Foamboard die-cuts & Steampunk Card

I found a huge A1 sheet of foamboard for £2.99 in "The Works" this week, and have had some fun playing with it. It's hard to cut with scissors, but easy with a craft knife. The first thing I tried was to slice off a 6" strip. Just the right width for a die-cutting machine, and trying it out I found I was able to cut it pretty successfully using the Sizzix Bigz dies. The great thing about foamboard is that it squashes nearly flat in the machine, then springs out to full thickness once it's passed through, so once you've got the die started in the machine it goes through easily.

"Foamboard diecuts"

These are a good 4mm thick and make a great, cheap alternative to chipboard. You can either cut thin paper diecuts to decorate and stick them on top, or decorate them directly using alcohol inks or picket fence distress ink plus colours on top, or in any number of ways. The gears and weathered clock diecuts above have been dabbed with Adirondack gold mixative, the globe & bird were decorated with distress inks. So, once you have your diecuts, what do you do with them?

"Steampunk Parallel World"

These foamboard Townscape & Gadget Gear diecuts were used to add some dimension to a steampunk card. The background is inked with distress inks and overstamped in the same colours with a couple of the stamped images brushed with Perfect Pearls for a little added shine.

"Foamboard Townscape"

The townscape diecut was first dabbed with Pearl mixative to lighten the background colour and give a metallic sheen, then different colours of alcohol inks were dabbed onto each house. The black foamboard background makes the colours quite dark and leaves the houses looking brilliantly grimy and grungy. Mixed colours were dabbed onto the bottom edge.

"Sentiment"

The sentiment and main image were stamped in black archival ink and heat embossed in clear.

"Main image"

The mad professor was decorated with distress markers and watch parts adhered to add some dimension to the transportation contraption. My big thanks to my very talented friend Lee aka Craftyloops for the brilliant bag of watch parts she sent me, they are fabulous! Apologies for the reflection in the photographs, the light is sadly lacking today.

"Dimension"

This side-on view shows all that yummy dimension from the foamboard diecuts.

Ingredients:

Sizzix Bigz Dies, including Tim Holtz' Gadget Gears

Sizzix On the Edge Dies, including Tim Holtz' Townscape

Sizzix Originals Dies

Paper Artsy Hot Picks stamp set HP1106

Technique Tuesday stamp set: Get in Gear

Distress Inks & Markers: various colours

Adirondack Alcohol Inks and Pearl & Gold Mixatives

Archival Ink: Jet Black

embossing powder: Stampendous Detail Clear

watch parts

Adhesives: Pinflair dimensional glue, glossy accents, PVA

Entered for the following challenge:
Hotshot Crafts - Diecuts
Stempelssone - Headgear
Do You Stack Up? - Landscapes
Paperplay challenges - Destruction
Just Keep on Creating - Anything Goes
Truly Scrumptious - Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp and Show - Anything Goes