Her Steampunk Heart Beats in the Right Place

Servus, hi and welcome to my mid-month reminder project for our steampunk challenge over at SanDee&amelie's Steampunk Challenges! Again we have the "Anything Goes - Steampunk/Industrial" theme, so I was totally free to play with whatever I wanted to lay my hands on.

I still had some left over corrugated card blocs (like the ones I used in this project HERE - only larger) - and one of them had already been lying on my studio desk for quite a while now, waiting for the moment when inspiration would strike...and this is the result:

I have also photographed her in natural light in my living room so metal paint effects and metal from the embellishments became more visible (capturing these effects in artificial lighting is almost impossible...*sigh).

I just love the chunky-ness of the corrugated card blocs (they're left overs from packaging)...

...and I also love the gorgeous Octopode Factory "Lady Audrey" stamp!!!

I unearthed this stamp recently while tidying up a bit and especially sorting through different boxes of all kinds in which I use to quickly stuff bits and pieces (often because I am too lazy to put them back in their proper places...or when I have run out of storage space and first would have to re-organize my stash...lol).

The gears on the bamboo stick were finds of the same kind...

Some of them are left over die cut gears from projects from literally years ago (like the alcohol inked ones for example, which were made for probable use on this project HERE...oh, I am obviously feeling kind of nostalgic today...;). 

The corrugated card bloc got two layers of scraped on DecoArt Chalky Finish paints rustic and primitive (on top), then I stamped the image onto some tissue and glued that onto the bloc with diluted matte DecoArt Decou-Page (using a very soft brush).

The gears were put on the bamboo stick first and then sprayed with DecoArt media Carbon Back Mister from underneath.

To make Lady Audrey's silhouette stand out from the background I painted some DecoArt media Titanium White fluid acrylic around it with a fine tip soft brush and let the paint fade out into the background.I also used the white paint to form the skirt's outlines.

Lady Aubrey was painted using DecoArt media fluid acrylics Cobalt Teal Hue, Titanium White, Titan Buff, Diarylide Yellow, Phtalo Turquoise, Quinacridone Magenta and Cobalt Teal Hue (and mixes of some of these tones as with the different skin tones and the hair).

I cut out a mask to cover the finished lady, so I could sprinkle on DecoArt media Shimmer Misters Turquoise, White and Carbon Black Mister. I also scraped on DecoArt Extreme Sheen Vintage Brass (that I had also used on the screws that were to become her arms, on some of the gears and on the sides of the bloc) and a mix of Diarylide Yellow and Quinacridone Magenta. 

The bamboo stick with the gears, the painted screw chipboards, a metal heart gear embellishment and a metal flower embellishment from my stash were glued in place with matte Decou-Page. 

 Of course a beautiful steampunk lady needs a flower in her hair, doesn't she? I hope you like her and the finished project as much as I do! And I hope to see you play along with us over at SanDee&amelie's Steampunk Challenges soon!

I really enjoyed playing with all my (re)found bits and pieces and trying to fuse them into a fun, creative project. A huge part of the creative process this time was simply following what I had on my desk from the tidying up (the bloc, the stamp and the old gear die cuts and embellishments) and adding colour tones of my choice and in my favourite way...

Do you have any old stamps that you haven't taken out for way too long? I would love to see you using some of these in your next projects (be it on the challenge blog or on your blogs or facebook...). Oldies often are goodies - we just tend to forget about them because there's always something new that wants to be used and tried out...right?

To hop over to the challenge blog and check out my teamies' fabulous makes, simply click HERE!

Hugs and happy crafting!

Claudia

xxx