September Spotlight

Hello and servus out there, all ye Steampunk admirers!

I am here today to share with you a Spotlight - thrown onto one of our fabulous artists who have already joined in our "Dolls 'n Robots" Challenge for this month. (It is still open until the end of the month and all who enter get eligible for the random prize draw for a 10 Euro voucher for the awesome Irishteddy's on line store! So don't hesitate - there's still some time left to create a tag, card, paper doll, altered art robot... or whatever you think suits the theme).

Today's spotlight features the absolutely adorable whimsy make of Chrissie from Jumbled Crafts! 

She creates the most enchanting Steampunk characters from felt and gorgeous embellishments - this time it is "Alexandra Nealy", a "scientist with a secret". (Check out her great blog to learn more).

Thank you, Chrissie, for sharing this fantastic and imaginative make with us! Please, feel free to grab the badge for your blog!



Hugs and happy crafting,

die amelie x

Mid Month Reminder and September's Prize Sponsor

Hello, dear Steampunk friends!

We are here to remind you of our "Dolls 'n Robots" challenge for september.
There are only three entries at the moment (hope the theme didn't scare anyone off...we are still waiting for 2D projects like tags, cards,.... honestly whatever you can imagine fits the theme as long as it is Steampunk) and this always troubles us a bit, being anxious that we might not have chosen a theme that meets your expectations or taste.

But we have learned that many of you create rather elaborate projects which take their time in planning and making...even though we also would love to see some  tags and cards from you ;) This challenge is meant for everyone, who loves Steampunk and paper crafting, mixed media and/or drawing, painting, altering....

But gladly there are still two more weeks to go and we also have a wonderful prize to give away once again, this time sponsored by 

Iris from Irishteddy's! 

Thank you so much, Iris, for being one of our very first regular sponsors for our challenges! This means a lot to us, as we both are great fans of your online store (I admit, I leave most of my crafting money with Iris' awesome shop ;). 

She is generously giving away a 10 Euro voucher for shopping with her on line store to one randomly chosen winner! Isn't that great?

Paper dolls, stamped Steampunk dolls or robots, dolls or robots we haven't even heard of yet.... we are waiting for your creations! ;)

Have a happy time crafting!

SanDee&amelie

Tadaah! Top3 and Prize Winner

It's time to announce the Top 3 for our august "Matchbox Steampunk" challenge! As always you entered overwhelming projects to our challenge (which makes us veeeery proud) and the choice was hard to make, but it had to be done. So here they come (in no particular order):

Angela from Felix the Crafty Cat

Laura from Laurart

Tabitha from Kluckingbear

Congrats and thank you so much for sharing your awesome art with us! Please, feel free to grab the badge for display on your blogs! :)

And now to our prize winnner!

Our prize sponsor for the August challenge is lovely Tusia from 

and she is giving away the wonderful 7Dots Studio "Messy Head Collection"! 

And random.org choose Nr. 4 this time:

Laura! 

Congrats (again) on your double win! So well done and deserved! Have fun with your lovely prize! your shipping adress will be forwarded to Tusia as soon as you send it to me (see Contact button on top of the side bar). Maybe you also want to visit her online store (she really has a lot of great mixed media on offer) - then just click her shop banner above.

Our current challenge "Dolls 'n Robots" is open for the whole of September and you can enter it with whatever you come up with as long as your creation fits the theme and is Steampunk. This may be a stamped dolls/robots image, an altered object, a jumping jack, a paper doll, .... the possibilities only end with your imagination ;)

We are - as always - curiously waiting for your creations!

Hugs and happy crafting,

SanDee&amelie

Late August Spotlight

As many of us over here (including me) were on holidays during the last weeks, I thought a rather late August challenge spotlight would be better than none ;)

As always we had wonderfully creative entries full of "esprit" and "thinking out of the box" and I really loved how all our contributors took matchbox crafting to a new level!

So today I want to shine a spotlight on these two lovely makes for our "Steampunk Matchbox Challenge":

the first one was made by Sam from Sambo's Craftart and I love the tiny bottles and the web on top, which makes it look like a long forgotten drawer in some alchemist's cabinet.

The second make is from Tina over at Tina's Craft World and I really admire how she managed to make her box look like an old artefact. A true treasure!

Thank you, ladies, for sharing your fantastic artwork with us! Please, feel free to take the badge and display on your blogs!

Prize winner and Top3 will be announced in a few days, so please come back then to have a look.
Hugs and happy crafting!

SanDee&amelie xx

"Dolls 'n Robots" - our September Challenge

Hi there and welcome! We gladly welcome you back to our new Steampunk challenge for Septemer, dear followers, Steampunk friends and crafters!

This month's theme is 

"Dolls 'n Robots".

You may enter our challenge with stamped/drawn/painted... paper projects like cards, tags ..., paper dolls, paper jumping jacks (which I would count as 2D projects) or something 3D - altered objects, robots from upcycled materials, vintage ladies made from whatever you can think about ....well, actually you can enter our challenge with whatever projects you come up with as long as they fit our theme and as long as they are Steampunk. (For our general challenge rules check the rules stuff page, please).

This is our last month with a guest designer we invited (and had the luck to join us and our challenge). For future challenges we hope to get the chance to have YOU with us - if you want to be our guest designer with one of our challenges, please add a "GD" to your name when entering our challenge via the inlinkz tool, to let us know.  So this is a Guest Designers Call ;)

And again you surprised us with awesome entries with our August challenge! It is so wonderful to have all you talented people out there play with us! Thank you so much! We will announce our Top3 and the prize winner in about a week. So, please, check back then to find out if you are among them.

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But now, please, welcome mixed media artist and creative mind Elly Pirally from "Mixed Media and more"! Woohoo! Applause, applause!

She created a really crazy altered doll for your inspiration:

I love the texture on the altered dolls head and the colours of the tin! A terrific artsy creation indeed!

Elly also agreed to tell us a bit about herself and her art:

Im April 2010 fand ich bei YouTube durch Zufall ein Video über Scrapbooking und war sofort infiziert. Die Inhaberin eines Bastelgeschäftes wurde mit Fragen gelöchert und der erste Embossing Fön ausgeliehen. Im Juni 2010 habe ich dann mein erstes Werk bei YouTube hochgeladen. Ein paar selbstgemachte Minialben und einige Videos später, war ich bereits bei Mixed Media angekommen. Die skurilen Arbeiten von Michael DeMeng hatten es mir besonders angetan, nur wie bekommt man so etwas hin? Techniken dazu suchte ich im Web vergeblich. Eine neue Tür ging auf, als ich im Internet auf Andy Skinner traf, der Online Workshops anbot. Mit ihm trat dann auch die grosse Palette der Acrylfarben als Basis in mein kreatives Leben. Verbunden mit Upcycling entstand so eine neue Leidenschaft, denn es gibt nichts verblüffenderes für mich, als einer alten Verpackung neues Leben zu geben. Meistens in Richtung vintage, steampunk mit viel Rost und Patina.

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Since i've found a video about scrapbooking in april 2010, i was infected. I asked a hobby shop owner a lot questions and borrowed my first embossing gun. I uploaded my first video to YouTube two month later. A view mini books and videos later, i was already addicted to mixed media because i found the art of Michael DeMeng but there wasn't any video to find about the how to do. Another door opened, as i found Andy Skinner and after my first online workshop with him, i was infected with acrylic paint and all the possibilitys with altered art in vintage and steampunk style.

Mixed Media is unlimited possibilitys. Creating art with whatever i can get my hands on.

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Her awesome and inspirational blog "Mixed Media and more" is definitely worth more than one visit! :)

Thank you so much, Elly, for being our fantastic guest this month!! :)

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To get your mojo flowing, SanDee1899 and me made some more projects for your inspiration. Here we go:

SanDee1899


I thought I might try some complete different technique this time and chose to draw this Steampunk Sci-Fi-Robot  in ATC Format inpired by an image I found in www...

die amelie 

Inspired by the film "Robots" I created Mrs. Copperbottom (designated shopping queen). If you hop over to my blog, you will also learn about some ancient classic Greek "trick" for making standing figures appear more natural and "alive" *lol.

We hope you leave us inspired and that you immediately head over to your workdesks or crafting spaces... to be able to enter our challenge soon! We are so curious about your dolls 'n robots you will come up with!!!

Don't forget: this time we have again a separate 2D and a 3D projects collection to enter your creations with!

Hugs and happy crafting!

SanDee&amelie xx