Steampunk Tic-Tac-Toe

How does Steampunk and Tic-Tac-Toe fit together you may wonder? Well we've done it over at SanDee&Amelie's Steampunk challenge. Pick a row (vertical, horizontal, or diagonal) from the board below and create anything you would like as long as it is Steampunk(ish).

We have not 1 but 3 prizes to give away for this challenge. The lovely Retro Kraft Shop, La Blanche and Irish Teddy's are our sponsors. Awesome sauce right? You have to join in to win! 

I used the middle vertical row: Top hat - Metal - Rust. 

If you want the template for the hat and a total step by step on how to create the structure click HERE. 

This is what I started with: beautiful right? 

I cut all my crafters foam and glued it together, then gave it a coat of gesso.

 I then started dry embossing metal foil tape. I used alcohol ink in Pool and Rust along with some generic black ink. Note to self: only use real alcohol ink as the generic black ink kept coming off on my fingers (I fixed this by painting all the foil tape with DecoArt Matte Varnish). I then traced all the panels on the metal foil tape and cute it out while leaving the backing on the foil tape

A lot of the metal foil tape ended up in the trash due to operator (me) error. Oops. Anyway, once the varnish was dry I applied each panel to the top and sides of my hat. 

It was a process but I get 'er done! I outlined all the panels with a black marker to hide the white. Now I am not sure why I painted it white in the first place. Hehehe!

The middle panel was done with a clock embossing folder and I added TH clear crackle to it just for fun. You can see that panel better in the very first picture.

The left side of the hat was embellished with a Create light bulb, film strip, feathers, and half of a gear that was inked with the AI and stamped with a script stamp.

The gears for the top of the hat are Cheery Lynn dies that I painted with a silver metallic paint and added LSG sprays to. 

Hats are really hard to photograph so please excuse the random seeming angles. If anyone has a neat trick to photographing odd shaped art, please let me know. :)

I do so hope you enjoyed this post. And for further enjoyment I have added some lovely pictures of my hat being modeled by some gorgeous and handsome models. These models work for Milk Bones so I was able to reserve them for future posts and modeling gigs as well. 

My Husky, Nanook, modeling my hat. I think he is giving me the "eye"

The new puppy, Keen, wondering how this hat got on his head. :)

Hopefully you have many ideas swirling around in your creative minds and join in with all the fun!  Thanks for stopping by and I look forward to your sweet comments, it sure does brighten my day! Hugs and Carpe Diem! ~Niki

I would really love to share this mini top hat with:

Rhedds Creative Spirit-Anything Goes 

Altered Eclectics-Anything Goes Altered/Mixed Media

Mixed Media World-Masculine/Father's Day

Take Time To Create

Wowzers! Summer is here with a bang as it is 111 degrees Farenheit outside. Thank goodness for air conditioning! I am inside all nice and cool sippin on an iced Caramel Machiatto enjoying my art time, my me time. Know what I mean? Summer means vibrant yellows, blues, greens, and pools so I made this card with that in mind.

The layout for this card was inspired by my friend Georgie (LittleBlueCraftBox) from a Birthday card she sent me. She's such a sweet and talented lady! 

I wanted to enter Linda's CC3 challenge as well because there are only 3 more challenges and I am determined to enter all of the remaining ones. This time around, we’re using Tim’s Layering Stencils for a cool and easy Paint Resist project.  Check out Tim’s tutorial on page 47 of  A Compendium of Curiosities, Vol.3 for the technique instructions because I won't give away the details for this technique. :) 

There is also a rather large prize from Inspiration Emporium up for grabs. They are offering a FIFTY DOLLAR SHOPPING SPREE for one lucky CC3C entrant! Yes please! 

I started with a plain yellowish piece of cardstock and did the Paint Resist technique to create my background. Lovin the twisted citron color! 

I think it turned out awesome sauce! I then started adding my embellies and cheesecloth. The coral and light blue- green chippe reminds me of sea coral so I added it to my underwater ocean type theme. 

I stamped a script stamp on the background to add interest then layered my cheesecloth, flowers and chippie. We all need time to create this summer so this was the perfect sentiment for my card. 

This card is for a crafty friend that creates fantastic cards (Wish some of that would rub off on me for making cards. Lol) Hope she likes it! 

I do hope you have an awesome summer and make plenty of time to create in between pool fun and picnics! Hugz! Carpe Diem! ~Niki

I would love to share this card with these amazing challenges: 

Linda Ledbetters CC3 #31-Paint Resist Technique

Frilly and Funkie-It's Summer!

Runner Dance Art Stamps-June Challenge Use these colors: Sunny/Sand Yellow, Ocean green and Blue

Beyond Grey Challenge #69-Cards Only! 

Little Garden Trellis

Wowzers! If any of you have had tendinitis in your hands, I just wanted to say-I feel your pain! I am a lefty but as all lefty's know, we have to be ambidextrous   That means I use my right hand to cut things, use sprays (mostly both hands at once) and use paper punches. Owwww! I thought it would go away but it has gotten worse. Luckily my husband has a Doctorate in Physical Therapy and is "fixing me". Lol!

I started this last month and only was able to finish it now. Not my usual style but it was fun, and inspired by Sara Emily-my teamie on Anything But Cute. 

I started by putting my base together. It is a Fernli Designs Dimensional wood. You have to glue the sides together and then add the top and bottom. Easy, peasy and so sturdy!

I then added an awesome brick background using some homemade texture paste and a TCW brick stencil.

Many Adirondack ink Dabbers were used to color the brick. Very good deal on these dabbers at Tuesday Morning! 

I then made the trellis from paper leftovers and painted it with gesso, chalky edgers and DI around the edges. 

Here is me piecing it together. Thanks Sara doll! 

I added the trellis to the base with foam dots after weaving some Spanish moss through the trellis. 

The flowers were sprayed with ColorBloom and the leaves were die cut then painted with Eggplant and white crackle paint. My butterfly was stamped onto white cardstock, then I used white embossing powder and a light purple copic marker to color it. Then is was fussy cut.

I added my sentiment with the tiny talkers stickers and edged those with chalk ink as well. 

This would have been much faster to make with 2 functioning hands. Live and learn and get some Physical Therapy! Hehe! 

Many thanks for stopping by and have an awesome week! Hugz to you all! Carpe Diem! ~Niki

This project will be shared with the following lovely challenges:

Anything But a Card-Out and About. In my neck of the woods everyone has hanging baskets full of flowers and my neighbor has this wonder wall trellis that is gorgeous near her front door. Of course the flowers are in bloom and the butterflies are out and about.

Craft Stamper-Take It, Make It Challenge-Take a Texture. I stamped my butterfly and used embossing powder to create the white outline. I also used the texture paste for the brick background.

Sweet Stampin'-Something Old and Something New My something new was creating a paper trellis by hand, my something old was the Fernli base as I have had it in my stash for over 8 months I believe. 

Little Red Wagon-Use It Up. I used my Fernli base and the little flowers that have been in my stash for ages. The moss is older as well but only by a month or two. :)