Studying Steampunk

Good Monday morning to you, bloggy friends.  Hope you all have had a nice weekend.  I'm still fighting my way back from the flu.  It seems like it is really going around early this year.  Our Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge to you this week is to Show Us Your Steampunk.  Oh my, was this ever a tough challenge for me.  I have never done anything steampunk and really didn't have an angle to start.  I did a bit of research and surfed a few blogs for inspiration but never really got inspired.  I got an early start because I was so uncertain of what to do but that didn't seem to help.   Anyway, I settled on Artistic Outpost's Paris Exposition set because I thought it might be reflective of the mechanical age that birthed steampunk.  And of course I needed the requisite cogs so I purchased the Gadget Gears die and headed into my craft room.  I've also wanted to give fiber paste a try again and thought I could use it for this challenge.  

I die cut the gears, layering two pieces of chipboard together for extra height and glued them to a book cover.  Then I covered the entire piece with fiber paste.  Once dry, I could see that it needed another coat of fiber paste which I gave it.  After the fiber paste had thoroughly dried, I made a wash out of Vintage Photo Distress Stain and gave the entire piece a wash with that.  Then I took a paint brush and painted the gears with full strength distress stain and then gave them all a second coat to deepen the color.  

Images from the Paris Exposition set were stamped with Ranger Jet Black Archival Ink onto tissue paper and trimmed out closely.  I watered down a little of Claudine Helmuth's Multi Medium Matte and brushed some onto the areas where I was going to affix the tissue paper images, laid down the tissue paper and then gave it a good coat of the watery multi medium matte.  Unfortunately the tissue paper didn't just dissolve into the fiber paste background and it stands out :(  I did this technique once before and now I think that I put the tissue paper down onto the fiber paste while the fiber paste was still wet because that time the tissue paper couldn't be seen.  It looked much nicer - LOL!

I made little signs Dream, Explore, Discover using the Artistic Outpost Huck Finn set and Shelly Hickox's faux French enamel tutorial here.  I have been wanting to try that technique ever since she posted it, but haven't had the occasion.  (I actually have another piece in mind to try it with in a couple of weeks.)  I mounted my signs on scraps of rusted metal mesh, but you couldn't really see the mesh - it sort of blended into the background so I gave it a few swipes with Snow Cap acrylic paint dabber.  And it wouldn't be a Funkie Junkie piece without a flower, so I made one out of the rusted metal mesh and my trusty Tattered Florals die.  

That's my take on steampunk.  Not my favorite piece, by a long shot - I'll blame it on the flu or maybe the flu meds as I've been feeling pretty spacey the last few days!

I hope you will join our steampunk fest over at Sion Says Stamp and Show.  The DT, as always, have some amazing art to share with you!  And of course, our ever generous sponsor Simon Says Stamp has a $50 gift certificate to shop in their store for the lucky random winner!!

Thanks so much for stopping by and for any comment you care to leave.  Have a great week!