Your Favourite Technique Goes Steampunk - April Challenge at SASPC

Servus and welcome back to my monthly challenge double feature day ;)
As you all know by now the challenges at SanDee&amelie's Steampunk Challenges AND over at Our Creative Corner go online on the 1st of the month - so, please, scroll down to the previous post if you want to see my make and learn about the challenge theme for Our Creative Corner's challenge. I would really love you to take a look at my make for OCC after reading this post as it is a variation of the same "tray theme", but done with different colour scheme and images - and a lot of thought alongside my heart and soul went into that make just as much as with this one.

But now to my make for SASPC (= Sandee&Amelie's Steampunk Challenges). The theme is

Your Favourite Technique Goes Steampunk

which means that you can use your very personal favourite crafting/stamping/painting/drawing/embossing/....technique to create a Steampunk make for our challenge.

Actually I combined four of my favourite techniques with this project: paper mache, using found (and rusted) objects, creating shadow boxes or trays and assemblage. 

I found these four lovely "moustache messieurs" at the flea market at Vienna's famous Naschmarkt and built the frame around them using thick corrugated card in two layers, washi tape and a lot of scraps from old book pages. 

The rusted springs and the key with the tag that says "Pumpen Aggregat" (= pump power unit) on one side and "Elektrizitätswerk" (=power house) on the other were given to me by my husband's lovely uncle Helmut. I still have a lot of treasures he gave to me sitting in a large box - waiting to be used and given a new purpose. Thank you so much, Uncle Helmut! You are my star! :)

To create the tray I used the photographs as a measure and cut several strips from the corrugated card using a carpet knife and metal ruler. I glued two strips together to achieve more depth with the frame. 

I used washi tape to cover the tops and especially sides of the corrugated card strips so the book paper scraps would stick to them better. Then I glued torn scraps from an old book randomly all over the frame pieces using DecoArt Decou-page matte. I love this stuff as it dries incredibly fast and still takes on colour afterwards! 

If used heavily it even holds the metal parts in place! 

Once all had dried I gave the frame several swipes with Distress stains to achive a weathered and aged look that works well with the photographs.

The fabulous light bulb that sits on top of my creation was given to me by Brigitte from "la maison de coutureuse"! Thank you so much, Brigitte! Bisous!

I gave it a treatment with various alcohol inks before I glued it to the top using the Decou-page glue and sealant again. 

The piece that sits underneath the light bulb is a watch part from an old alarm clock I took apart. 

I love to use items that tell their very own stories.

The more aged they look the better.

And old handwritings always make me wonder who wrote them and what these persons might have lived up to. 

Using such objects on my makes makes them more "precious" to me. Nostalgia may of course be a factor too, but I especially love the idea that if I use things that once belonged to someone who lived in a bygone aera, I help a little to prevent this person from being forgotten. 

I also like that the names and adresses of the photography studios where the pictures have been taken still can be traced. The monsieur to the right (in the upper picture) seems to have dedicated his portrait to his aunt (as on the back it says "Please, accept this portrait as a proof of your nephiew's  everlasting thankfulness, dear aunt!" - no need to mention that his handwriting was done as properly and beautifully as possible....today we would just hit the buttons on our mobile phones and send a short "thanks, auntie" or something like that I suppose). 

I think the expressions on their faces are just adorable, aren't they? And look at their moustaches! Wow! 

"Nonsense!" ("Unsinn!") it reads just to the left on top of the glued on gear. ;)

I like when randomly torn out text passages catch the eye and make the reader associate spontaneous images or scenes.  

I hope you like my assemblage showing the four MM - moustache messieurs! I had a wonderful time at my work desk glueing, tearing and colouring my frame.

What's your favourite technique and how could you use it to create a steampunk project for our challenge? I'd LOVE to learn about it!

By joining our challenge you become eligible for a prize win, Top3 votes and/or being spotlighted in an extra post on our challenge blog! We are an "anything goes" Steampunk challenge blog as long as the makes you enter are obviously steampunk and/or vintage with at least a little Steampunk twist! I would love to see your projects over at SanDee&amelie's Steampunk Challenges soon!

Hugs and happy crafting,
Claudia x