31 Days of Halloween - Day 30

Wow! Welcome to the penultimate day on the wonderful Smeared and Smudged bloghop - 31 Days of Halloween!!  If you haven't already do visit the other Wicked Bloggers following the links on my sidebar.

Today's offering is a pair of steampunk vampires, showcased on Tim Holt's die-cut cabinet cards.

 I've cut 4 of the cabinet cards - 2 for the front and 2 for the back - and used Tim's Coloured Crackle technique - as shown in his Compendium of Curiosities III - page 53.  I cant share the steps of this process as it is the focus for the latest CC3C organised by Linda Ledbetter which you can find here http://lindaledbetter.com/2014/10/compendium-of-curiosities-3-challenge-14.html . I think it gives an authentic worn leather look when shown in the browns I have used, but it's amazing how different it can look in different colours.

The centerpieces are a pair of free digi stamps that I got here http://craftymomentscardmaking.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/steampunk-vampire-digis.html.  I've coloured them with promarkers but kept the colours quite muted to give them an older look.

As I am wanting to enter this into the CC3C challenge mentioned above I decided to have a look at the requirements of the other fabulous Tim Holt themed challenge site - A Vintage Journey - and found that the current theme is Halloween using Tim's die-cuts - bonus!!  So as its been a while since I've entered either I thought I would combine the two.

I wanted to use slightly 3d embellishments so i die-cut some of Tim's cogs from black cardstock and then went over them with a metallic bronze pen.  I have also added some of Finnabair's mechanicals and a small Prima rose which I've also highlighted bronze.

I really like the finished project and hope that you do too!

Thanks for reading

Stefanie xx

I would like to enter this into the following challenges:

Compendium of Curiosities 3 - Challenge 14 - here http://lindaledbetter.com/2014/10/compendium-of-curiosities-3-challenge-14.html

A Vintage Journey - Challenge 17 Halloween to Die For - here http://www.vintagejourney.com/2014/10/challenge-17-halloween-to-die-for.html

Altered Eclectics = October challenge - here http://alteredeclectics.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/another-month-another-challenge.html

and

Opus Gluei - Challenge 194 Ghostly Goings On - here  http://opus-gluei.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/challenge-194-ghostly-goings-on.html

A bit of texturing - Tim Holtz style!!

I wanted to share this tag with you as I'm practicing my tags to get a bit braver with them! As I recently got some texture pastes and I'd only used them once I thought it was about time to give them another go.  The best thing is that this fits in well with four crafty challenges: A Vintage Journey - Get Some Texture; Compendium of Curiosities 3 - Challenge 4 (CC3C); Crafty Individuals - Tag You're It!; and That's Crafty - It's All About Texture.

The first step was to use Tim's 'Layered Stencil' technique with the aforementioned texture paste - I can't share this technique with you as in line with the CC3C rules I need to refer you to Tim's third installment of the Compendium of Curiosities - this technique is on page 49.  I did use a variety of stamps to shadow stamp the background of the tag - including some Crafty Individuals ones.

This I then overlayed with two ovals on which I've used another of Tim's texture techniques - this time Crumpled Kraft Suede (page 40 in Compendium of Curiosities 2!).  I stamped these with a sentiment from my ever growing collection of Tim's stamps and a little heart.

A beautiful spray of flowers and a word band and it's all finished!

I'm really pleased with myself for venturing into the unknown!!

I would like to enter this into the following challenges:

Compendium of Challenges 3 - Challenge 4 Layered Stencil technique - here http://lindaledbetter.com/2014/06/compendium-of-curiosities-3-challenge-4.html

A Vintage Journey - Get Some Texture - here http://www.vintagejourney.com/2014/05/challenge-7-get-some-texture.html

Crafty Individuals - Tag You're It! - here http://craftyindividualsblog.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/we-challenge-you-in-june-to-play-tag.html

and

That's Crafty - It's All About Texture - here http://thatscraftychallenges.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/its-all-about-texture-challenge.html

Thanks for reading!
Stefanie xx