Keep Life Simple! - Steampunk Canvas for SanDee&amelie's Steampunk Challenges

Hi and welcome back to another steampunk project for October for my SanDee&amelie's Steampunk Challenge blog! As usual the theme for this month is "Anything Goes - Steampunk/Industrial" and more information is given on the challenge blog (that you get to by clicking HERE or using the other link at the end of this blog post. Oh, and if you scroll down to the previous post you will be taken to the Calico Craft Parts Blog, where another new project of mine has gone live this morning...)

A great part of my wonderful team have come up with projects that combine steampunk with Halloween - and that definitely worked well! And those who have been playing along with us for quite some time now know that we also accept projects that are not mainly steampunk or industrial style (even thought they obviously have to feature steampunk or industrial elements!)...so if you are already in full Halloween crafting swing you can still play along this month without having to interrupt the eerie flow - just give your Halloween project a visible steampunk/industrial twist so your entries get eligible for our Top5 and prize wins!

I have already done several Halloween projects this year - which is quite unusual for me - but for my challenge blog project I decided to stick to pure steampunk and mixed media. I have still challenged myself though by trying to come up with a project that was mainly done with bits and pieces that I have been hoarding in a tiny tin and a papier machée bowl on my craft desk - snippets and left overs from previous projects and other tiny bits 'n bobs ...

You can spot a watch makers tin to the bottom left next to an old bottle cap and some MDF laser cut cogs, some frozen charlottes, a piece of coral from a walk at the beach, in the centre there are some die cut and alcohol inked gears pieces and some animal horn pendants. There are also a rusty little metal house and a metal heart, left overs from some of my Bubbalux experiments (the blue stuff),  results from first attempts at using the new Tim Holtz 3D embosslits, some copper brads, a piece of linen ribbon,....oh, well...a mix of stuff that I couldn't throw away and stuff that I like to have in sight so it sparks inspiration at the right time...

I have played around with most of the pieces on a 6'' x 6'' chunky burlap canvas from Canvas Corp Brands and came up with an arrangement that I liked. I took a picture of it before I took it apart again, so I could turn to it for reference in case I forgot about the exact design details...

The piece to the bottom right was one of my very first die cutting and alcohol experiments ever - so it must have been in my stash for at least five years! 

The cogs and gears and the metal fence piece are from Calico Craft Parts, the big star is from That Craft Place I guess. The gorgeous rusty metal house is from Red Lead. Oh, and I have used up the last bit of Dresden paper trim that I was given by lovely Candy Colwell during a swap we made several years ago ;) 

With the right background, the right mixed media products and some textural media added I turned all of these into this: 

It definitely was great fun to create this piece and to see all the parts and sections finally fuse into a little work of steampunk mixed media art during the process. AND I have also used up some of my long hoarded scrap...erm...treasures! I really like that.

On this occasion I also tried to use up some of my oldest spray paints from when I started this hobby. So I threw some Maya Mist and Mr. Huey's on without aiming for a special design. I just made sure that coverage wasn't too even. Then I used the heat tool to dry the spray inks and paints.

I also brushed on a coat of matte DecoArt Decou-Page to prevent any of the inks to re-react with additional media and paints added. It was also necessary to create a base layer for some loosely scraped on white DecoArt media Crackle Paint.

The DecoArt media Heavy Gel Medium was used to fix all the chosen pieces to the canvas and to adhere some micro beads in some spots.

Stampendous Fran-Tage Texture Flakes were added as well. I simply brushed on some matte Decou-Page in the spots where I wanted them and sprinkled them on.

DecoArt Dazzling Metallic paints Venetian Gold, Pearl Moss and Worn Penny were used to paint the MDF pieces.

Once everything was dry, I mixed my own spray paints from water and DecoArt media Transparent Yellow Iron Oxide and another from Raw Umber to tone down certain areas on the canvas. The frozen charlotte had gotten a coat of matte Decou-Page before, so the paint would stick to that as well.

DecoArt media Misters Carbon Black, White and Turquoise Shimmer Mister paints were loosely sprinkled on for a worn look.

The rusty house and some word stickers were given a thorough coat of DecoArt media Liquid Glass for some shiny slick surfaces to contrast the worn and rough look of the rest of the canvas.

I also added bits of Seth Apter's fab Ancient Amber Baked Texture embossing powder here and there...

...as well as some sprinkles of Vintage Beeswax Baked Texture to the frozen charlotte.

I love how the Liquid Glass has created lovely inclusions of the micro beads!

At the end my craft desk looked like this...so many different products on such a small format! 

But they were all necessary to create my rich and detailed textured canvas and I had a wonderful time using them all - seeing the different beautiful effects they gave!

Some close ups to finish off my post:

Thank you for stopping by! I hope to see you play along with us at SanDee&amelie's Steampunk Challenges this month! Our sponsors DecoArt and boozybear will be giving away a prize package again to two randomly drawn winners from all proper entries. So don't miss the chance and share some steampunk or industrial style fun with us!

Hugs and happy crafting!

Claudia

xxx