Steampunk Therapy

Hello! I am so glad to be back to my blog and creating once again!  I've been in a bit of a funk lately. Too many things keeping me busy and no time to create can make a girl grumpy!  I am so glad that it is my turn to share at Anything But a Card.  Gave me a good excuse to bypass laundry and cleaning since I 'had' to make something!

Our challenge this month is Steampunk and those of you who know me well, know that this is quite out of my comfort zone.  I had never made anything Steampunky before joining this team, but the ladies at ABAC are so supportive and encourage everyone to grow, so I can happily say this is my second Steampunk creation.  I still struggle with getting what I want in my head transferred to paper, but it is a lot of fun and a good excuse to buy new things or dig through your treasures for something that will work.

I honestly had NO clue what this was going to be when I started.  I'm still not sure I know exactly what it is, but it was a lot of fun to play!  All I can tell you it is an ATC that features some industrial flower- like things growing in an imperfect garden!

I started with a piece of watercolor paper since I wasn't sure how inky it would get and I wanted it to be sturdy with the metal that was sure to appear on a steampunk piece.  I used the dots mask and a stipple brush to apply so saffron,  crumb cake, and soft suede inks.  Then I added the background stamp Backgrounds Rule in soft suede.  I was sure I had some images or embellishments that would work, but couldn't come up with anything that I liked together. I had this cog image in my head at this point and had zero 'gears' stuff to use.  I improvised with the spoked wheel of a bicycle stamp.  When I finished stamping a row of them, they looked more like flowers than cogs... That got my muse going! Flowers aren't very industrial-unless they have metal centers and copper stems! I also came across a left-over die cut flower and colored it with a copper sharpie and stippled soft suede ink over it to dull it down a bit.  An old button and some metal brads gave the flowers just the right touch of punk, and the copper sharpie made some nice little stems too.  I thought the Tim Holtz tag was the perfect mantra for this piece.  Not everyone can make flowers from bicycle wheels...

I hope you have been inspired to step out of your comfort zone or at the very least, find a new way to use your stamps!  I also hope you will join us at Anything But a Card this month!  Thanks so much for stopping by!

Project Recipe: watercolor paper, Inks-so saffron, crumb cake, soft suede, early espresso, Stamps-backgrounds rule, bicycle from Paper Pumpkin kit, metal brads, crochet trim, TH metal tag, button from antique/collectable shop, copper Sharpie