Stampin' Dymonz Grand Give-A-Way: Steampunk Tag

It's day 3 of the Tim Times Ten Grand Give-A-Way Challenge at the Stampin' Dymonz blog, and today's tag recipe is especially fun-filled:

• Steampunk theme
• sponging
• heat embossing
• a key
• 3 arrows
• a pointing hand
• a metal embellishment
• one stamped image must be hand cut

Wow, right‽ A few months ago this would have made me nervous, but now I'm all over it! That being said, I had several false starts. It was definitely a creative challenge for me, since I really didn't have any of the required materials, but it was fun to improvise. I always try to think of the Zen adage You already have everything you need.

I found a classic vintage pointing hand image online, printed it on photo paper, and clear heat-embossed it. I sponged the image with Red Brick, Marigold & Mustard Seed distress inks.

The arrows are actually cut files from SCAL; I cut them directly onto masking paper, which worked great! After sponging the kraft paper with distress inks, I removed the masks and used my watermark pen to heat-emboss the keys in clear yellow.

The circle pattern embossed piece is actually a scrap from my bottlecap card, but I added some copper with a gel pen.

Actually, I did end up having this lovely key stamp from the Metropolitan Museum of Art set, which I silver heat-embossed on kraft and hand-cut out.

I hand-punched the border, but I did take the time to make a template. It's difficult to see in this photo (click on photo to enlarge), but the glittery ribbon is tinted with Mustard Seed distress ink.

The metal key attach at the top is one of the many suitcase lock keys I have around the house. Where the locks could be I don't know!

I'm loving everyone's projects. See you tomorrow!