Steampunk Birthday Tag

What kind of tag would you give to a dear (male!) friend, who loves the Victorian Age as he loves roleplaying games located in the late Eightteenhundreds? Yesss, that definitely had to be a steampunk tag with lots of odd machines, gears and details to play around with. This one is the "practicing tag" I will keep to myself (I sometimes do "practicing tags" and a (maybe slightly different) copy after the first...it's a good thing because you can choose afterwards which one to keep and which one to give away ;)

As the crew from Craft Stamper Magazine has just released their first "Take It, Make It challenge", this was the perfect occasion to try out their awesome "Faux Airbrushing" technique!!! Looks cool and is so much fun to do! (Hm, it seems I almost covered up all of the faux airbrushed background while playing around with lots of layers and embellishments...hope, the tiny spaces where it still can be seen make my entry good. At least I can offer some pics that show the tag in its various stages... ).

Here are some close-ups that should show the Faux Airbrushing I did on the background:

For the "airbrushing" I used a wonderful LaBlanche stencil  I got from SanDee (yes, the one who sent me that awesome goodie parcel! Great news: she now has a blog on her own! Go, visit SanDee's blog - there's some awesome Steampunk to be found!)

Here's how the tag looked in the beginning with just the Faux Airbrushing and some blending with Distress inks:

to the left the "airbrushed" tag with the LaBlanche stencil on white card, using DIs "chipped saphire", "faded jeans", "broken china", "shabby shutters" and "mustard seed".


To the right the tag after some blending and using another stencil with gears.



Maybe some of you have already spotted the fact that this tag is influenced by the february tag of Tim's "12 tags of 2013" ;)
Just love this tag with the embossing, the use of cord and embellishments, the layering and playful combination of textures!

The guy in the picture is a Mr. Pöschman from Vienna, whose image was on a legitimation card for the "K.u.K. Austrian State Railroads" from the year 1890. I found this card among the photos my Grand-Auntie left me and thought my ancestor fitted just perfectly.

Stamps used are Andy Skinner Texture stamps and stamps from the docrafts "Chronology" range. Gears were cut using Xcut dies. Hope you like the tag!

Thanks for your visit!
Hugs,

die amelie xx

I am entering Vintage Stamping Challenges with this tag, as they ask for "Blues, Browns & Beige".