It's male Jim, but not as we know it!

The theme for this week's Simon Says Stamp and Show Challenge is "Men Only".  I racked my brain on this one, and got to thinking about classic male portraits through history.  I finally settled on Micheangelo's undiscovered masterpiece "Jonah Lisa" as my inspiration, and here is my version of it :)

Though it looks flat in this photo, the frame is actually wood and is about 3/4 of an inch deep.  I covered it in copper metal which I had embossed with the Cuttlebug Clockworks folder.  "Jonah" is a Tim Holtz stamp coloured with Promarkers and the bowler had and moustache were hand-drawn by yours truly, then cut out and fixed in place.  Quite the jaunty fellow, dontcha think?  lol

Our ever-generous sponsor Simon Says Stamp is offering a $50 gift voucher as the prize again this week! The winner will be chosen at random from those who enter the challenge, so why not give it a try? At the very least why not head over to the Challenge Blog to see how the other members of the design team have interpreted this weeks theme! :)

Woman of Mystery

The theme for this week's Simon Says Stamp and Show Challenge is "an ATC".  I used to make a lot of ATCs back in the day, and still have a binder full of beautiful ATCs that I've received in swaps.  It's quite some time since I last made one, and it was an interesting challenge to restrict myself to a 2.5 x 3.5 inch project again!

The background was spritzed with water and then Distress Stains were applied (Peeled Paint, Scattered Straw and Forest Moss).  I punched a circle out of white card and fixed it in place as the moon, then stamped the tree.  The Mona Lisa was stamped separately and coloured, then the tree was stamped over her face before fixing her in position on the ATC.  The bandana was coloured, stamped and outlined in white pen.  Finally the text was printed on the computer and fixed in place.

Our ever-generous sponsor Simon Says Stamp is offering a $50 gift voucher as the prize again this week! The winner will be chosen at random from those who enter the challenge, so why not give it a try? At the very least why not head over to the Challenge Blog to see how the other members of the design team have interpreted this weeks theme! :)

Steampunk Submarine Suggests Crafted Chronometer - Dutifully, Dan Divulges Details!

The theme for this week's Simon Says Stamp and Show Challenge is "Steampunk", a style that I've always found inspiring. According to the Wikipedia definition of steampunk, "Perhaps the most well known example of steampunk is Captain Nemo's Nautilus submarine in Walt Disney's 1954 film version of Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea."

I've always loved that movie ever since I was a kid, so much so that when I was a student, studying computer animation and games development, I created a game inspired by the movie.  A screenshot from the game is shown above.  That's more years ago than I care to think about, so this steampunk stuff has been a favourite of mine for a loooong time! :)

I decided to create a porthole clock, inspired by the movie.  I started by cutting 2 circles from card and covering them with 10 Seconds Studio copper metal.  The bottom circle had first been embossed with the Clockworks embossing folder, as had the metal covering the square of card below it.

I inserted large silver brads into the smaller circle, to act as rivets marking the hour positions and then fixed the smaller circle to the larger one.  I used distress stains in a range of colours to age the copper a little.  I cut a circle of thick clear plastic from some packaging and stuck it behind the circles to be the glass in the clock.  The clock face was stamped and mounted behind the glass using black 3d foam, and the hands were held in place with a brad.

I painted the metal square with Claudine Hellmuth black paint and let it dry, then buffed it with a dry paper towel to reveal the silver of the metal in the raised areas.  I stuck the clock onto the square and then stuck that onto a larger square covered in plain copper.  That was then stuck to a square of Tim Holtz's Kraft Resist paper and then onto a square of chipboard covered in black card.

Finally, I stuck the "82" plaquette to the hanger, and a couple of cogs and brads onto the hanger's clips.  That, as they say, was that! :)

Our ever-generous sponsor Simon Says Stamp is offering a $50 gift voucher as the prize again this week! The winner will be chosen at random from those who enter the challenge, so why not give it a try? At the very least why not head over to the Challenge Blog to see how the other members of the design team have interpreted this weeks theme! :)