A Steampunked Window

Hello Everybody!

It is my turn over at the Unique Laser Designs Blog.  And this is one of my most favorite projects I have ever made.  I hope I haven't creatively peaked!  LOL!  I am going to show you all the highlights.  If you are looking for how I did it-go over to the Unique Laser Designs Blog here, and I have a breakdown of steps.

I found this window box at a thrift store.  Never mind the thing in the window box part.  That is a project for another day.  And can you believe this in the only original photo I have of the box?  I apologize for the quality-it was a phone picture.  :)

So with some paint, fiber paste, aluminum foil, cardstock, acrylic sheets, alcohol inks, and Unique Laser Designs embellishments, I made this:

At first I wanted to paint this yellow and put on some cute ULD daisies.  But then something stirred--something Steampunk!  So I started to paint light brown.  Then I painted dark brown on it.  I sponged black on the brown paint.  I mixed black paint with fiber paste to create "gunk."

I didn't know how I was going to do the middle of the window until I happen to see my January Tim Holtz tag hanging up.  You can see it here.  And that is when it hit me!  I would do a section of exposed gears.  So I did-nice clean shiny gears inside the oily dirty machine. ;)

I used Tim Holtz's die cut bottles to make these bottles out of Clear Scraps which is a thick (but not to thick) acrylic.  I used alcohol inks and then I used the skull and crossbones from the pirate flag for one bottle.  For the other bottle I used the word hope from the brick stencil.

Because these gears are going in the "heart of the machine" I wanted a bright metal color.  The one on the right is embossed while the 2 on the left are "gold leafed" except with copper leafing.

Here is another picture of the window box.  I am going to put cards in it that are ready to go!

For my Unique Laser Design Pieces, I used the following:

Gears A

Gears D

Brick Wall Stencil (the word Hope comes with it)

Pirate Flags

I would like to enter this Steampunk Window Box into the following challenges:

The Mirror Crack'd--Challenge 1 Anything Goes

SanDee & Amelie's Steampunk Challenges: "Steampunk Stories"--When I saw what September's challenge was-I was instantly intrigued.  How could I tell a story.  As I worked on my Steampunk Window Box there was a story unfolding.  I like to think of the window box as a dirty working machine just chugging away.  There are bottles in the window and one of them is labeled hope.  Is that bottle full or empty?  Then the heart of the box explodes-revealing a very clean "gear" heart.  There is a hot air balloon in the window-is it leaving because the people on there know the secret?  

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge:  Rock the Techniques:  I used Tim's pounce technique to apply the alcohol inks to the acrylic and foil.  Also, I used sticky powder on the gears with the copper leafing.

Flower Card

Hello Everybody!

Over at House of Cards they are doing a photo inspired challenge, blog hop, and a DT call.  They have fantastic prizes and a great photo to design by.  It is at the end of this post.

Here is my card.  This is how I was inspired by the photo:

• Flowers in the basket-flowers on the card
• Numbers on the jars-I used translucent embossing paste (wendi vecchi) with the Cargo stencil (tim holtz) on the green layer of the background.  I used a grey and white stamp pad over the green paper to lighten it.
• The green stems for the green layer of the background
• If you look in the basket there is a yellow flower toward the right-the yellow ribbon was inspired by this.

The photo is great!  I used a piece of clear scraps for the sentiment.  And the sentiment is from an older set of Stampin Up stamps that I bought at a thrift store (scrore!).  The flower stamps are from Sparkle N Sprinkle with brads in the center.

To make the first layer of the background I applied this distress ink.  But it wasn't enough.  So I inked up this stamp from Tim Holtz (stampers anonymous) and rolled it onto the card base in different directions.  It's subtle but it gave this area little extra something.  :)

Here's the picture if you haven't already seen it.  There is still time to play, hop, and apply! :)

Until next time my friends...have a good evening! :)