Gear It Up!

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Welcome one and all! I am truly honored and excited to be sharing my very first Steampunk Challenge as a new member of the Design Team...WooHoo!! Gears, gears, gears, gotta love them, and I do love to add them into my work, but what to do when that is the challenge focus? I will share I had a short creative block on coming up with my idea, maybe because I was now going to be one of the team inspiring you. I'll start by sharing my finished project, then take you though the steps and details..grab your cup of coffee or tea, here we go. Hope this inspires you to join us in the challenge!

You never know what will pour out of a bottle in the Steampunk world!

Canvas and acrylics to begin the project. I chose some of my favorite colors, purple, blue and green, and of course some metallic paint, and watered them down to a thin consistency.

Wet the canvas, painted on my colors all over the place, spritzed a bit more water as needed to make the surface nice and wet.

What do you do with all of those plastic bags you bring home? Well, they work really well to add some great design texture into your background. Just smooth it down over the wet paint, the more wrinkles, the better. Next step is the hardest..patience...let it sit for 6-10 minutes.

I rolled my paper towel roll over it and picked up some of the paint. If you want richer color, let it dry completely. Doesn't it make a cool design?

Next, some acrylic color wash over the background.

Time for a cup of coffee while I wait for things to dry, and start some of the other parts.

Stamped the flying man image by Deep Red and the bottles by Hampton Art/Graphic 45 on watercolor paper. Painted them with my watercolors, not too worried about staying in the lines, as I was detail cutting them.

Paint up the ripped cardboard, seal all of my stamped images with Ranger's Glue and Seal. I am envisioning this as a shelf.

Add the branch, and it is starting to look like a shelf.

I decided I wanted more texture in the background, so laid on a thick layer of Finnabair's clear crackle Texture Paste. I learned a thick layer takes a long time to dry. Rubbed brown ink over the surface to bring out the crackles. It's starting to come together.

Ok, let's start to lay it out. I wanted it to look like the overturned bottle was pouring out all the machine parts to make the flying men. I had previously made my first acrylic skin, and this seemed like the perfect time to use some of it.

 

 

I need some big gears on this collage! Love these wood gears from EKsupplies!

Of course, I need metal gears and cogs too! Love how it all layers up.

Shelf and bottle details, a few gears...

Imagining this was in a laboratory, so had to have some tools hanging from the shelf.

Had so much fun gearing up my flying men! I can imagine I am up there in the aether flying right beside them.

 

And, now everything is geared up and complete

I had so much fun creating my "Gear it Up" collage for Steampunk challenges. I love steampunk and hope I have inspired you to join us. Thanks for stopping by for a visit!