakes from the many factories cloud the air. Gear shaped drones are monitoring everything that happens down in the narrow streets...these are adventurous times for tough steampunk explorers! 

These are actually altered playing cards but very close to ATCs regarding their size and format...

The playing cards were first covered with old book pages on both sides (so they do not warp!) and then blended with various Distress Oxide inks and spritzed with water to activate the oxidizing process.

The Zeppelins (a flonzcraft design) were stamped onto the cards and partially coloured with a white gel pen. 

The "Cityscape" skyline was die cut from Kraft card that I had used the Distress Oxide inks on as well but then had to darken it with walnut stain to make their silhouette pop from the background.

They were glued to the background and outlined with a white gel pen and a black permanent marker. 

I added some of the fab new Tim Holtz "Aristocrat" design tapes to the bottom. 

Then I stamped on some gears (that are meant to be "drones") and doodled on them with the white gel pen too. Afterwards I sprinkled on whatever metal spray inks and paints I had - from gold and "brushed pewter" to opaque white. 

The cards' edges were darkened using black archival stamping ink and a piece of cut'n dry foam. Done!

After seeing the finished APCs I found that it would also have been a cool effect if I had stamped the Zeppelins across the touching cards so they would float by from card to card...guess I will have to do some more... ;)

Thanks for stopping by and I hope to see you over at our challenge blog soon! Please, visit my teamies' blogs and leave them a little love if you are able to spare a second or two!

Hugs and happy crafting!

Claudia

xxx

Altered Playing Card with DecoArt Media Crackle Paint

Hi and servus!

I have another DecoArt tutorial for you today that will go live on the DecoArt Mixed Media Blog (or already has...I never really manage to calculate time zones properly *rollingeyes)! Did you know that when you use DecoArt Media Crackle Paste you can create dimensional projects in no time? Well...check out my project and tutorial!

Here's an image of the finished project, so you know what awaits you over at the Mixed Media Blog:

If you have some left over embellishments you would like to use up, if you want to create but only have little time or if you simply want to get messy (in that specific good, creative way), this is the perfect project for you! I hope you will like my tutorial!

Hugs and happy crafting,

Claudia 

xxx

52 Card Pickup - Session 5

It's been quite some time since I have done any altered playing cards for my 52 cards pickup project. If you don't know that "52 Card Pickup" means, learn more about it here.

This time my group of four cards look a bit less "lighthearted" and "fun"...which mainly is caused by the fact that I have been struggling with constant nervousness and sometimes also panic attacks from out of the blue for the last months. And although I still try not to let it take me down too much, I have reached a point where I can feel the exhaustion quite a lot. (The source for this still isn't found yet, but my doctors and I are getting closer it seems...).

You will find that the quotes I used on these four cards indicate some of the struggle I am in at the moment. But then I think: in that hectic life most of us have they should be helpful to others too sometimes.

#17

#18

#19

#20

Materials used:  Paper Artsy Eclectica Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylics "Chutney", "Chartreuse", "Seaweed" and "Tikka" alongside some scraps from the Prima "Cartographer" paper stash. Washi tape, some Bo Bunny, Kaisercraft and Prima stamps for texture and Distress markers "black soot" and "broken china" to shade in the word tiles and hearts.

Hugs,

Claudia x

52 Card Pick Up - Session 1

Today I gave myself finally a push to start my 52 Card Pick Up deck.

If you don't know what "52 Card Pick Up" is all about take a look at Stephanie Ackerman's site to learn more about her lovely concept HERE.

I love her concept of having a project that - once it is ready - will always stay a source to refer to if you feel down or have lost your mojo. I also love that you can either choose to do one card a week or more in one go (which is what I do as once you have started creating and messing around you can't just stop after one card ;).

I decided to follow Stephanie's order of cards (as she definitely has put a lot of thought into "building up" your very personal project and creativity along with it)...so I started with the cover card and then did the numbers 2 to 4.

As my playing cards are a bit smaller than the ones she uses with her class the design differs a bit...as I use many elements that she used that are one-size...so they take more space on my cards than on hers. But actually this is something that makes my cards more "me" - so I very much like that.

On card No. 2 I ran out of chit chat stickers, so I replaced one word with a stamped one...and think it looks really cool!

This time I managed to work with glitter and NOT having it all over my clothes and place afterwards. What a lucky moment! LOL

I had a wonderful time at my crafting desk stamping, smearing and smudging distress paints, markers, inks and stains, glueing and tearing and working with textures...be assured: my hands did almost look like another finished card afterwards (having glue, scraps of torn bookpages, glitter and paint on them all over...due to a forgotten spot of still wet black acrylic paint on a black piece of craft sheet which I use a palette;).

Thanks for visiting!
Hugs and happy crafting!

Claudia x