Time Travel - The February Steampunk Challenge over at SanDee&amelie's

Servus and welcome back, dear Steampunk and crafting friends and followers!

Double challenge feature day today over at my tiny creative spot (as on every 1st of the month). An hour ago the new challenge over at Our Creative Corner went online (please, scroll to the previous post to learn more about it) and now it's time for the new challenge

over at

SanDee&amelie's Steampunk Challenges

and this time our theme is

Time Machine

We leave it up to you how you interpret the theme and if you decide to make a tag, a card, some art journal pages, altered or crafted 3D projects or "simply" a painting or drawing that fits the theme....there are so many possibilities to work your way towards and around time and its machinery or the machines you have in mind...

We also once again have  a wonderful Guest Designer whose project you will just LOVE! And of course our DT has prepared some more for your inspiration :)

I was inspired to create a "Time Machine" we all know....a pocket watch. Well, of course it is no ordinary pocket watch but actually a time machine.... by spinning the clock hand you can travel forward or back in time, save time...maybe even alter time...uh oh....those of you who read Science Fiction know that altering time isn't such a good idea...so maybe this shouldn't be an option ;)

I received this awesome clock house chipboard from one of my dear crafting friends (thank you so much! - sorry I can't recall anymore who it was exactly ) and it was perfect for this challenge!
I die cut several circle "frames" from thick card using my Sizzix Circle dies...so I built something a little like a pocket watch shaped shadow box with its opening becoming wider towards the front as I needed enough room for a lot of cogs and gears layers.

I created a lid from some of the circles I cut out and fixed it to my pocket watch...erm...time machine with a hinge I made from a scrap of brown paper and a short piece of wire bent to shape.

So my time machine can be closed and opened easily.

It isn't always easy to embrace time, isn't it? Sometimes time doesn't fit our own pace, sometimes we wish we could go back and do something differently, sometimes we want it to pass us by or run faster, .... those moments when time and I are in harmony feel special. At least they do to me. And often I find that these moments are those when I find that I haven't been looking at my watch for hours (or even a whole day)... with nothing rushing me (or myself having come to a halt and letting time take me along on its "journey").

Often I discover myself in a new (and much more relaxed) way when I stop letting time dictate my pace and/or my day's work.
I also love those time travels back to my/our ancestors's days... by looking at old photographs and images or reading auto biographies. Also paintings from old painters take us on the most marvellous time travels back to centuries ago.

I covered the back of my time machine watch with some packaging paper with printed clocks on it so the ends of the brads are no longer visible. I crumpled the paper while applying it to the surface as long as the glue was still wet.


Edges and raised areas from cutting and embossing were given some DecoArt Metallic Lustre "Iced Espresso" for a bit of metallic shine.

I used the X-cut cogs and gears dies and cut several from brown paper and an old book page.

Actually there are about six to seven layers of gears and cogs. I always glued two to three to one frame before I added the next frame and layer... by doing so I covered up a lot of the gears but that way I achieved a lot of depth and "body" for my pocket watch.

Materials used on this make:

X-cut cogs and gears die, Tim Holtz brads, chit chat stickers and clock spinners,
Distress ink "Walnut Stain" and blending tool,
DecoArt Metallic Lustre "Iced Espresso",
brown paper, an old book page,
Cuttlebug cogs and gears embossing folder, Sizzix, glue, scissors, punching needle, a piece of wire, tweezers


and a heavy chipboard pocket watch frame.

I hope you will join in our challenge over at SanDee&amelie's Steampunk Challenges and have fun creating/drawing/stamping your own "Time Machines". See you there!

Hugs and happy crafting,
Claudia x