Steampunk Birthday Card

THE BIG REVEAL, PART 1.

This is the first of two posts today.

Many of my regular visitors have been justifiably very frustrated and impatient with me lately because I’ve been working hard on several secret projects that I wasn’t at liberty to reveal until now. With her permission, I can now reveal that I have been making stuff for Shaz. As many of you will know, she is about to undergo major surgery and has been through so much over the past year. She and her lovely hubby share the same birthday and I have made cards for them both, a get well card for her (still under wraps) and a selection of bits and pieces for her to play with once she feels up to being creative again. She opened the parcel on her birthday (14th Aug.) and now that she has received them I can share the making of them with you. Until now, I didn’t want to spoil her surprise as she visits my blog regularly. Throughout my own cancer journey, this wonderful friend has been such an encouragement and support to me, and this is one way I can thank her, and show my own appreciation and support. I know that she would love a visit from you to wish her well for her surgery on 2nd Sept.

I shall be uploading a couple of posts each day over the next few days until all is revealed. Please scroll down for earlier posts.

Steampunk birthday Card

This is my first attempt at a true steampunk design on a card. This card is for Shaz’s hubby. The background of the card is made from some of my faux leather masterboard which is a great background for steampunk.

I found various images online to download, print and cut out to apply to the card. The steampunk man that I found wasn’t really what I wanted, so from other images I gave him a new digital top hat, a digital pince-nez and a digital droopy moustache and then he looked more how I wanted! I added these elements in my photo editing software, and then collected the other images I needed, and resized and arranged them using my desktop publisher, ready for printing.

The gearwheels image had some nice colour in it so I decided to retain this, but the other images I desaturated so that I could hand-tint them myself.

The first step was to dull down the stark whiteness of the card that I printed the images on; I used Antique Linen distress ink and an Inkylicious Ink Duster to give it a more aged appearance.

Because inkjet ink is not waterproof, I did not want to risk painting with water to introduce colour into the images, so I took a fairly small, stiff paintbrush and picked up the colour direct from the ink pads, stippling it onto my craft mat to distribute the colour in the bristles of the brush, and gently hand-tinted the images. I picked colours which would co-ordinate with the coloured gearwheels image: Seedless Preserves, Ripe Persimmon, Spiced Marmalade, and Spun Sugar to introduce a bit of colour into the poor fellow’s pallid cheeks – this doesn’t show up very well on the photo unfortunately – I also added some of this to the pointing hand as well.

After this was done, I sprayed the whole thing with some inkjet fixative. I could have done this first, and then painted the images knowing that the printing would not run, but the fixative leaves a finish which does not take water-based ink very well, and I preferred the subtle tinting from the dry ink anyway.

Before I did any more work on the front of the card, I decided to work on the inside. I usually leave this till the end, and then find that where the card is folded, the distress ink is picked up more, which emphasises the fold line. I thought that if I did all the inking first and then folded the card, I could avoid this problem.

I began by inking the whole surface with Antique Linen distress ink, using an Inkylicious Ink Duster. This again dulled down the stark whiteness of the card and gave it a softer, more vintage look. The next step was to lay down my gearwheels stencil (Carabelle Studio’s art mask “Rouages Steampunk”) and to ink over the top with Tea Dye distress ink, moving the stencil around the edge of the card, and being careful to avoid over-inking the overlap, so that the design appeared more continuous. I also inked over the stencil in a narrower band up the centre of the card, where it would be folded.

After this I went around the edges and up the middle with some Vintage Photo distress ink, again using an Inkylicious Ink Duster. The final touch was to use my blending pad to distress the edges with Black Soot distress ink. Below is a detail photo of the stencilling and distressing.

The trouble is, as I continued to work on the front of the card, I realised that I had not thought ahead sufficiently to realise that I was going to pierce the front of the card with brads, and these would need to be covered up. Read on below to see how I dealt with this problem – a lot more work but worth it in the end.

In the last-but-one photo, you can see the small piece of card that I used to mop up the ink from the craft sheet – I started by spritzing the stencil and laying it down on the card to blot off the ink, and this gave quite a subtle gearwheel pattern once it was dried, but this has been more or less obliterated by subsequent mopping up. The overall colour is subtle browns and greys and I may well add more stencilling later, and make a useable background for another project.

Before working on the front of the card, I inked the edges well with Black Soot distress ink, using a blending pad. This was in case any of the edge showed behind the faux leather, and anyway I didn’t want a hard white edge to the card.

I cut a piece of faux leather from the masterboard a fraction of an inch larger than the card, and lined it up along the top, sticking it down with Scotch Quick-Dry Adhesive, and then trimmed off the excess using my Stanley knife. I had to add a little more glue around the edges in places, to make sure the faux leather was securely adhered all round.

I then started fussy-cutting the printed images. In the picture below you can see the steampunk man, the hot air balloon and the pointing hand all complete, and I am still working on the gearwheels at the top.

Returning to the inside of the card, I found a nice alphabet set online, in the form of vintage typewriter keys which I thought would go well with this theme.

I opened this image in my desktop publisher and chose the letters I wanted, to spell “Happy Birthday.” I added a drop shadow to each one and then saved the image as a png file with transparency.

My original plan was to cut each one out with a circle punch and stick them inside the card. However, having had second thoughts about the inside of the card because of the backs of embellishments, I scanned the inside which I had inked and stencilled, and saved it, with the added bonus that I could also use it for future steampunk or clock cards.

I added the sentiment and as it had transparency the letters appeared with no background, and printed it out ready to attach inside the card.

I collected together various embellishments for the card and laid them out to choose the best arrangement. You can see that I have finished fussy cutting the gearwheel image at the top. Here is a mock-up.

The brads are at present resting upside down in the positions I have chosen for them. The rubber stamp of the hinge was not yet mounted so that had to be attended to before I could complete this card. The metal gearwheels at the bottom were used to create silicone moulds from which I cast Friendly Plastic embellishments, to be stuck down at the bottom of the card, forming a holder for a small tag with the words “happy birthday” on it.

I stamped the hinge with Versamark onto a piece of brown scrap card, using a stamp from the Crafty Individuals set CI-304. These stamps are now all mounted.

I applied a small amount of copper embossing powder randomly, using a soft dry brush, tapped off the excess, and covered the rest with brown distress embossing powder, and heat embossed it.

After this I fussy cut the hinge.

I further embossed it with Versamark and two layers of clear UTEE, using my heat gun.

I added the elements to the card. The paper ones were applied with soft semi-gloss gel medium. I pierced holes for the brads and added them, and then applied the Friendly Plastic gearwheels that I had made, using tacky glue. However, as I suspected, this was not adequate to secure them, so I removed them and reapplied them with Pinflair glue. I made sure that the gearwheels along the bottom right were secured along the bottom edge only, so that the completed embellishment could be used as a holder for the tag.

The hinge was glued down with tacky glue. Once down, I realised that it looked too similar to the semi-gloss brown finish of the faux leather background, so I outlined it with a gold gel pen.

The next step was to make the tag. I took a small piece of the faux leather masterboard and cut and embossed it with a Nestabilities frame die. It’s ages since I used any dies and I had to get out my instructions! I don’t have many dies but should definitely use them more. I like the embossed edge you can get with them.

I heat embossed the “Happy Birthday” sentiment in gold and matted and layered the tag onto a small piece of gold mirror card.

For the back of the tag I took a small scrap of white card and embossed it using the Cuttlebug embossing folder “Clockworks.” I like this embossing folder because the elements on it are quite small and it lends itself well to a small project like this.

I inked it with Vintage Photo distress ink, using a DIY ink blending pad. After this I attached it to the back of the tag with double-sided tape, trimmed off the excess and gently rubbed over the embossed detail with gold gilding wax. I read somewhere that if you want to ensure a really light touch with this, imagine that what you are touching is red hot!

I decided that the printed gearwheels at the top of the card needed embellishing so I chose two Friendly Plastic screw heads from my stash and rubbed on silver gilding wax.

Here they are attached to the card. I stuck them down with Pinflair gel glue.

I found a piece of bronze-coloured chain in my stash of junk jewellery and bits, and attached it to the brad at the top right of the card. In the next photo you can see this chain, and the tag holder made of Friendly Plastic gearwheels glued down onto the card with Pinflair glue. It’s a shame that the camera doesn’t pick up the different metallic colouring of these gearwheels because there is a mixture of gold, silver and copper.

Here is a detail of the Steampunk man with the gearwheels glued down, also using Pinflair glue. You can see the brads to the left.

The next photo shows the tag attached to the chain. I put an eyelet in one corner of the tag, through which I threaded a ring and attached the chain. I didn’t have any jump rings large enough so I made a few by coiling some wire around something of a suitable diameter, and then cut them off with wire clippers.

Here is the back of the tag, attached to the chain.

Here is the card, nearly finished, with the tag on its chain, in place in the tag holder.

All that remained now was to attach some charms to the chain. I added a “made with love” metal charm at the top; a Friendly Plastic key in the middle, and a metal gearwheel at the bottom. Here is the front of the card, complete.

Before attaching the card insert, I inked a piece of card to match the inside of the card and stuck it down on the left-hand side to cover up the back of the embellishments. I left the other side with its existing inking and stencilling.

To complete the card insert, I inked and stencilled the back of the right hand side to match the rest of the card inside.

To finish off the inside of the card insert, I added some Vintage Photo and a little Black Soot distress ink around the edges and attached it to the card using a strip of double-sided tape stuck immediately to the left of the fold. This means that when the card is opened, the insert also opens. If you also attach it to the right of the fold, the card will not fold properly, and it doesn’t need to be attached here because once open, this side of the insert lies flat.

When you stand the card up, the insert does tend to open, which is why I inked and stencilled the back of it. In this picture you can just see the inking and stencilling behind the insert on the right.

The envelope was inked and stencilled to match the card insert. I’m afraid this photo is a bit out of focus.

Finally, I started creating another, larger background sheet by spritzing the clocks stencil and blotting it off several times as before, and then spritzing and mopping up the non-stick craft sheet. If you look carefully you can just make out a few gear wheels. I shall continue to work on both these sheets in due course, possibly adding some more stencilling.

Layering the clock parts and other elements over the printed image, I was able to create some depth and interest in the card, and produce a nice authentic steampunk look which I hope would delight any steampunk enthusiast!

Health Update

I went in for my fifth chemo today – nothing of note to report except it all went well, the port behaved perfectly, and I sat with some very nice people to chat with. I did some of my brainless knitting, some puzzles, and listened to my iPod. As usual I came home feeling the absolute pits but just have to ride the tide and know that it will pass in a week or so. I am now officially over half way through, and after the next one, I will be three-quarters through it! We will have to see how the increased steroid dose they’ve given me helps over the next few days. I’m not enjoying this particular game of snakes and ladders but the game will end in mid-October, and I know that I am going to WIN!!

A Spoily Day

Today I had a day of spoilies as my hubby calls them – he has been waiting to give me a spoily day ever since I’ve felt better after the last chemo, but I’ve been too busy with my mystery projects and had no time to go out.

Our first port of call was the Ricky Grant Day Unit for my bloods (not that that was particularly spoily!). For once I wasn’t kept waiting very long at all, and a nurse I hadn’t seen before called me in, and in no time at all, she had the gripper needle in, the port flushed, and the blood out – I hardly felt a thing! It was the most painless and hassle-free ever. She was very nice (as they all are) and very friendly. I asked her for more of the cow cream and she gave me a new pot, and I handed in my MRSA swabs. Back again tomorrow for chemo session #5.

Last time I was there for my chemo, I got into conversation with a lovely nurse who told me that her husband and her daughter were in the army, in the Royal Engineers. I told her that my grandfather had been in the Royal Engineers in the First World War, and she was very interested in that. Before going today, I had a rummage in my buttons box and found the Royal Engineers uniform buttons I’d inherited from my grandfather with all his other buttons, and took out two to give to her. She was totally overwhelmed and thrilled with this, and said her daughter and husband would be thrilled too – she said I had made her day! Actually her lovely response made my day – it was so touching!

Over a year ago I started making a large album about my dad, but had to set it aside in favour of the smaller one that I wanted to make for our niece. This large album is a project I want to take up again as soon as I can. All I have done so far is the ancestry pages, one of which is about Grandpa in WWI, and I am going to take this page in for the nurse to see tomorrow. On it is one of Grandpa’s buttons!

After this we came home, and made plans about our lunch out. My hubby had suggested we went out for lunch today, and our original plan was to go to our favourite place on the sea front, and then trundle along looking at the sea – it would have been the first time I’d been out on my buggy for months! However, the weather was awful today and it was more like November than August, so we had a change of plan. I asked if he would take me to Hobbycraft in Newton Abbot so I could pick up some of their own brand polyester filling for my angels project – I’ve been recommended this as one of the best around, and it will certainly be better than the awful lumpy stuff I’ve got!

So we went to the Passage House Inn, right down on the River Teign, where we have eaten lots of times in the past. My hubby had the carvery, and I had steak and otter pie – I was a bit worried about eating otters until they reassured me that it was Otter Ale!! It was absolutely delicious. I was very good and didn’t have a pudding – I’ve put on 4 lb in the last fortnight and I’m anxious not to gain too much weight. Although I have abandoned my diet until I’m through all the surgery and chemo, I have been trying at least to maintain my weight at a constant level!

Hobbycraft was brilliant. I hadn’t been before, and there was loads of great stash there! I got my polyester filling and then had a good old rummage through the whole shop. After a while my hubby went and sat in the car to read his book, and I am afraid I succumbed to temptation despite my resolution not to spend any money on more stash this month lol! There’s no hope for me – I’m an addict.

Here is what I bought.

At the back, the polyester filling. Middle row L-R: Tim Holtz tissue tape, Twinkling H2Os (I’ve wanted these for years!), a glue stick, some clippy attaching thingies by Tim Holtz. Front row: 2 packs of fat quarters with small prints to make angel clothes. Love how they are packaged with the ribbons and labels!

I signed up for a loyalty card and got £5 off my order.

In the shop they had quite a few different embossing and die-cutting machines, and I saw the Sizzix Big Shot Plus for the first time – what a dream machine! I am soooo tempted… I have had an old-style Cuttlebug since I started and it works just fine, but it is very small, and the idea of being able to emboss up to A4 is extremely attractive! Has anybody else out there got one, and what do they think? I’m not thinking of doing anything straight away but it did look gorgeous.

Then it was time to come home. I was pretty tired by then, and had a cup of tea and a sleep.

I saw something that amused me today – while I was waiting outside the hospital for my hubby to come with the car after my appointment, I was sitting outside the Physiotherapy Department and through the open door I saw this crutch:

You can see it propped up against the wall in the corner. Anybody using a crutch like that must need physio lol lol!!

WOYWW 323

Well, what do you know, Shoshi is between projects again so nothing interesting on her desk!

At least, what is of most interest to you all, if your comments are anything to go by, is “under wraps.”

My Secret Project is complete, and on its way now. Not many days until the Big Reveal, if you can contain your impatience for a few days more!

If I am going to be a good girl and really disciplined, I have to complete last month’s accounts before a) my next chemo on Friday and b) any new projects, so my desk will remain boring for a few days at least.

Watch this space for photos of my Big Reveal in the next few days, and in the meantime, happy WOYWW everybody, and have a creative and productive week.

Friendly Plastic Wings

A few days ago I made some more of the pairs of wings with a heart from the mould I made from the metal embellishment I got from Ebay. Nice steampunk look! The first one I made had only one, or possibly two, coats of the Dylusions paint on the heart, and this paint is very fluid and I realised it needed further coats.

Over the past couple of days I’ve been adding another coat of paint each time I was passing – they now have 3 coats and are well covered and nice and red, and a final coat of acrylic gloss varnish just on the hearts, and they are looking much better.

The wings actually look more gold than this in real life – it’s strange how poor the camera is in picking up shiny or glittery surfaces. I am pleased with how the hearts have turned out. The wings were just coloured with gold gilding wax (Treasure Gold) over black gesso.

I finished them off by giving the backs a final touching-up coat of black gesso to cover up any bits of red or gold that had crept round the back, and they look nice and neat now.

Here’s the first one I made, with the angel wings from the moulds I made from the very thin metal ones I have.

You can see that the red heart looks a bit duller. It is much improved with more paint and a coat of shiny varnish.

This is a very nice embellishment and I’m glad I made the mould because I can now make as many as I want, and another advantage is that they are a fraction of the weight of the original, which is solid brass.

These were all photographed on my second sheet of A3 faux leather which I kept for photographic backgrounds. Although I made a mistake and painted it with gel medium to give it a semi-gloss finish and it came out rather milky, this doesn’t seem to show too much on the photos so I can still use it. The other faux leather sheet is being used as a masterboard and is being cut up for other projects and already it is quite diminished in size!

The Big Reveal of my mystery projects is just around the corner! Not long to wait now, if you can contain your impatience for a few more days! I’ve been working hard at them and I am well on top of them.

Less than a week to my next chemo – this 3 weeks is flying by at an alarming rate, but at least the time is going quickly and it will soon be October when my chemo comes to an end, and will hopefully signal a fresh start, and a cancer-free life. Spare a thought for all those who do not have such a positive outcome to look forward to on their cancer journey. I count my blessings daily.

Cookies

Is anybody else getting as profoundly irritated as I am with the recent change regarding cookies? Every blog and website that one visits has the cookie warning which obscures the top of the page and you have to click on it to get rid of it – and it appears again if you visit another page on the same blog. I am getting so fed up with this!!! I wish there was a way to click once on some sort of blanket agreement that you accept the use of cookies so that you don’t have to keep doing it again and again and again ad nauseam… it’s driving me NUTS.

WOYWW 322

After my absence last week from desk-hopping (feeling really lousy from my chemo the previous Friday) I am now back in the swing of things (desk-swinging maybe?) and feeling a lot better.

Here is my desk for this week.

I have been having some fun this week with my new Silk Clay. Until last week I’d never heard of this product but our very own Diana (the Velvet Moth herself) suggested it and I looked it up. I have made some wings with it from my shallow wing moulds and it has dried very nicely to a light, rubbery texture, well suited to my requirements. Thank you Diana!

I have also made some more Friendly Plastic wings from my metal embellishment from Ebay (pair of wings with a heart) which are now painted with black gesso, awaiting gilding wax and red acrylic paint. Also on my desk are the metal gear wheels I got from Ebay, and a small bag of Friendly Plastic gear wheels cast from the moulds I made, some moulds (the wings and heart, and my Sculpy face moulds) and my gilding wax.

At the front of the desk, you can see that I am sorting out some embellishments and various other bits and pieces to send to a friend who needs lots of cheering up at the moment.

I’m afraid I still can’t reveal my secret projects to you (you will just have to continue to be be patient, if that is possible lol! – I promise all will be revealed eventually! Believe me, they are on the pull-out unit to the right of the picture, in all their glory, just out of shot, unfortunately!

Have a great week everybody, full of creativity and fun. Happy WOYWW.

Silk Clay, and Some More Friendly Plastic Embellishments

Friendly Plastic

I have made quite a few more Friendly Plastic embellishments from the pair of wings with a heart mould, and also a couple of faces from my Sculpy face mould which I have had for quite a while but not yet used.

I shall use these faces for my angel project. All the wings have now been painted with black gesso and will be finished with gold gilding wax and red acrylic paint as before.

On the left in the photo are some Friendly Plastic embellishments which have been coloured with silver and gold gilding wax. Most of these are from my existing stash. I am currently putting together a small collection of embellishments, die-cuts, paper flowers, backgrounds etc. etc. as a gift for someone who needs a bit of cheering up, and these Friendly Plastic pieces will go in that parcel. On the right you can see the faces mould and the pair of wings with a heart mould.

Silk Clay

The silk clay I ordered has arrived in the post. I ordered a small tub (40g) to try, but because it is so light, there’s plenty in the tub to make quite a few pieces and to experiment. If this is successful, a larger tub is available. Silk clay is a type of self-hardening (air drying) polymer modelling clay which cures to a rubbery, flexible consistency. It can be painted with a variety of media, both water and alcohol based.

There are lots of available colours, but I bought white because I thought it would be more versatile and useful.

From the next picture you can see the consistency of the clay. It is like very soft marshmallow, quite foamy and easily mouldable, and it has a slightly strange, but not unpleasant odour.

After experimenting a bit to find the best way to press this into the mould, I ended up by rolling out a piece quite thin, and then rolling it onto the mould, not worrying about it going over the edges of these very shallow moulds.

I made these moulds from Amazing Mould Putty, a two-part silicone rubber which you mix together and which cures to a flexible rubber after a few minutes. These particular moulds were made from very thin metal angel wings, and have presented me with a problem because the moulds are so shallow, and it is hard to get enough strength without brittleness from the various media I have tried with them. The best results so far have been from Friendly Plastic pellets – a low-melting point plastic, which resulted in quite strong pieces with enough flexibility not to break.

Here is the piece removed from the mould. In order to avoid stretching it, I turned the whole thing over, and gently peeled the mould back from the piece, leaving it on the craft sheet.

It was a simple matter to trim the excess away with scissors. You have to be careful when doing this because if you allow any part of the object to touch another part, it will stick, and when you try and pull it apart, it stretches, ruining the piece and necessitating starting again. The cut away pieces will also stick, so care needs to be taken.

The completed piece.

Several other pieces drying. The drying time varies according to temperature and humidity, I think – I have left them overnight, and in the morning I shall see how flexible they are.

These pieces are very thin, and may not be strong enough to be used alone. I have an idea that the definition of the moulded texture has diminished slightly since being removed from the mould. If they are not strong enough, my plan is to stick them onto a card backing, which I may emboss first for interest.

Watch this space for progress! I am grateful to Diana of Velvet Moth Studio for mentioning this product, which I had not heard of before; this stuff is interesting to work with, and very easy to handle, and I think I may end up adding it to my creative smorgasbord.

Friendly Plastic Embellishments with Gilding Wax

The final step in completing my Friendly Plastic angel wings and steampunk gearwheel embellishments that I made yesterday was to give them a metallic look.

The first step was to paint them with black gesso. I did this front and back, making sure I got well between the teeth of the various gearwheels.

Once they were dry, I applied three colours of gilding wax randomly to the gearwheels: gold, silver and copper, blending them to give an overall metallic effect that was slightly tarnished-looking.

Unfortunately the photo doesn’t really show up the differences in the colour. For the two pairs of angel wings and the heart and wing embellishment, I confined myself to gold gilding wax.

I painted the heart red, using the Dylusions paint in Postbox Red.

The three pairs of wings.

I am extremely pleased with how these turned out, and I shall definitely be making some more.

I have some silk clay on order to experiment with, too, and I am also going to re-try the UTEE method with the addition of some laser acetate sheet to strengthen them.