You Have My (Steampunk) Heart

Hi everyone, today is my dear husband’s birthday so I would like to share the card I made for him, using some stamps from the latest Lavinia release which I bought during my recent jaunt to the Lavinia shop. Today’s card is a bit of a mash up of inspiration from a couple of Jo Rice tutorials along with one or two of my own ideas, and a few adjustments to cater to the stash I have available. 

As soon as I saw Jo’s tutorial Steampunk Romance I knew I wanted to use the 3D heart idea for this birthday card, but as I always make him an 8” square card I opted for the large size heart rather than the small one. 

I cut a 6” square of white stamping card and created a faux wood grain background by dragging Distress Oxide ink pads across the page. Jo recommended 2 shades (Lost Shadow and Vintage Photo) but this time I added a third into the mix - Stormy Sky - which I felt really added to the driftwood vibe. I lightly stencilled over some areas with more Stormy Sky and Vintage Photo DOX and the beautiful “Divine” stencil, then stamped the heart in Twilight Versafine Clair.  As I was going to cover my base heart, I then did some more background stamping using the lovely “Background Script” stamp which has hearts in amongst the text, and a new texture stamp around the edges. I stamped a variety of cogs around the heart using various colours of VFC and 1st/2nd generation stamping to give some depth, then stamped a couple of cogs in 2 corners using Versamark and heat embossed with copper embossing powder.  I blended some Uncharted Mariner DOX around one side of the heart to add shadow and Vintage Photo DOX around the edges to add depth, and edged with gilding polish to add some sheen. I added some white Posca pen spatter then matted onto dark brown card stock  with a metallic sheen and pearlescent blue card stock, then my card base.

I made a 3D heart following the basic steps in Jo’s tutorial but with some variations in the inks used and decoration. I stamped the large heart 4 times using Twilight VFC and heat embossed - this was so that I could colour with Distress Oxide inks without covering the stamped detail.  I coloured the hearts with blended Uncharted Mariner DOX leaving them lighter towards the centre, and coloured the cog detail on each one with a Copper Sakura Stardust pen. I scored 3 of the hearts and glued them together to form “wings” then added some faux spatter using a white gel pen (real spattering would have been too messy and unpredictable), attached it to the card front then stamped the sentiment onto separate card, cut out and attached. I don’t actually own a birthday sentiment in an appropriate font for this style, so I used this AALl & Create sentiment which is a fab vintage typewriter font.

Before attaching my image panel to the card base I also decorated the inside of the card by stencilling, and stamping a small heart.  I deliberately didn’t decorate the envelope this time, as I didn’t want to give any clues as to what the card inside looked like!

I can honestly say this card took hours to make, but I’m very happy with the end result and really hope my husband will like it! I'm absolutely thrilled with the results I'm getting with the new Lavinia stamps, and think I will be using them regularly in future.

Stamps: Lavinia Heart Large, Heart Small, Cog Set 2, Cog Set 3, Background Script, Texture 2; sentiment - AALl & Create #531 Textured Florals;

Media: Tim Holtz Distress Oxide inks (Uncharted Mariner, Stormy Sky, Vintage Photo, Lost Shadow); Versafine Clair (Twilight, Pinecone, Warm Breeze, Morning Mist); Versafine (Vintage Sepia); Versamark; clear and detail copper embossing powders; Cosmic Shimmer gilding polish (Warm Copper); Sakura Stardust pen (copper); Posca pen (white);

Tools: Lavinia stencil - Divine.

Challenges I would like to enter:

Country View Challenges (March) - Birthday Card For a Man - TOP 3

Crazy Is Our Fame, Stencils Are Our Game (March) - Use a Stencil - TOP 3

Happy Little Stampers: Birthday (March) - Anything Birthday Goes

Happy Little Stampers: Stencils (March) - Anything Goes With a Stencil

Mix It Up #64 - Anything Goes with option Distressing

Mixed Media Lovers #23 - Focal Point (2nd entry) - TOP 3

My Time to Craft #503 - Birthday

Sparkles #161 - For Men Only - TOP 3

Word Art Wednesday #585/586 - Anything Goes (5th entry) - TOP 3

My husband is in work today, so yesterday I baked him a chocolate cake with chocolate orange icing to take in for his colleagues (but with strict instructions he needs to cut me a piece!!). We’re not doing anything particularly special for the “birthday boy” this evening as it is a school night, but I hope we might get out for a meal and meet some friends at the weekend. 

Take care and thanks for visiting.

Hugs,