Steampunk, Hot Air Balloons and Resist Technique

It's about time we had another steampunk card. Another Graphic45 patterned paper pad I fell in love with is Graphic45's Steampunk Debutante. I've nearly used all my patterned papers, but one of them inspired this homemade version using every hot air balloon stamp I could find in my collection and my favourite resist technique:

"Up, Up & Away Resist Background"

Pine Needles Distress Stain is swiped across an A5 sheet of white card until completely covered and left to dry completely. I use distress stain to get a stripy effect, but using ink pads with foam gives a more even look to the colouring, or you could use coloured cardstock if you have the right colour to start with.

Next, each of the stamps is used to stamp clear versamark ink onto the inked card and the stamped images are sprinkled in turn with clear embossing powder before heat-embossing. I normally stamp a couple of images at a time, sprinkle & heat-emboss, then stamp some more so that the ink doesn't dry out between applications. Turning the card to the light helps you to see where the previous stampings are.

When finished, apply Black Soot Distress Ink from a pad with cut 'n' dry foam to get into all the nooks and crannies, colouring the background black and leaving the balloons in that glorious Pine Needles greeny blue.

This sheet of coloured card was used as the background for the following steampunk card. There is a tutorial for the stepper card construction, which is made from black card.

"Steampunk Stepper Card"

Another of my favourite techniques is to diecut embellishments from patterned papers and distress the edges with inks. With such a detailed background, I didn't want to cover too much of it with layers so opted instead for the addition of some diecuts along the "flight" theme.

"The birdie king"

All the embellishments on this card are diecut from scraps of Steampunk Debutante papers. The bird here is edged with metallic aquamarkers and decorated with a self-adhesive gem for an eye. Matching gems are used on the diecut butterflies.

"Happy Birthday Banners"

The diecut banners are stamped in black archival then heat-embossed in clear. This gives a cleaner embossing than using black embossing powders, which often leave little spots where you don't want them!

Ingredients:

Graphic45 8" x 8" paper pad: Steampunk Debutante

Kaisercraft clear stamp set: Up, Up & Away

Creative Expressions unmounted stamp set: Vintage Aviation

Craft Stamper free stamp: Hot air balloon

Paper Artsy Hot Picks stamp set: HP1106

IndigoBlu stamp set: Grand Tour III

Spellbinders Donna Salazar: Mix'd Media Elements

Papermania Hampstead stamp set

Marianne dies: Butterflies

Distress stain: Pine Needles

Distress ink pads: Black Soot, Walnut Stain

Versamark ink pad

embossing powder: Stampendous clear

yellow self-adhesive gems

adhesives: PVA, Pinflair

cardstock: black 300gsm

Entered for the following challenge:
Simon Says Stamp and Show - Favourite Technique
Dream Valley - Diecuts and Punches
Penny Black and More - Whiskers and/or Wings
Stamptacular Sunday - Shape it Up
Sweet Stampin' - Things with Wings