Steampunk fun (posted by Claire)

Good morning, Claire here with a couple of mixed media steampunk projects made for the recent shows on Hochanda. I've used stamps from Steampunkery to make this wall hanging and a card.

I began by making the beetle - this stamp is one of my all time favourites! I gave the stamp a liberal coating of Black Soft Form Relief Paste with a spatula and left it to dry - it does take a while so it's important to be patient as if you try to remove it before it's dry it could spoil it. I always leave them for at least 24 hours before trying to lift up a corner to peek and check it's dry. 

Meanwhile I made the other elements. I removed the outer layer from some corrugated card and gave it a coat of black gesso before applying acrylic paint in metallic shades. Once that was dry I used hot glue to attach a scrap of metallic tulle and a lacey border made with the lacy stamp from Steampunkery and kraft glassine. The next layer was made from watercolour card, it was actually a background that had gone wrong so I stencilled some circles on it with gilding glue and added gilding flakes. I used straws for the faux pipework, painted them with black gesso and then metallic acrylic paint. 

Once the beetle was dry I added some colour with silver and gold gilding wax. I painted his shell with blue and green metallic acrylic paint and once it was dry I gave it a thick coat of glossy accents. 

I made this card using acrylic paints for the background - sloshing them on with lots of water and then adding rock salt. Once it was dry I splashed with diluted white gesso before stencilling in the moon using the Seasonal Elements Stencil. I applied gilding glue through the stencil and added lots of sparkly glitter. I also applied a layer of glue and glitter around the edge of the card.

Once the background was dry I stamped the gorgeous airship with versamark ink and embossed with gold embossing powder. I painted the bottom of the image with acrylic paint. To make the balloon, sails and flag I stamped the image with Gold Stazon onto some fantasy film layered with angelina fibres and cut the elements out. It's hard to get a good photo as it's very sparkly but it looks really pretty in real lift.

I hope you're enjoying this months inspiration from the DT. If you've got your stamps yet make sure you share your makes with us on the facebook group!

Claire xx