Spread Your Wings - SanDee&amelie's December Steampunk Challenge

Servus!

I hope you are all enjoying crafting and baking for Christmas...and maybe also find the time to check out our new "Anything Goes - Steampunk/Industrial" challenge over at SanDee&amelie's Steampunk Challenges!

There's a huge bundle of inspiration waiting for you today as this month the whole team present their makes in one go (except my wondeful friend Kerstin, who will share her project with you a little later this month, so you have a bit of a reminder to play along with our challenge and by doing so maybe win one of our two prizes or make Top 5!). And we also have a wonderful new DT member to introduce to you! Yay!


This is my mixed media steampunk make for December:

I got this fab mechanical wing chipboard set from boozybear - one of our two prize sponsors. And of course it is the mechanical wing of a Christmas angel - just look at the wintery, frosty colours. ;)

But of course the quote on my canvas also is one I hope to be able to live by a bit better in 2017 - to spread my wings and try free myself a bit more and better from the burden challenge of my chronic autoimmune illness. It is hard to find the right balance...if I have too much action going on, the fatigue will take me down even more afterwards. If I try to play it safe and "stay calm" I feel my life is taken away from me by my condition. If I talk too much about it, it makes me feel even more ill than I actually am....and if I don't mention it at all, everyone expects me to be "available" at full speed and power (as my illness doesn't show on the outside...other than the annoying weight gain). So it is tricky to handle and finding that balance maybe even is the hardest part...but still...I hope to regain a bit of that lightness in thinking and acting...and letting go.

But enough earnest talk - being creative always is someting that lightens my spirit and/or makes me forget about pain or stress for  a while. And this particular project totally drew me in during its making - which is the best thing that can happen, right?

I played around with loads of DecoArt media texture mediums....white Crackle Paste, white Crackle Paint, white Modeling Paste...just to name a few.

But let's go into detail:

I added a layer of Raw Umber acrylic paint to the pieces and let that dry.

Then I applied a coat of white DecoArt media Crackle Paint and put the pieces on top of our heating to speed up the drying process.

Once the cracks had appeared I glued the pieces together using matte Decou-Page.

Using a palette knife I scraped and dabbed on some white Modeling Paste to the points of the wings.

The dabbing motion of the palette knife created this fabulous texture:

White Crackle Paste was randomly spread across a canvas and the wing was put right on top. The Crackle Paste also works like glue - so once it had dried the wing stuck to my canvas properly. 

Then I started adding some Stampendous mica flakes in different tones alongside several washes of various DecoArt media fluid acrylic paints like Quinacridone Gold, Burnt Sienna, English Red Oxide, Transparent Yellow Iron Oxide and Cobalt Teal Hue.

The flakes were added by applying white Gesso and/or matte Decou-Page with a brush and sprinkling them on. I used my fingertip to dab a Cobalt Teal Hue border around my canvas.

DecoArt Orange Flickr Metallic Lustre was added to the areas I had put the Modeling Paste on.

I stamped my quote with black archival ink onto a piece of protective paper and cut the words out. Then I glued them in place using matte Decou-Page and traced the outlines with a black watersoluble pencil. With a wet fine tip brush I "smudged" the black outlines to blend the words in with the background.

Et voilá!

Some close-ups of details I like...

...and the finished canvas:

And now I highly recommend you hop over to our challenge blog to get yourself a heavy dose of inspiration! Thanks so much for stopping by! Enjoy the advent season and I hope to meet you over at SanDee&amelie's Steampunk Challenges soon!

Hugs and happy crafting!

Claudia

xxx