Steampunk Christmas in July

FA-529-M Steam Train

WT-003-M Traveling Tessa

ES-192-L Snowy Pines

It's time to cool off and think about some snow! Third Coast Rubber Stamps just started a new challenge blog! July is "Deck Our Blog With Boughs of Holly!"

So, I've been experimenting with my new stash of stamps from TCRS. Lots of Steampunk coming your way, and I hope this has a holiday or winter feel to it. I'm learning to use "masks" to layer the stamped images to make a scene.

Begin by  stamping an image on scrap copy paper, cut it out, then stamp your image on your regular cardstock. Place your "mask" over the image and then stamp another stamp, make a mask of the new image, and continue to stamp additional images. I started with the girl, added the train, and the last image was the tree. The mask protects the image from the new stamp you add to your.

I layered my double masked girl on to a scrap of Daisy D designer paper, took a photo with the iphone and edited it through Photowizard, Picfx, and Impressions ( which adds the text). I email it to myself and sharpen it a bit more with Photoshop Elements.

Be sure to check out the Third Coast Rubber Stamp Challenge Blog!

Christmas Gift 1955

Christmas 1955

1. I made scans of photos from my mother’s collection of my brother and me from Christmas 1955. The photos came out with a blue/green cast to them. I decided to take advantage of that and not force the photos onto traditionally colored Christmas paper. Teal seemed to be the best color to compliment the monochromatic effect of the 50s black and white photos. The teal is layered onto Bazzill, raisin colored card stock. The purple, sort of, complementing the teal in a pleasing fashion. ( at least to me!)

I found a great piece of Basic Grey patterned paper that picked up the teal and off white, and it still gave the layout a monochromatic black and white effect. It at least didn’t compete with the images in the photos.

I adhered a scrap of the pattered paper to a chipboard label (Joann Fabrics and Crafts) The edges of the tag were distressed with versa mark ink and then embossed with silver embossing powder. Several layers of embossing eliminated a bumpy look. I also embossed the year 1955 with silver embossing powder.

I stamped the tag with the words “having a very merry time”…inking only “having a very merry…” from the stamp set “Very Merry” from the Holiday Spotlight Collection. Next stamped the word “Christmas from “Burst of Christmas” from the Holiday Spotlight Collection. I couldn’t decide if there should be some red color there, but finally decided on the teal ink. I put a brad on the tag as well as a layered tree from the “All About Christmas” stamp set from the Holiday Spotlight Collection. Punch out the tree with a circle punch. The tree was stamped with teal craft ink and embossed with iridescent ice embossing powder. Layer the circle with same sized circles in raisin and teal and off set to the right.

Before attaching the year 1955 stamp a circle with the outer border circle from “All About Christmas” using a burgundy ink, stamp the tree from the same set with teal. Distress the edges of the circle with vesa mark and emboss with iridescent ice embossing powder. Layer the circles with same sized circles in raisin and teal. Off set the circles to the right. Attach the stamped circle to the background with adhesive, Attach the 19 with double faced foam tape and attach the 55 to the circle with adhesive.

When photographing the layouts, chipboard items cast some interesting shadows to the layout. It’s worth pursuing this for future layouts.