Project 74: Playing in the steam punk trend

Steam punk is a trend that I've been seeing in crafting for about a year and never really got into it. I saw this paper set on sale though and thought I'd give it a try. I'll be honest now, it's been harder to work with than I thought and I'm not sure I cracked it. But Claire and I have decided to start showing cards that aren't quite there in the spirit of honest crafting.

I stuck to natural recycled bases instead of white as the papers looked a bit stark on white.

The headline card uses two papers layerd into a pinwheel with a brad in the middle to give it that vintage toy feel. I embossed the card directly with a hexagon embossing folder that is new to my collection. I think it works here though I didn't put enough pressure on it so the pattern is faded. Could this pass as a boy birthday card? Hope so! 

Another version of the pinwheel card. The version on the right is too busy but the blue and orange looks cute. Again, think this could just about  work as a gender-neutral card.

For this one I played with a really simple layout, feels like a traditional card for such interesting papers. I thought the button was too plain so I added the bow which maybe makes it too cute.

Finally these ones used a really nice patterned orange paper. I embossed the black strip on the left and added a birthday tag with a button and bit of black and white bakers' twine. For the one on the right I used black corrugated card, a bird stamp and then cut some of the orange paper as a baking to the black flower.

All in all I don't think I really mastered the steampunk trend. Really hard to get right! I'm just too cutesy and girly I think to get this spot on. I'll do a bit of trawling on pinterest and craft blogs to see if I can get some inspiration to get a bit closer next time.

In other news: I'm fulfilling a massive order at the moment so this weekend has been a bit of a blur - perhaps that's why the cards aren't quite where I want them to be!