"Let's play good bulb, bad bulb!"

...is probably my worst pun ever. LOL

...but I have been hoarding a cute little bulb dies set in my stash unused for ages it seems and when I recently tried to reorganise my cutting dies it (re-)caught my attention and the idea for a fun little mixed media steampunk tag was born.

Welcome to the start of our "Anything Goes - Steampunk/Industrial" challenge over at SanDee&amelie's Steampunk Challenges! And no need to mention that the reorganising of my dies came to a sudden halt because I had to create this tag...lol

It has been quite some time since I have shared a tutorial over here on my own blog and I guess I needed a bit of a time out from it...but this time I just felt I wanted to share the process with you (even if I still sometimes think that there are so many people out there who do much more inspired and professional projects and tutorials...). 

I used the Tag & Bookplate die to cut a tag from black cardstock. The cut out tag was embossed using the Foundry 3D Texture Fades embossing folder and to make my tag  more sturdy I glued an MDF tag from Calico Craft Parts to its back and then cut off the excess once the glue had dried. 

I simply made sure the holes of the MDF and the cardboard tags matched when gluing both together.

I had also cut two light bulbs and their filaments and threads from black cardstock and covered the glass part of the bulb with a thin coat of matte DecoArt Decou-Page because I later wanted to use DecoArt media clear Crackle Glaze on top.

While the bulbs were set aside to dry, I die cut some extra gears using my newly bought Sizzix Sidekick (which was a treat to myself after ten months of bravery with (almost) regular visits at the dentists, having three implants and several root treatments and extractions done...thanks to my former dentist who managed to make me feel on the safe side when in fact there would have been several teeth to be taken care of urgently).

But enough whining...let's focus on some good and fun stuff instead! I put the two bulbs in place (without gluing them on) to find good spots for my gears to go in and then glued these to the embossed background. The bulbs though still needed more treatment before they could be fixed to the tag for good.

I even used some of the cut off sections of the same gears and glued them in places where they looked as if they came out from behind the embossed riveted plates.

The bulbs got a thorough coat of clear Crackle Glaze that I brushed on with a soft wide flat brush. Then I put these on the heater to speed up the crackling process.

In the meantime I dry brushed the tag using DecoArt premium acrylic paints Cobalt Teal Hue, Diarylide Yellow and Quinacridone Gold Hue. These are perfect for dry brushing! I always started from the outside and worked my way towards the centre area but left that black. This way the focus gets drawn to the centre with the bulbs in it.

Voilà - first layer of Cobalt Teal Hue finished!

A mix of the Quin Gold Hue and Diarylide Yellow gave a lovely colour  to brush on top of the Teal.

In the meantime the heater had done its job and the crackling had turned out just beautiful!

To make the cracks more visible I used DecoArt media Titanium White Antiquing Cream.

Brush on, let dry and then wipe back with a soft damp cloth until you're content with the look. It's as easy as that!

On top of the Antiquing Cream I added a quick wash of the same mix of Quin Gold Hue and Diarylide Yellow. As the Antiquing Cream gets reactivated during this process and could be washed off, I only loosely and in one single soft stroke added the wash and dabbed off any excess with kitchen roll.

I also painted some rusty tones to the threads of the bulbs...

...and a thin border around the tag in the same colour and in dry brushing technique again.

DecoArt Metallic Lustres Radiant Red, Brilliant Turquoise and Orange Flicker were used to add a bit of metal bling and sheen to the raised areas of the embossed tag and the bulbs' filaments and threads.

I hand wrote my words on some black cardstock scraps using a white gel pen and cut them to size.

Now all my finished pieces were ready to go on the tag. I used black sticky foam pads to fix everything in place.

Done! 

Some close ups:

and once more the finished tag.

It was great fun to create (oh...by the way...the bulbs dies set is an old one and was from memory box I think) and I hope you like it as much as I do. With that said I would like to invite you over to our February challenge and to take a look at my wonderful teamies' makes for another dose of steampunk/industrial mixed media inspiration! Simply click HERE to get taken to our challenge blog. There's time until 28th February to play along and maybe make our Top5 or win one of our two fantastic prizes! I hope to see you over there and can't wait to see what you will create!

Hugs and happy crafting!

Claudia

xxx