steampunmk, gears, metal

Not sure why I love the metal-steampunk-gear-vintage look, but I do- I love all things industrial looking too. So I've been having fun turning paper and card stock into metal looking gears and gadgets. I saw this very cool 'thing' on You Tube and then had to make it. It's called a telescoping card- taking three circles and making it interactive. The one I saw had the gears/metal thing going, so it inspired me to make one too. I love how it turned out. I have no idea what it is for. It doesn't 'do' anything, except make me smile, and I guess that's the point of it! 

 

These first pictures are of the gears before I put it together. I love how they look like metal. I used Gilders paste on the paper and chip board to give the paper a real metal look and feel- with patina and rust too. I also used Distress Embossing powder in Vintage Photo for more rust. I used both dies and embossing folders. Then I put it all together to make this:

close up of **it**

 

 this is the card closed- the nut is the handle used to open it.

 

This is the card open- it actually works- like a cog wheel- the middle cog will go round and round when you move the card with the nut. Like I said, this has no purpose other than it makes me smile.

 



Steampunk mini book

I am just about finished with my Steampunk mini book. I really enjoyed making it and I love the Graphic 45 papers. There are a few additional pieces I added to the book after I took the pictures.

front cover

this page is my own artwork. The cool thing- that little propeller actually works!

It spins around. How cool is that?

There are more pages, but blogger is acting up and I just don't have the energy to mess with this anymore....

getting a little steampunk

My latest obsession is steampunk. I've been reading about it, culling for clipart, and creating it in Photoshop. I made some tags so far. I am making an envelope altered mini-book about steampunk. I love the whole look of steampunk. I first heard of it in the late 80's and immediately loved it. The past few years it seems that the Goth movement has embraced steampunk in a big way. My take is a little of both.

I am also using paper from my current favorite scrap paper, Graphic 45.
They are amazing papers!

In photoshop I created this ornament and colored it. Once I printed it I grunged it up with inks and added the frame and the woman's head (made out of polymer clay).

I created this woman in photoshop using gears and an ornament background.
Once I printed her I grunged her up and layered her onto more card stock. The wings are die cut (thank you Sue Milo!) out of textured paper that I then added gilders paste to the wings to make them metal. The little bird is polymer clay with gilders paste.



These 3 tags: Except for the flourishes,
the body and the backgrounds were made in photo shop.

Rusty metal things

My last post was about Pretty Little SHINY Things. This post is about old, rusty, metal things...another love of mine. Really, they are polymer clay. After baking them I 'aged' them using Gilders Paste, mica and acrylic paints. I love Gilders Paste- it's a product that comes in an old fashioned metal shoe-polish-like container in all kinds of metal colors, bronze, gold, copper and many more. My favs are Patina and Rust. BEAUTIFUL!!!

My friend Sue Milo (hurry up and get a blog so I can link it!!) is the master mold maker, and I am learning from her. She has also given me some really terrific molds. My friend Colleen turned me onto Gilders Paste and I will be forever indebted to her for this find!

I am making these little pretties for a steampunk altered book/journal/what-ever-you-want-to-call-it book. I'll use the graphic 45 black ring book as the base and go from there. These will be add-ons to the book. I also want to make a steampunk doll, but that's another post. I guess this is a form of scrap booking. I've never been much of a scrapper, but I do love altered books and collage and assemblage.

always use sunscreen

always use sunscreen, digital collage

This month I will be posting lots and lots of digital art from DJ Pettitts online workshop I am taking. I am really enjoying the community and online meeting of gear-heads from all over the world. Great fun!

This piece is a nod to steampunk.