My comp entry

Hello crafty peeps and welcome to my crafty nook! I hope you are all well and are prepared for Christmas - I'm not. My copy of Papercraft Essentials arrived today and it's announced it's winner and runners up of the Papercrafter of the Year competition. I haven't got my entry sent back but then it was nearly four months before I got last year's returned and that was in someone else's box with their details scribbled over with a black marker. As I don't want to wait four months until they get around to sending my cards and project back, I thought I'd share them with you now as I took photos before sending it off.

Alice in Wonderland Shadow Box

For the project element of the entry I made an "Alice in Wonderland" themed shadow box. The base is made from a 12" x 12" piece of black card stock and I added panels of embossed black card onto the sides to make the shadow box look wider than it is. I highlighted the embossed areas of the black card with silver gilding wax. I quilled a 3D toadstool and made a mini pack of cards using a heart stamp and rounded the corners with a punch. The roses have been 'painted' red using a Promarker. I stamped and coloured a Docrafts Simply Gorjuss image from their 'Alice' range. The pocket watch was made using a Xcut set of dies and the metal keys and clock pieces were from Papermania. The faux metal frame was from my stash as were the jewels and the little bottle. I added a 'Drink Me' label to the neck of the tiny bottle. I really love the end result and can't wait to get it back so it can have place of pride on my wall.

You've already seen this...

My first card is one I've previously shown and it featured the HOTP steampunk colorist image.

Sorry these pictures aren't very clear - the mirror card is so shiny it effects the focus of the camera and it can't be altered manually as my camera is very basic. This card is very simple but I loved the unusual card fold and decided to do a bit of water colour envelope art to accompany it. The mirror card it embossed using two embossing folders and I added jewels to highlight parts of it. Although it is very 3D it folds completely flat for posting. It isn't the easiest card to make though as you have to align the front and middle panels very carefully otherwise they won't stand upright.

If you have any questions or comments about this post then please leave them in the usual places. I'm working on some Christmas cards and gifts so hopefully I'll be adding another post soon. Until next time - keep crafting!

Love and crafty hugs,

Sarah xxx

HOTP Steampunk Heart Card

Hello crafty peeps and welcome to my crafty nook. A while ago I was really excited to get my hands on one of the Hot Off The Press Colorist Steampunk colouring pads from Craft Stash (I think), I'll be honest with you when you add the £2.99 p&p is was rather an expensive buy but I really really wanted it and it was the last one in stock. It's been sitting on my desk for quite a while mainly because I wanted to hoard it a while but also because I've had a bit of a crafty slump the last week or so. Yesterday (the 18th) was the closing date for the National Cardmaker of the Year competition so I thought it was about time that I got my bum in gear and got on with the POTY entry. I didn't have anything in mind so just decided to have a play and go with the flow. The Steampunk pad was 'looking' at me so I decided to get my ProMarkers out and do a bit of colouring of one of the images and the steampunk heart grabbed my attention.

The uncoloured image

I decided to start on the flames, the example given on the pad is done in purple shades but I got some Sheena Douglass stamps a couple of weeks ago and one of them has a Phoenix rising from the flames and this inspired me to have flame wings behind the clockwork heart. I used three Promarkers to colour the wings; Mandarin, Pumpkin and Gold.

Wing coloured with Mandarin, Pumpkin and Gold Promarkers

Once the wings were coloured I started on the clockwork heart which I coloured in using Poppy and Red. The clock face was coloured with Cool Grey 1 Promarker. I wanted the gears and cogs to look metallic but don't like the effect you get using Metallic Promarkers so used a bronze metallic Gelly Roll Pen. The flourishes were coloured in with gold and the background of the central panel was coloured in using Burnt Umber Promarker. The outer background was coloured in using a black Flexmarker. I added Glossy Accents to the clock face and to the keyhole for a bit of shine and dimension. I added Dovecraft 3D Pearl Effects in Gold onto the ends of the flourish.

Finished Steampunk image

I layered my image onto black cardstock even though the background of the outer part of the image was coloured black because when I layered the image onto gold pearlised card it didn't 'pop'. I then layered it onto gold card,black and gold again. I cut a final square of black card to 7.5" square and added faux gold photo corners to it before adhering it to an 8" x 8" white card blank, I added the main image to this black layer using foam tape. I added splat marks to the whole card using Heidi Swapp Color Shine spray in Gold. I dabbed some of the spray off using kitchen paper for a more defused look. Finally I die cut some gears and cogs using a First Editions die set and added them around the raised panel. Some are flat but some are raised on foam pads.

Please excuse there being so many similar pictures of the card, I've actually started with a migraine as I'm writing this (thank goodness for learning how to touch type - but please excuse any typos!) and I've got the visual disturbances which has left me pretty much blind. It's my own fault, I got really excited about how lovely this card turned out and wanted to blog it straight away instead of going to sleep like a sensible person.

I'm not sure if this quite fulfills the criteria of this week's theme over at Passion for Promarkers which is "All the Trimmings" but I'm going to enter it anyway as I've used a lot of different elements and it has a lot of layers and dimension for me (I'm more a CAS kind of crafter). If it's not up to scratch I'm sure one of the design team will let me know and I'll remove it :)

If you have any questions then please leave them in the usual places and as always - keep crafting!

Love and crafty hugs,

Sarah xxxx