Heavy Metal At SanDee & Amelie's Steampunk Challenges. . . . . . And Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge.

Still trying to get back properly into blogging! I think I need to start at the beginning again and enter challenges just for fun and to see the work of lots of other crafters. I found this worked for me before and I'm hoping it will do so again.

So. . . .I had no trouble finding a challenge of challenges which appealed to me and the first one is  'Heavy Metal' at SanDee & Amelie's Steampunk Challenge blog. I always wonder how to describe Steampunk and I just hope that my project does fit that title!

The second challenge I'd like to enter this project for is  Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge which this week asks you to be inspired by the word 'Five'. I've chosen to use five different elements to produce my tag:

Stamping; Die Cutting; Acrylic Paint Techniques; Modelling Paste through a stencil and using Distress Markers to colour an image.

I do like this kind of challenge which can be open to interpretation in a variety of ways - great fun!

Here's what I've made with some details to give you an idea of construction:

I loved the challenge title and if you have visited here before, you will know that I love creating faux rust finishes on anything that stands still long enough! I hope that the tag base looks fairly authentic.

The first stage of the rusting process was to seal the surface with two coats of gesso.  Next came DecoArt Modelling paste through a stencil which was left to air dry. Once dry, several coats of various DecoArt Traditions paints were applied in order to create the 'rusty' look. I can't be more precise because the technique was developed by Andy Skinner (my paint guru!!) but you can attend a class or do an online workshop and learn these amazing paint effects. Just click on Andy's name above and you'll find information about what's on offer.

The large washer in this image is a 'found' object and needed no transformation! The Idea-ology pointer was scuffed, crackled and a little acrylic paint rubbed into the cracks to highlight them.

The balloons have rusty wire attached. Two of the balloons remain tethered to the hand in the corner which is part of the original stamped image. An idea-ology hitch fastener is being held in the hand and the wires are tethered to it. The hitch fastener has been given the same aged look as previously described. I just had an idea for the quote and two tethered balloons signify limited freedom whilst one balloon is flying free. . . . . . . it worked for me anyway!
The quote label is handwritten then crackled and aged with acrylic paint as before - I wanted to achieve the look of old porcelain or aged enamelled metal

Die cut cogs (meant to be wheels) were given the rust treatment and held together by faux screw brads which were treated in the same manner as the pointer in the previous image.

Close up to show the edge of the tag which hopefully looks like rusting metal!

The balloons were part of a larger La Blanche stamp. They were stamped with archival ink onto card and cut out. Colours were applied using Distress markers and a waterbrush. A 'crackle' type image was stamped randomly over the balloons using archival ink. The little compass 'wheels' were leftovers from a previous project. They were stamped onto vintage book pages backed with card and cut out. The needle was coloured using the distress markers and waterbrush again.

I had so much fun making this tag. No hardship when you choose the theme and work on something which is right up your street!

Thanks for looking and thank you to those few people who have stayed with me despite the lack of activity here. I really do appreciate it.