"S" IS FOR STEAMPUNK STYLE SQUASH CARD

Hello and welcome to my blog! It's Monday.  
That means it's time for a new challenge at Simon Says Stamp and Show.  This week....Simon Says "S" is for ???  Oh the possibilities!  How about stars...or stenciling...or stamping...or spritzing...or spraying?  Or ....

How about a SQUARE STEAMPUNK STYLE SPRITZED and STAMPED SQUASH CARD?  Is THAT enough "S's" for you? haha

There is hardly any dimension on the interior, because the card has to close flat.  But, there sure is a whole lot of steampunk style dimensional fun on the exterior!

This card began with two 5" square chipboard pieces that I covered with regular book text.  I then distressed the pages using first Scattered Straw followed by Peacock Feathers and then edged with Gathered Twigs Distress Inks.  After I blended all of my colors together, I used Tim Holtz' spritz and flick method to further age the covers.  

Next I used Ranger's Craft Glue Stick on a resist technique to add some subtle random dots onto the covers.  I rubbed the glue stick onto the dots from Tim Holtz' Mixed Media stamp set and then randomly stamped the dots (not using an acrylic block-just holding the stamp in my hand).  Always wash your stamp immediately after stamping with glue to remove any of the residue from your stamps!  Then I lightly heat set the glue and then rubbed more Gathered Twigs over the stamped polka dots.  They magically appear in sort of a ghostly fashion!  Next I took the scratchy lines from the same stamp set, inked them with Jet Black Archival Ink and, using the same stamping method, randomly stamped some sketchy lines on the covers.   

To create the interior for this card, I cut a piece of textured black cardstock in a 10" square.  I folded the cardstock over in half, being sure that my edges were together so that my folded areas would remain square in the end.  Then I turned my 10" square a quarter turn and folded it in half again.  Now I had four equal squares with the one large 10" square.  Next I took one of the corners and folded it DIAGONALLY across the 10" square.  That is all you do to create the interior of the card.  Then I took the two corners of the cardstock that had also had the diagonal fold and sort of pushed them up together to create outside squares of 5" each and then interior housing the diagonally folded areas.

Once that was done, I made sure that the open points of the diagonal were in the lower right hand corner between the two 5" squares.  Then I glued the back side of what would be my top cover and glued it in place on top of the 5" flat square.  I turned the card over and glued the back side of the remaining chipboard cover and then glued it in place on directly on top of the 5" flat square that would be the back of the card.  Next I needed to embellish the interior of the card before I did any dimensional work on the cover of the card.

  

I cut two pieces of plain kraft paper into 4 1/2" squares and using 1/4" Scor Tape, I positioned them onto the upper left and lower right squares of my card interior.  You can also cover the diagonal areas and embellish them, but for this card, I chose to leave them blank until this card has a specific person I'll be sending it to.

In the upper left square, I created a frame using one of my favorites of Tim's Elements Tissue Tape...the black measuring tape.  I lightly swiped over it using a Wild Honey Distress Marker, to add just a touch of color.  In the interior of this area, I lightly added little smudges of Black Soot Distress Ink and then stamped the blueprint hand image from Tim Holtz' Ringmaster Blueprints stamp set.  I think it went well with the pointing hand tissue tape from Elements that I used to make a frame on the other square.) More about that square in a minute.)  Then I took just the word "life" from Tim's Simple Sayings stamp set and stamped it onto a piece of cardstock, cut it out and glued it in the center of the hand.  Below that, I added the sentiment (also from Simple Sayings) "Enjoy The Journey".  I stamped the frame onto the kraft paper and then stamped it again on to a piece of cardstock.  I then stamped the phrase and cut it out, leaving leaving a slight edge so that when I glued it on top of the kraft image, the kraft paper would show.  

Next I did the bottom right square.  When you're doing a card like this, you really can't have a lot of dimension on the interior of the card and have it close properly; so I tried to add some details and interest through stamping and bits of color here and there.  The bottom frame was colored with Mustard Seed (background), Broken China (sleeve), Scattered Straw (shirt cuff) and Milled Lavender (hand) Distress Markers.  I then drew a thin black line on either side of the tissue tape.  I stamped the sentiment from Tim Holtz' "Way With Words" stamp set in the center of the frame.  I stamped "LIFE" again on cardstock and lightly inked behind it with Fired Brick Distress Ink.  I cut it out, edged it with a Black Soot Distress Marker and glued it directly on top of the word "LIFE" that was stamped onto the kraft paper.  Next I stamped the circle stars onto cardstock and lightly colorized them using Tim's Detailer Water Brush and Fired Brick.  I punched them out using a 3/4" rounc paper punch and glued them in place on the corners.  Now that my interior was finished, I could concentrate on the exterior of my card...and something that I love to do, add dimension!!!

The exterior of this card was made using the largest of the gears from Wendy Vecchi's Art Part Steampunk Gears and More.  I kept dabbing it with first a Gold and then a Silver Paint Dabber until I got the desired texture and color.  Then I lightly swiped over the gear with Chestnut Roan ink followed by a touch of Black Soot.  Pretty cool finish!  But, I wanted to add something under the openings in the gear.  How about Tim Holtz' tiny vintage images from his New Tiny Things stamp set?  Love them!!  So, I laid the gear down on top of a piece of cardstock and penciled around the interior of it, so I'd know where the windows would be.  Next I stamped various images (using Jet Black Archival Ink) into the windows and heat set them.  Then I distressed each of the windows with Gathered Twigs and a touch of Black Soot around the edges.  Next I cut out a piece of clear acetate to lay on top of the stamped images and added a bead of Glossy Accents along the areas that would be covered with the Art Parts Gear.  Then I glued the Art Parts Gear on top of the acetate and stamped images.  Next, I added the Sprocket from Tim Holtz Sprocket Gears Ideaology set in the center of the large gear and added a small Clock Key on top.  I used Glossy Accents to glue all of that in place and set it to the side to thoroughly dry.

I created a dimensional woodedn looking measure tape from Tim Holtz' Artful Tools stamp set.  I first colored some Specialty Stamping Paper with Scattered Straw Distress Stain and heat set it dry.  Then I stamped the measuring tape background stamp and cut it apart.  I cut 1/2" strips of chipboard and colored them using Gathered Twigs Distress Ink.  I distressed the measuring tape pieces with Chestnut Roan and a touch of Black Soot at the edges and glued them into place on the distressed chipboard pieces using 1/4" Scor Tape.  

Then I laid them into almost a square frame shape and glued them in place on top of the card.  When the gear was dry, I added pop dots to the underside of it and glued it in place.  

Finally, I created little dimensional corner pieces using most Mini Gears and one regular size Sprocket Gears thrown in.  I wired them together and glued them into place using Glossy Accents.  

So there is my "take" on Simon Says Stamp and Show's challenge for something starting with "S".  I hope that I've inspired you to created something really "Sssssensational!"   Then enter it into our challenge.  You could be the lucky winner of our most generous sponsor's random weekly drawing of a 

$50.00 credit voucher.  And...you might be named as one of the TOP THREE entries for the week!  That is a very nice special recognition for outstanding art!  So, good luck and I'm really looking forward to seeing what you come up with for this week's challenge!

Here are the amazing products available at Simon Says Stamp that were used in creating this funky Steampunk style card:

 

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