Pastel Steampunk Birthday

Hello again! Today I'm sharing a 5x7 birthday card I made last night for someone very special. I played with Distress ink blending in pastel color/shades, stamping, heat-embossing, masking, coloring and stenciling. I was going for a bold pastel look for this Deep Red Stamps Steampunk Lady which I have owned for about a year but never before used until now -- NBUS!

Papers: Springhill and SU card stocks
Stamps: Deep Red Steampunk Lady, Lawn Fawn Beep Boop Birthday sentiment
Stencils: CC Sheena 7x7 Burst, A Colorful Life 6x9 Petal Overlay
Inks: Distress, Versafine Clair, Versamark
Miscellaneous: Daisy D's Reflection Rub-ons (corner embellishments), Zing! Opaque White embossing powder, Gold and Silver Wink of Stella glitter brush pens

   

I try to always read Julie Gearinger's blog and have been inspired by her goal to eventually use every Split Coast Stampers' sketch. I've been making an effort to use more of them, too, because there is no time deadline and sometimes that's very nice. Plus, there are some very good sketches in the archive and the SCS community is great for sharing (and learning!). I've eyed this sketch from last November for months now, so I was happy to be able to use it since I had a pair of very old black n white deco corner rub-ons I also wanted to use.

I had to Google the rub-ons to find out who made them, they are so old. Daisy D's scrapbooking rub-ons...and they are still moist and good. Plus, they held on beautifully while having ink blended over them. Go figure!

Here's what things looked like after first adhering the rub-ons, then stamping the Lady with VersaMark and heat-embossing with the Zing! powder. You can see part of the mask I stamped and fussy cut to protect the Lady while I inked the background. Those of you who use the Zing! brand, does your powder stink to high heaven like smelly cheese? Mine does. I would assume it's gone bad except...it hasn't. It performs perfectly and once melted does not smell at all. Just gotta wonder why it stinks so badly...

I then masked the Lady and went to blending inks for the background. Then, I colored her face, hair, hat and feathers with ProMarkers, and painted her feathered bodice with Silver Wink of Stella. I painted Gold Wink of Stella over the gears. Afterwards, I realized my mask was a tad hair off and it created a ghosting effect on her profile, but I liked the effect! (It takes a LOT of messing up for me to trash something, heehee).

I stamped the Lawn Fawn sentiment in Versafine Clair Nocturne, ink-distressed the edges and put the top card aside to work on the mat. Sorry, no progress photo, but what I did was stick down the Sheena Burst stencil on a larger piece of card stock and applied Versamark to the card through the stencil. Then I poured on the stinky Zing! ep and heat-embossed. Then I ink-blended in the rays and ink-distressed the edges. Only a half-inch shows all the way around, but I think it gives a very cool pastel look to complement the Lady.

Now for the back of the card. I ink blended and stenciled another piece of card stock, stamped and heat-embossed my custom siggie with some strips leftover from the card front.

This is my attempt at the Stencil Ghosting Technique, which I read about over on Stamplorations'  blog with Deepti posting. I thought, I can do this. Looks so simple. Well, my ghost is really faint! Guess I should have applied more layers of Distress ink, but not wanting to do that, I took the result and used it. Don't really know what I did wrong. Still looks cool! Using! lol

And a final look. I know her coloring's unrealistic and I meant it to be. White embossing isn't usual. I purposefully blended pinks for her face and neck and I love how soft and luminous it is. Also the light bright yellow hair. The stamp is an original so my thought was, why color her ordinary?

Thanks for dropping in to see what my condition my art condition is in! I'm hanging in and still creating! heehee Hope we all have a good week - stay safe and well! XOX

MY CHALLENGES PLAYLIST:
1.  Split Coast Stampers Sketch #776 -- Sketch is shown above
2.  Outlawz Saturday Paper A La Mode 6/20-7/3: Splash of Pink
3.  Rainbow Card Challenge #18: Pastel Rainbow

4.  Crafty Cardmakers #260: Create Your Own Background -- I created a blended ink background layer on top of a stenciled rays base mat.
5.  More Mixed Media June Challenge: AG + Opt. Purple -- I have played the purple option.
6.  Use Your Stuff #401: Free Week
7.  Lil Patch of Crafty Friends #134: AAG
8.  Colour Crazy Craft Challenge Week 24: AG with Colouring -- I used ProMarkers to color my heat-embossed focal image and Distress inks on the background layers.
9.  NBUS #15: AAG -- My NBUS item is the Steampunk Lady stamp
10. Sisterhood of Crafters Stenciling Challenge -- stencils used and process detailed in post