Steampunk!

Daring Day today and a brand new, and very "different" challenge has been set by our lovely, and very talented Rein - before that though, a quick reminder that if you joined in last week's dare, the winner of our prize draw has been announced on our blog today - you really do need to see if it's you who'll be receiving that wonderful prize from The Ribbon Reel.  If no one claims it I'm putting "first dibs" on it hehehe

Most of us had a little panic  (to say the least) when we saw Rein's dare on our calendar and went scuttling off to do some research hehe. 

You know all those wonderful altered art pieces you see with crazy "machines" being built from bodies, hot air balloons, clocks, flying machines and cogs, often with some butterfly wings thrown in for good measure - well it turns out that's a lot to do with what steampunk art is about.  There's loads of info on wikipedia's steampunk page, and some pictures too.  Over on the Daring Cardmakers blog we've added a couple of links to free downloads that might help too. 

So that's our challenge for this week, have a go at making something inspired by the Steampunk Movement, then let us know where we can see what you've made - go on, we dare you!

This is my card

I even bought a stamp set to use on this - and you know how I feel about stamping, hehe!  Mind you at least with these "arty" stamps you don't need to do any of the dreaded colouring in so I might have a fighting chance!  This set is by 7 Gypsies - some of them are ok, but I must say that I'm not paarticularly impressed at the lack of clarity I got when I was practising, but maybe that's just because I'm rubbish at stamping.  A shame as it's got all the cogs, clocks, pointing fingers etc you might want for first forays into steampunk.  I'd decided I wanted a hot-air balloon on my card, so I was disappointed to find made a particularly messy and blobby image - so I decided to go with my trusty Craft Robo instead. 

This challenge had me searching through my "might come in useful one day" drawer - and I was panicked again by not finding what I thought was in there oh oh!  I finally found the stuff I'd ordered yonks ago from The Fruit Pixie in a box on top of the tall bookshelf!  I'd not got that far in my clearing the shelves quest last weekend!   Anyway, in that particular box of quirky, off the wall stuff I found some miniature postcards and cut the little man out - with his hand held out that way (he was holding a cane originally) I thought I could "sit" my hot air balloon on it.  I used a brass sundial (I think that's what it is) for the balloon and the tiny compass (it really works!) in the middle.

The butterfly wings behind the balloon are by K&Co and from an old Bubbly Funk kit.

All the cogs came from my lovely (and generous) DCM Teamie Lynda (thank you darlin'!) - by chance the brown ones matched my colours perfectly and I only needed to paint a few for some extra contrast in gold and black - the one on the right is painted with Black Enamel Accents so has a lovely shiny, raised finish.

I needed to add some sort of sentiment and was a bit stuck for what to do until I thought about using words from the DCM blog banner - after all, that's what we hoped to do when we set up the blog all those years ago and with a dare like this one it's even more appropriate!

Here's a list of the things I've used on the card - it's quite a long one!

Background panel: 

paper by Delish Designs from the Bistro collection, : Stamped images from the Steampunk clear stamps set (7 Gypsies)

Balloon section:

Gent cut from a mini postcard, Balloon and Basket cut by Craft Robo, Butterfly by K&Co, tiny compass and sundial fave from The Fruit Pixie, strings are drawn in, flames are made with red and yellow Stickles

Cogs:

I think they are cut with Tim Holtz die set. Krylon Gold pen, black ink, 
Black Enamel Accents

Globe:

Cuttlebug die, cut in black card, edged with Krylon gold, then inked with black ink to distress down the gold a bit.

Rosette:

hand folded using paper from Steampunk Debutante collection (Graphic 45)m gold Krylon and ink as before, Clock in the centre is another of the stamps from the 7 Gypsies set.

Other:

Dusty pink ribbon (you've just got to have ribbon, eh?), 
two screw-head brads from stash, words pc generated.

Lots of chipboard scraps for dimension, lots of inking, lots of glue, lots of fun!

Please have a go at this challenge - I think you will enjoy it, adnd as there's no rights or wrongs you can really just make it up as you go along and have some fun.  I think this one will be another thing for the wall when our study is all done and looking posh!

Check what my fab and Daring Teamies have done this week HERE.