Hot chick, steampunk style

A friend requested Steampunk cards for her 40th birthday. Even though I like the genre I hadn't exactly tried making stuff myself before but hey, there's a time for everything, right?

Steampunk might be the new steamy hot .. diverse and brilliantly victorian with a twist. Try googling it, or check out my pinterest page for some of my favorites. 

First of all an easy start using one of the excellent artwork from craftsuprint.com - they have lots and lots of designs and mini-kits from a huge number of talented people. Now this was originally veeeeeeery pink and my friend isn't exactly pinkish-fond so I had to turn it slightly more purple before printing.

Lilac card base, regular 12" cardstock folded in half, matted the design on black background paper and taped it in place. The actual design came with a verse, a choice of banners and various decoupage options which made it a cute easily-assembled card. 

Next up the actual birthday "card" - a steampunk hat..

Tip-toe through the tulips

Tulips. Is there a better way to signal that spring is finally around the corner?
Not so fast in Sweden of course, but at least they are a colorful addition to dark and dreary (or snowy and cold) January when the first batches arrive from Holland (where else than from the Land of Tulips)

I've got a dear friend who adores tulips and also has her birthday in January, So of course she gets masses of tulips in all shapes.

To the left is the 2015 version of my tulip card for her. Nothing exceptional, a regular easel card based on cream cardstock, lined with soft spring green cardstock and a pretty victorian tulip paper with a boquet so nicely placed for the main focal point.

Dies from Joanna Sheen (those leafy dies are so pretty!), border made with a Martha Stewart punch.

Doily, a wooden heart-shaped button and some bling to complete the card.

The gift placed inside the fold was of course a gift card at a scrapbooking web shop :-)

To the right is last year's card. Also a regular easel card. Neat and easy.

I was temporarily out of tulip paper (!) so went to craftsuprint.com, an excellent resource for all kinds of cards and craft projects You download and pay for the designs you want to use (prices from 0,20 and up), and once donwloaded they can be used as many times as you like.



As one of my favorite authors would say..

"But I have always thought that these tulips must have had names. They were red, and orange and red, and red and orange and yellow, like the ember in a nursery fire of a winter's evening. I remember them" - Neil Gaiman in Coraline