Tech card by a technophobe

Hello crafty peeps and welcome to my crafty nook! I hope you've all had a brilliant weekend, we've had a bit of snow but it hasn't settled fortunately. We're having a few problems with our computer at the moment so if I vanish for a few weeks it's probably because we've taken our hard drive in to be repaired for the THIRD time! I really wish Microsoft would sort Windows 10 out properly, we've had to pay twice for Windows 10 to be installed at a total cost of £140 and I refuse to pay a third time - it's really eating into my craft budget *angry face*. The computer keeps trying to install updates and it seems ok but when it configures (not actually sure what that means) after the restart it goes so far then just freezes onto a blue screen with the microsoft logo on it and nothing happens. We then have to somehow get the computer to restart itself, repair itself, remove the update that it says has failed to fully install and then reboot again. The main problem is it keeps trying to install the stupid update (or a number of stupid updates) and the exact same thing happens again. I don't understand computers - tbh I barely understand my phone but things like this just make me even more of a technophobe, not less of one I'm often tempted to see if kicking the damn thing would make it work properly lol.

Being a technophobe it's quite ironic that the card I'm sharing today features yet more technology, but an iPhone and xBox controller in this case. I've only met my niece's partner once so it was quite hard to know what sort of card to make him for his birthday as I don't really know him. I asked my niece what he liked and got the reply 'computers and xBox and stuff like that', not a huge help but you work with what you've got and luckily I do have an oldish stamp set from Clearly Besotted Stamps which is called "Text Me" that has an iPhone or similar and a wireless controller plus a few 'text speak' stamps. I'm not a huge fan of text speak as I'm sure it's one of the reasons a lot of people are abysmal spellers, language may be continuously evolving but it needs to be intelligible to everyone not just a select few! This isn't even a 'grumpy old woman' rant because one of my friend's is only a few months younger than I am and half the time I can't understand the texts she sends me even when I try to read it out phonetically. I'm particularly not keen on the text speak I've used on this card as it sounds like I'm ecstatic that he's got some high end bathroom fixtures  (bidet!) - I'm sure Michael will like it though 😉

To make this card I started with the background and cut a panel of Bristol Board to 4" x 5 1/2" so that it would leave a border on an A6 card blank. I ink blended a background using Tumbled Glass, Mermaid Lagoon, Salty Ocean and Peacock Feathers - this was my base layer which I further distressed using a distress sprayer filled with water. I dried this off using a heat tool and didn't really like the results so I went over the panel using a bit of Chipped Sapphire, Mermaid Lagoon and Lucky Clover distress inks, again I lightly sprayed with water but blotted it straight away for a more subtle look. I dried it again and put it under my glass mat while I worked on the rest of the card so it could flatten out more. I stamped the controller handset being careful not to ink up the lead using Versafine Onyx Black ink as I wanted a crisp dark image and did the same with the phone but I added the OMG sentiment onto the screen. I dried the images with my heat tool to prevent smearing the ink and then fussy cut the images out. I used a Memento brush pen to go over the edges so there wasn't a distracting white edge where I'd fussy cut and added double sided foam tape to the phone and d/s tape to the controller and put to one side. The distress inked background piece was nicely flattened by this point so I stamped icons from the stamp set using  Memento Tuxedo black ink in a random pattern to make my own bespoke patterned paper. I added this panel to a pre scored card blank from my stash (Dovecraft brand) then added the tech toppers as shown.

I really like the background I made, it appeared a bit splodgy to begin with but the colours smoothed out once it had thoroughly dried. I'd really like to use this Bristol Board with the new Distress Oxides because I've heard many good things about them and I must admit that I've had less trouble blending on Bristol Board then I have on any other card, so I'm very curious to see the Oxides on it but alas I don't own any - yet!

I hope you like my latest creation, I readily admit I find men's cards particularly challenging so I hope I've inspired some of you for your manly makes 😉 Michele and I are planning to resume our joint blog challenge soon using magazine freebies so I hope you'll keep an eye out for that and hopefully join it too. If you have any comments or questions then please leave them in the usual places and I will try to get back to you if needed. Until next time - keep crafting!

Love and crafty hugs,

Sarah xx

Another HOTP Steampunk Card

Hello crafty peeps and welcome to my crafty nook! First of all please excuse any typos that may be present in this post, my cat Jinx has decided to hog the desk so the keyboard is balanced on the edge and resting against my tum! I wouldn't be surprised if the little darling decides to climb on top of either the keyboard or me while I'm writing this. I like to pretend that I'm in charge but in all honesty Jinx rules the flat with a paw of iron lol - we're just his chattels.

Today I'd like to share the Steampunk themed birthday card I made for my wonderful friend Adam, it was made using the same stamp set as the card featured in yesterday's blog post.

Envelope decorated with steampunk corner stamp

Steampunk blended distress ink birthday card

Close up of main image

Inside of card

I started this card by making the card blank from a sheet of Kraft card which I cut down to 11" x 5 1/2". I scored it at 5 1/2" and rounded the corners using a punch. Only one side of this card is Kraft and the other is an off white which makes it perfect for making card blanks out of as it means you don't have to use either a white pen to add your message inside or add a paler coloured insert. For this card though, I did add an insert as I wanted to add a stamped sentiment and the inner surface is rather slick which means the message smudges unless you heat set it. To make the focal image, I cut a sheet of cream card stock to 5" square and stamped the largest stamp from the set in the middle of the card. I then added most of the colour using Distress Inks and a blending tool. I started with Spiced Marmalade and pulled the colour in towards the centre of the card using the blending tool, I concentrated the colour around the image but added a little of it over the clock when the ink was nearly gone from the foam applicator so it's a much paler colour. I added some Fired Brick and finally a little Black Soot around the edges. I then added a little more of each colour until I got the blended look I wanted. I've no idea where I got the cream card from but it is brilliant for ink blending, I don't have a mini round blending tool yet and sometimes I find I have streaks and lines left on my project after I've coloured it in but this card seems to smooth all the colours together with very little skill on my part. Once the inks had thoroughly dried I added some yellow Flex marker to the light bulb. I added a layer of Glossy Accents over the bulb and the seconds indicator on the clock face and put it to one side to dry. While the Glossy Accents was drying I cut another piece of the cream card stock for the inside of the card and removed the corners using a ticket corner punch, I then stamped the sentiment and images as shown using Memento Black Tuxedo ink. I stuck this inside the card using double sided tape. I stamped "Happy Birthday" in the four corners then added the topper to the front of the card using more d/s tape once the Glossy Accents had set. As a final little touch I added a coating of Spectrum Noir Clear Glitter brush marker over the hat band. I made a matching envelope using my We R Memory Keepers Envelope Punch Board.

I really enjoyed making this card but I think if I duplicated it I'd add a thin border of black around the topper just to make it pop a bit more. I'm hoping Adam likes it as it's a bit different to the cards I usually make him. If you have any questions or comments then please leave them in the usual places. I hope you all have a brilliant weekend and until next time - keep crafting!

Love and crafty hugs,

Sarah xxx

p.s. I thought you might like to see a photo of my 'helper'