My Steampunk Heart – Mixed Media Valentine’s Card

Hi lovely internet friends!

I started on my Valentine’s cards but with a twist!

Origin of the Idea and Process

This idea was a very simple one, the phrase “my steampunk heart” kept popping into my head so I decided to act on it immediately and make a card.  I knew I wanted to use this 3D die from Tim Holtz but I wanted to grunge it up a bit and make it look a bit distressed and like corroded metal ie rust but not the rust you get on copper, but the rust you get on other metals – dark and gritty looking.

I made my heart from red metallic cardstock, and laid them out on this great red paper from AB Studio, snapping a photo for reference later, before preparing the paper. I’m working on two very different cards at the same time, so the paper on the right is for the second card, so pretend you don’t notice that one for now 🙂

In my IG stories, I showed some photos of some box recycling I was doing, using the cat food boxes to die cut a bunch of letters all at once.

I used three different alphabet dies to cut out multiple letters to use on future projects, or you know, this one right here!

Now because I wanted to treat these letters with various paints and waxes without getting it on my card, I stuck them down on some Sticky Grid to hold them in place while I painted them and left them to dry.

I heat embossed all the little chipboard elements and the heart, using this great Wrought Iron embossing powder from Emerald Creek that I recently bought in a sale and it is AWESOME and turned out to be perfect for this card – I do love it when a plan comes together lol.

After gluing everything in place, I touched up the letters and around the edges of the card with more of the silver wax and that was the card done.

CHALLENGES

I am entering this card in the following challenges:

Country View Challenges – Love
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge – Rust It Up
Bleeding Art – January Challenge
SanDee&amelie’s January 2020 Steampunk Challenge – January Challenge
Funkie Junkie – Tic Tac Toe – I used the diagonal – heat embossing, sentiment, die cuts

PROJECT RECIPE:

AB Studio Red is Bad paper
Tim Holtz Handmade Alphabet Bigz XL die, Faceted Heart die
GSL cogs and gears chipboards
Emerald Creek Wrought Iron embossing powder
Gina K cardstock
Finnabair metallic and liquid acrylic paint, waxes
Nuvo Deluxe adhesive
From stash: cardboard packaging (cat food boxes)