A Steampunked Window

Hello Everybody!

It is my turn over at the Unique Laser Designs Blog.  And this is one of my most favorite projects I have ever made.  I hope I haven't creatively peaked!  LOL!  I am going to show you all the highlights.  If you are looking for how I did it-go over to the Unique Laser Designs Blog here, and I have a breakdown of steps.

I found this window box at a thrift store.  Never mind the thing in the window box part.  That is a project for another day.  And can you believe this in the only original photo I have of the box?  I apologize for the quality-it was a phone picture.  :)

So with some paint, fiber paste, aluminum foil, cardstock, acrylic sheets, alcohol inks, and Unique Laser Designs embellishments, I made this:

At first I wanted to paint this yellow and put on some cute ULD daisies.  But then something stirred--something Steampunk!  So I started to paint light brown.  Then I painted dark brown on it.  I sponged black on the brown paint.  I mixed black paint with fiber paste to create "gunk."

I didn't know how I was going to do the middle of the window until I happen to see my January Tim Holtz tag hanging up.  You can see it here.  And that is when it hit me!  I would do a section of exposed gears.  So I did-nice clean shiny gears inside the oily dirty machine. ;)

I used Tim Holtz's die cut bottles to make these bottles out of Clear Scraps which is a thick (but not to thick) acrylic.  I used alcohol inks and then I used the skull and crossbones from the pirate flag for one bottle.  For the other bottle I used the word hope from the brick stencil.

Because these gears are going in the "heart of the machine" I wanted a bright metal color.  The one on the right is embossed while the 2 on the left are "gold leafed" except with copper leafing.

Here is another picture of the window box.  I am going to put cards in it that are ready to go!

For my Unique Laser Design Pieces, I used the following:

Gears A

Gears D

Brick Wall Stencil (the word Hope comes with it)

Pirate Flags

I would like to enter this Steampunk Window Box into the following challenges:

The Mirror Crack'd--Challenge 1 Anything Goes

SanDee & Amelie's Steampunk Challenges: "Steampunk Stories"--When I saw what September's challenge was-I was instantly intrigued.  How could I tell a story.  As I worked on my Steampunk Window Box there was a story unfolding.  I like to think of the window box as a dirty working machine just chugging away.  There are bottles in the window and one of them is labeled hope.  Is that bottle full or empty?  Then the heart of the box explodes-revealing a very clean "gear" heart.  There is a hot air balloon in the window-is it leaving because the people on there know the secret?  

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge:  Rock the Techniques:  I used Tim's pounce technique to apply the alcohol inks to the acrylic and foil.  Also, I used sticky powder on the gears with the copper leafing.

Good Ol' Spice Rack

Hello Everybody!

It's my turn over at the Unique Laser Designs Blog and I am super excited to show you my project.

First I have to tell you a little story.  I was walking through my local thrift store.  I was gathering little treasures here and there.  Then--there it was.  And I knew I must buy it!

Yes, this old spice rack for $2.99.  But I'm not planning on putting spices on it.  I am going to put embossing powders and glitter on it! :)

So to get started I gessoed the spice rack.  The fun part was picking out the Unique Laser Designs wood pieces to adorn my spice rack.

I gessoed my wood pieces also, especially since I was going to paint the daisies yellow.

Corner A (set of 4)

Border Swirl I (set of 2)

Daisies (5 pc set)

I painted the spice rack and these corners with an acrylic paint.  Then I rubbed a little Inka Gold over the corners.  You can see one of these things is not like the other! ;)

Here is my spice rack all finished!  The yellow paint that I used for the swirls and daisies was a yellow pearl colored paint.  The pearl means there is an iridescence to it.  Yay!  I used some of the paint mixed with water and glazed over parts of the spice rack.

For the middle top I mixed some of the yellow paint with light modeling paste and used Tim Holtz's Rays stencil.  This helped to make the word "spices" disappear.  

The following three pictures are close ups.

Here is the spice rack with the embossing powders in it.

I couldn't resist doing a side by side photo of the before and after. 

So get out your Unique Laser Design pieces-and give something an updo with them! :)

I am also submitting this spice rack to a new challenge called The Mirror Crack'd-Anything Goes.  It's a mixed media challenge (I used paint, wood embellishments, Inka Gold, and Light modeling paste).

Thank you so much for stopping by and leaving comments!  Until next thyme my friends...have a sage and sound day!  :)