Steam...or Iced?

Hello my steampunk friends! Welcome to our March challenge - Anything Goes Steampunk/Industrial! I was inspired recently to do some work with numbers, well, we are kind of deep into tax season in the USA, and mine are due in a month...since I haven't started working on them yet, these kinds of numbers are much more fun!! 

I was thinking of thermometers since our weather keeps changing here, and wanted to make "make" one to compare Celsius and Fahrenheit degrees. So, time to play in the big art journal!

I pushed myself out of my color zone to work in reds, oranges and yellows. I started the first layer with the Americana Acrylics as they are thicker and make a nice base layer. The yellow went on top, worked in with my fingers (my favorite tool), and then I laid the crackle stencil on it and took a baby wipe and scrubbed out some of the yellow.

Next layer up - fluid acrylics in similar colors, with some added magenta.

Thinking steampunk, I stamped in some gears and atoms with the Kaisercraft and Seth Apter stamps with the Watering Can ink (grey).

I wanted a semi opaque area in the center for my main images, so mixed the Hansa and Titan Buff together, then wiped it on with a palette knife.

From here, it was stamping, and stenciling and writing to create my "thermometer".

I used Birgit's mixed media strip, and Seth's borders and ink spots here. Thinking about the lower end of the scale I wrote the word shiver, then in a bit, a song popped into my head with the lyrics a shiver in my bones, and of course, I had to add that! 

At the higher end of the scale, I was thinking Whew...hot stuff. Can you imagine in Victorian times wearing all that get up in the heat, especially if you were female? Corsets, layers upon layers of clothes, from neck to ankle...yikes!

I feel like the pressure is on when it starts getting hotter...in many ways. Melting glaciers, big storms, people getting cranky - I know I do when it gets hot.

And here you have it - my thermometer with a steampunk twist!

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you will join us this month for our challenge!

UPDATE: Thanks so much to Seth Apter for sharing my piece on his blog The Altered Page! You can check it out here and see some awesome work by other artists.

SUPPLIES

DECOART

Americana Acrylics: Razzle Berry, Shrimp, Canary, Red Hot

Fluid Acrylics:  Pyrrole Red, Cadmium Orange Hue, Quinacridone Magenta, Hansa Yellow Medium, Titan Buff

Misters: Turquoise Shimmer, White Shimmer

Stencil: Industrial Elements 

Other Materials

Stamps:  Birgit Koopsen Mixed Media Strip (Carabelle Studio); Impression Obsession- Seth Apter: Spot Lights, Ink Spots, Border Lines; KaiserCraft Time Machine; Paper Artsy EEA 05; Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Worn Text

Stencil:  Stencil Girl - Nathalie Kahlbach Crackle

Inks: Ranger Archival Watering Can and Jet Black

Miscellaneous:

Dylusians Art Journal, palette knife, sponge, brush, baby wipes, pens - black and white, heat tool

Much appreciation to our sponsors who keep the gears turning!