How I make the Steampunk Boxes

Many of you asked for a Tutorial on how I make the Steampunk Boxes, so here you go....

Supplies used:
Eileen Hull Square Box XL Scoreboard Die by Sizzix
Medium weight Chipboard or Matboard
Ranger Glue n Seal
Heavy Cardstock
Tim Holtz Clockworks Gear Embossing folder
DecoArt Chalky Finish Paint or DecoArt Acrylic Paint
Double Sided Tape
Tim Holtz Metal Gears
2 Part Liquid Resin
Plaid Mod Melts Molds
Metallic Rubons
DecoArt Lustre Metallic Waxes
Sharp Craft Knife
High Tac Glue
Embossing/Diecutting machine Vagabond or BigShot

Begin by cutting your chipboard or matboard with the Square Box Die (you will need to cut 2 pieces).  Assemble your box, here is a quick video showing how to do it  Sizzix Youtube .

Cut your heavy cardstock into pieces that will fit into your embossing folder and machine. Cut 5 pieces.

Apply a coat of Glue n Seal to each of your box sides and top (do one side at a time) and apply your embossed cardstock. Once dry, use your sharp craft knife to cut off excess.

Apply a good coat of DecoArt Chalky Finish Carbon Paint

If you don't have the Chalky Finish you can use DecoArt Americana Lamp Black Acrylic Paint. I prefer the Chalky Finish myself.

While your paint is drying, gather your metal embellishments. I've made quite a few of these this past week and didn't have any of the gears and such left that I wanted to use so I made some with 2 part resin and my Plaid Mod Melts Molds.

Once you're ready to add your embellishments, adhere them to your box with a high tac thick glue of your choice. (I use Aleene's Fast Dry thick glue for this part). Let them dry for about 15 minutes. Now paint a coat of the Chalky Finish Carbon paint all over the boxes and embellishements and let dry.

Once the paint is thoroughly dry start applying the metallic rub, I prefer to rub it on with my fingertips.

Apply the wax all over the entire box, including your embellishments. Lightly spray entire box with a matte sealer or brush on a coat of Glue n Seal matte. 

If  you choose to use the Label Hinge that comes with the box, use all of the same steps and once it's dry apply it with the thick tac glue to your box top.  Be sure to glue it on leaving a wee bit of space between it and the front of the box. If it's too close, it will be too tight to work with. 

 

And there you go! Have fun!

Steampunk Box

One of my newest purchases is the Square Box Die from Sizzix, designed by Eileen Hull. I am SO in love with this Die!!  Last week I made a couple of Steampunk boxes and my best Friend fell in love with them so they went home with her. Well her Sister saw the photo of them and wanted one too so I made this one for her last night.  I will have a more detailed post tomorrow showing how I made them.

Thank you for looking!

12 Tags of 2015 with Tim Holtz-March

Greetings from Southeast Arkansas where winter is stuck LOL!  I'm so thankful for my warm and cozy craft room!
Don't you just love Tim's March Tag? Once again I don't have the exact supplies that Tim used so I improvised. Now normally I make a tag but this month I've made a gift for a very dear Friend.

I built a wood frame, painted it black and then coated the black with DecoArt Weathered Wood medium. Once the medium was dry I applied a coat of DecoArt Mocha Acrylic paint and sat and watched the beautiful cracks appear.

Next I cut a piece of black matboard and used Tim's Clock Stencil along with some opaque texture paste that I had mixed some purple acrylic paint into. Applied to the matboard and dusted with some Ranger Pearl Ex Powder.

I cut and embossed the Dragonfly using Tim's Layered Dragonfly Die, colored her up with pearlex powders, added some half pearls to her tail then covered her completely with Ranger Glossy Accents.

Before I adhered the Dragonfly to the frame, I gave the whole frame a coating of Rangers Glue n Seal and once it was dry I did some antiquing all over the frame with some of Tim's Black Soot Distress Paint. Apply the distress paint , wait about 30 seconds then rub it back with a soft cloth until you get the desired look.  I appllied some Picket Fence Distress Paint to one of Tim's keyholes, waited a few seconds and did a quick light rub with a soft cloth.

I really enjoyed making this, at first I felt funny not doing a tag but Tim does encourage us to take inspiration from his and run with it...I ran LOL  Thank you for looking. Now I must get this boxed up and mailed off to put a bit of happy in a dear Friend's day.

Don't forget to head to Tim's Blog and join in on the fun!

Vagabond Owners...DON'T do what I did!!!

I love , love , LOVE my Vagabond! It is my absolute most favorite tool in my craftroom.  If you have one, I'm sure you understand, right? This baby is worth it's weight in gold!  Now I thought I was a good Vagabond owner, I use it faithfully, talk sweetly to it, keep it from getting dusty, use wonderful Dies and Embossing Folders in it..yup, yup, thought I was good to my Vagabond.   Well I wasn't!

Today I was working on my Tag and ready to emboss some Grungepaper...put my sandwich into the Vagabond, turned it on and heard a funny noise then it stopped.  I tried to reverse it and it made a horrible grinding noise. I unplugged it and had a cry..then I got very angry with myself.  I foolishly used Cuttlebug cutting plates/mats instead of my Sizzix cutting plates!

How often have I heard Tim tell us in a video to only use Sizzix Accessories? MANY times, did I follow his advice? NO   I am madder than a wet Hen...at myself! 

Please don't use "other" brand accessories with your Vagabond...use the tried and true SIZZIX accessories!!  Don't kill your Vagabond!!  You can see my sandwich stuck in the machine in the photos above. 

12 Tags of 2013 with Tim Holtz-December

I hope You all had a wonderful Christmas!   Our's was very quiet, this year we didn't have any of our Kids or Grands here and I almost didn't even decorate. Tim's December Tag actually got me into the mood to put a tree up and decorate a bit...I'd say his tag was a double inspiration for me this month!

I was anxious to use Tim's "Shatter" Layering Stencil and I love it! I need more practice with the Clearly For Art from Wendy Vecchi..my Poinsettia didn't turn out quite the way I was wanting it to.

I stained my Tag with Iced Spruce Distress Stain, then laid the stencil on top and pounced Picket Fence Distress Paint all over (I just can't stress how much I LOVE these Distress Paints!). Once dry I stamped some of Tim's small snowflake stamps with Salty Ocean and Broken China Distress inks, while the inks were still wet I sprinkled some Sticky Powder on the stamped area, dried it then added some gorgeous Clear Rock Candy Distress Glitter.  I stamped the phrase "A Joyful Christmas" using Tim's stamp and Black Archival Ink. I used the movers and shapers Poinsettia and Holly Leaf Dies to cut the white Clearly For Art (I must invest in some of the clear!), I painted the cut shapes with Distress Paints in Bundled Sage and Victorian Velvet. I used Glossy Accents to adhere the poinsettia and holly leaves and finished the tag off with some of Tim's lovely seam binding.  I'm thinking this would have made a lovely gift Tag so I hope I remember to make a bunch of them up next year for the gifts. 

I absolutely love Tim's Tag but I'll need to order some of the Clear CFA , the Frosted Film and the larger Poinsettia Die first. Be sure to check Tim's Blog to see his masterpiece!!!

Thank you for looking :-)

12 Tags of 2013 with Tim Holtz-November

I was so thrilled to see Tim's tag this month. I took his CC102 class and this was one of my favorite techniques.  Now I don't own the stamp and die set so I had to stamp twice and do some fussy cutting. I still love this technique to bits!  You can see Tim's Tag on his blog .  Here is my version:

The products I used are:
Tim's Tag and Bookplate Die
Tim's Oak Leaf Rubber Stamp
Ranger's Antiquities Frosted Crystal Embossing Powder
Distress Embossing Ink
White Chalk

Thank you for looking!

12 Tags of 2013 with Tim Holtz-October

Woohooo, Fall is finally here! I was beginning think that it was never coming to the southeast!  I love Tim's background technique for his Oct. tag and had fun creating my own. I still haven't got any Distress Glitter so had to improvise there. I can't wait to get my hands on some of that Distress Glitter!  For this Tag I used Distress Paints, Distress Ink, Tim's Framed Silhouettes Stamps and Dies, Tim's cool Tinsel and Tim's chit chat stickers. You can see Tim's gorgeous Tags for this month on his Blog.

Playing with Birdcage CC102 with Tim Holtz Day 5

I couldn't wait to use the Tarnished Birdcage, I added some ribbon that I partially painted with Distress Paint and stamped the word imagine at the bottom.

CC102 with Tim Holtz-Day5 Shabby Chic

I just adore this technique! I've got some ideas for tags, cards and home decor using this one. 

Because of the weather I can't get a photo yet that shows the colors, this piece is a muted pink and blue believe it or not :-)  Want to learn this? Check out CC102 at OnlineCardClasses!

CC102 with Tim Holtz-Day 4 Faded Layers

Forgive me for jumping from day to day but I'm just having fun and going with the flow that has taken over me :-)   Here's my homework for day 4 Faded Layers:

I like this look but am not totally happy with my play however I'm taking some advice from Tim and "embracing the imperfections"...on that note, the area to the far right of the tag is what we shouldn't do..want to know what we should and shouldn't do? Head to OnlineCardClasses and take the class :-)

CC102 with Tim Holtz-Day5 Tarnished Silver

OH boy, here's another technique that I will be using quite often!  I love the look!!

and a little close up:

If you want to know how to do this, run to OnlineCardClasses and sign up for CC102 with Tim!

Haunted House Tag

I woke up to a stormy fall day, ready to do some homework for my Tim Holtz CC102 Class.  For this Tag I decided to use 3 of the techniques we've just learned.  I used the Distress Paint Marbling and Colored Crackle from Day 1 along with the Faux Cracked Glass from Day 3. 

Happy Hallowe'en!

CC102 with Tim Holtz-Day3

I'm still waiting on some supplies to come in for Day 3, 4, and 5 classes but was able to complete three of the day 3 techniques without those supplies. I've been stalking my mailbox and it sure doesn't make the orders come in any quicker LOL

Here is my tag for the Smudge Stamping Technique:

I enjoyed it so much I tried another:

Here is the Brayered Stains Technique:

Here is the Faux Cracked Glass Technique (can't wait to try this on a larger scale!):

Here's hoping my orders show up tomorrow so I can do the rest of the techniques :-)

Thanks for looking!

12 Tags of 2013 with Tim Holtz-Sept

Hello Fellow Crafters!
I've been away from crafting for a while, well actually from blogging about crafting.  During July and August I was making some altered items for my Sons because in August I went to Canada for my Family Reunion! I got to spend 3 weeks with my Mom, my Siblings, my Sons and my Grandkids...it was wonderful!!!  While there I also got to sit down with 2 of my GrandDaughters and teach them some paper crafting techniques...they were so adorable and had so much fun! I'm proud to say my GrandDaughters are naturals and I got them hooked on Tim Holtz, especially his Tattered Floral Die :-)   Here is a photo of them , left to right are Macki, Krystyn and my Niece Carys.

I also taught my GrandDaughters and my youngest Son how to make homemade bread, they all did an awesome job and had fun doing it. Here's a pic of my youngest Son, Brandon's first loaf of bread

ok, one more photo if ya'll don't mind...many of you know my favorite pets are my ducks, many of my friends (and family) call me the Duck Lady LOL  With that said, I just have to share this pic of my youngest Son feeding a wild Mallard Hen at the beach :-)

I have Pekins, Muscovies and Mallards...I've had my Mallard Gals for 5 yrs and they still won't eat out of my hand, this wild gal actually ate right out of my Son's hand..**proud Momma smile**

Ok enough personal stuff for now...on to the main reason for today's post...
If you haven't been to Tim's blog to see his September Tag, go check it out HERE
Don't you just love it?!!!!  I was so tickled that he used my favorite Distress color  Peacock Feathers!

As usual I had to do some improvising, as much as I wish I owned everything put out by Tim, it's just not possible (until I win a lottery LOL), I had also just ran out of embossing paste, YIKES!

I used lightweight spackle instead of embossing paste...in a pinch it does work, however it's not as good as embossing paste. I also don't have Tim's stencils...YET, so I used a Craft Companion stencil, a couple of Dyllusion stencils and a couple of Tim's rubber stamps instead.  The chit chat stickers I used are from his Seasonal line, I chose to use Forever Friends and this tag is going to my best friend. I used Distress Ink in Walnut Stain, Black Soot and Picked Raspberry. I used Distress Stains in Wild Honey, Peacock Feathers. I used Picket Fence Distress Paint.  The stamps I used are Tim's Papillon set and his honeycomb stamp from the Mixed Media Set. I also used the heart from his Idea-ology Classics Adornments set. 

Thank you so much for looking,
Happy Crafting!
Michelle

12 Tags of 2013 with Tim Holtz-June

Hello Crafty Friends!!

I'm running a bit behind this month because I've been preparing for a trip to Ontario, Canada to see my Mom, Siblings, my Sons and my Grandbabies :-)  I don't leave until the first week of August but I've been scanning Family Photos for my Sons, making gifts to carry with me and well honestly just spinning in circles with excitement :-) 

I'm glad I was able to get my scatterbrain in gear and finish my June Tag, I love doing the 12 Tags along with Tim and would have been upset if I'd missed out on one.   You can follow along with Tim too!  You can see his June Tag HERE on his blog.  I have to say Tim's June tag is my favorite so far...I wish I had those Blueprint stamps but it's just not in the cards for me at this time so once again I had to improvise.  Of course my favorite set of his stamps that I do have so far is the Papillon set...I adore this set!!!!!!!  I did a lot of heat embossing with Distress Inks and with Archival Ink along with lots of Ranger Embossing Powders.  I really wanted to try Tim's painted metal technique that he used HERE on his April Tag , I have all of the Distress Paints except the Metallics so I cheated/improvised again LOL   I dabbed Distress Paints in Greens and Blues with my finger as Tim did, and zapped them with the heat gun to dry the paint.

Then I took some Tarnished Brass Distress Stain and dabbed it on, again zapping it to dry it.  The Distress Stain adhered perfectly to the Distress Paint, woohooooooo!

I then colored some of Tim's wonderful seam binding with Distress Stain in Iced Spruce and Gathered Twigs (2 of my favorite Stains!!)  and added my metal pieces with one of Tim's long fasteners.  

I was tempted to take a black sharpie and add my own blueprint doodles to it but was worried I'd mess it all up and I've run out of time :-) 

Thank you for looking!

12 Tags of 2013 with Tim -May

I have always loved the look of collage stamping, however I never felt that I was "getting it"  , until now!  When I saw Tim's May Tag I fell in love with it! If you haven't seen it...here it is.  I was inspired by the collage look and jumped in to give it a try. I used a bunch of stamps from Tim's sets, along with Distress Stains, Distress Inks and some acrylic paints. The Butterfly is a chipboard butterfly from my stash that I used acrylic paints on to get the enamel look. The word "Believe" is from Tim's chit chat stickers ***I love his chit chat stickers!!***   I used Distress Stains to color some of Tim's seam binding and tied it off with one of his swivel clasps and pearls. And last but not least, a piece of Tim's Photo Frame Ribbon...love that stuff!!! I also used a couple of Graphic 45 Steampunk Stamps.  I believe this is my favorite Tag of 2013 :-) 

If you haven't already gone, please go to Tim's Blog and check out his Tag..you won't be sorry!!
Thank you for looking :-)

12 Tags of 2013 with Tim Holtz-March

Here is my Tag for Tim's 12 Tags of 2013 March Challenge.  I've been out of town and wasn't sure I'd be able to finish it in time...call me the homestretch wonder LOL 

I don't have Tim's Bunny or Fringe Dies so I had to do some improvising.  I cut the fringe myself and it shows!  If you haven't been following Tim's 12 Tags of 2013 you should check it out on his Blog.

I'm not sure why my Bunny looks pink (perhaps the lighting in my craft room), because I colored him with Copper Distress Metallic Stain. 

The supplies I used are:
Tim's Tag and Bookplate Die
Tim's Styled Labels Die
Tim's Tattered Banners Die
Tim's Papillon Stamp
Tim's Seasonal Paper Stash
Tim's Trim
Distress Ink
Distress Stains

Thank you for looking!