Gilded Gadgets and Pretty Palettes

Today I wanted to share with you a couple of cards that I made for challenges.  The first card is for a Splitcoast Stampers Steampunk Challenge.  What is "steampunk" you might well ask.  Well, Wikipedia defines it as a sub-genre of science fiction involving steam technology in an alternate setting such as the Victorian era.  If you saw the movie, Hugo,  or any of the latest Sherlock Holmes movies, that would give you a good idea of steampunk ambiance.  I love the concept, mostly for the textures, colours and "gadgets".  I am a "gadget" person.  If a car salesman can show me some innovative buttons and whistles, he has a sale! (Luckily, my hubby is a little more practical, and considers things like mileage, reliability and resale value before we sign a contract!)  So I've been working hard to learn the techniques for making steampunk cards.  I've still got a lot to learn, but here is my best shot so far.

I used a Tim Holtz Gears embossing folder and added some Versamark ink to the folder before embossing, then heat embossed it using metallic copper embossing powder.  I love the colour and the texture!  I distressed a downloaded blueprint of some steam machine, using Tim Holtz distress inks and some water.  I sewed all these main panels on to the base, including a scrap of Echo Park DSP I had in my stash.  The sentiment is from Stampin Up's Word Play in Stazon Black ink on Crumb Cake card stock. 

Then came all the fun of adding "gadgets"  like the gears from both Tim Holtz and Bead Landing, SU Antique and antique copper brads and a chess piece from Bead Landings Findings.  I had so much fun with this!

Now to change "gears" (sorry) completely, the next card I want to show you is one I created for the Paper Players Challenge #86.  It is a colour challenge with the colours Crumb Cake, Pool Party, Wisteria Wonder and Pear Pizazz!  Such a pretty combination!  Here's what I came up with:

This was a great opportunity to use my 1"x 1" bevelled window panes.  There's a trick to getting the stamped images to stay behind the panes and rather than go into a long explanation, I will just refer you to this video tutorial.

My back panel is from the new Twitterpated DSP collection.  I actually was all out of Pool Party (my favourite), so had to use Baha Breeze instead.  The sentiment is from Punch Bunch.

Well, thanks for allowing me to let off a little "steam" tonight!  Have a good Sunday night!