Our Creative Corner - the November Challenge

Hello and "servus" again, dear visitors!

Not only have I brought to you the new challenge over at SanDee&amelie's Steampunk challenges an hour ago today (please scroll down to the previous post to learn more), but I also have the special honour of hosting this month's challenge over at

Our Creative Corner

and I decided to do one of my all time favourites ;)

There are also some important news on the challenge blog that you might want to check out ;)

This month we want you to play

Steampunk Tic Tac Toe 

with us!

All you have to do:
 choose three ingredients from the diagram 

in a straigth line (horizontally, vertically or diagonally) 

and use them for your Steampunk make.

I decided to go for the middle vertical line that says "gears - texture - transport" and alter the cover of a sketchbook or art journal.

I played around with stencils, dry brushing or dripping acrylic colours onto various surfaces, decorating paste, colour sprays, metallic rub ons, white gesso and opaque white embossing powder, some die cut gears and metal embellishments to create a lot of yummy texture, which is what I really love and enjoy to do.

It seems my team mates over at Our Creative Corner enjoyed playing around with Steampunk elements too - just hop over to the challenge blog to see their awesome creations they made for your inspiration!

But now onto a bit of info about the making of:

as I recently fell in the shower and hurt my side (and ribs, which makes moving rather hurtful), I skipped taking photos during the process this time - I hope you bear with me for just providing you with a single "before"- picture and more images of the finished project.

This is how the cover looked at the mere beginning: DecoArt raw umber acrylic paint is being applied to the card and the areas where I glued on some die cut gears or used some decorating paste through a stencil.

I prefer stippling the colour onto the surface to brushing it, as I love the texture the bristle brush creates. I hope you can see it in the picture...

The panel with the stamped on and heat embossed image of a zeppelin is a scrap from a glossy cardstock which I had treated with alcohol inks for an earlier project. I fixed it to the cover with four tiny brads.

The word "art" was applied to the surface using a stencil, Deco Art acrylic white gesso and a bristle brush.

"Create" was applied using a stencil and DecoArt Metallic Lustre "Copper Kettle".
I also gave the cover some strokes of metallic rub on using my finger tips and pressing down firmly while dragging the paste in vertical lines.

I sprinkled some Mr. Huey's "gold" onto the cover for a bit of "bling" to pop out from the warm, dark colours.

I love the texture and the white letters popping out - thus having some texture AND contrast - two elements that go together so well!

The traces of colour running down the cover were made by diluting acrylic colours to not too thin washes and holding the cover upright and pressing the heavily loaded brush on top to make the fluid squeeze out and run down the surface.

I hope that you like my altered journal, have a lot of fun playing Steampunk TicTacToe with us and enter your awesome make with our challenge soon! See you there! ;)

Hugs and happy crafting!

Claudia xx

I enter this make to the following challenge/s:

http://www.simonsaysstampblog.com/wednesdaychallenge/simon-says-anything-goes-2/

http://www.simonsaysstampblog.com/mondaychallenge/challenge-anything-goes/

http://craft-roomchallenge.blogspot.co.at/2013/10/stencils-and-masks_29.html (dots and gears stencils used)