From Trash to Treasure at Stamps and Stencils

Hi everyone, welcome to our next challenge over at Stamps and Stencils. It's the turn of the very talented Autumn to host and here in her own words is the new theme.

 Don't we all love a good upcycled project?  This month we'd love to see how you take something that you'd normally discard and give it new life in your art.  Whether it's glamorized boxes, Styrofoam turned into a stamp, packaging that's been die cut, or another altered idea you have.  Bring on your best mixed media repurposing!  We can't wait to see what you come up!  Don't forget to use stamps or stencils in your project.

Some of you may remember me altering some tiny tins in the past, the first had a sewing theme and the second had a flower and butterfly theme. Towards the end of last year I was lucky enough to find another tin and I have been wanting to alter it in a Steampunk style ever since but never quite got around to it...until now. What a perfect opportunity to turn trash into treasure and at the same time complete my trio of tiny tins.

I've explained how I've prepared the tins in my previous posts but just wanted to show you their size.

The ingredients.

I used distress and archival inks to create the inserts. Some tissue tape and vintage photo distress embossing powder created the card band for the outside.

Crunchy wax Kraft paper was put through an embossing folder and then I used treasure gold to create a patina.

Then it was just a case of layering up inked, gilded and rusted embellishments until I was happy. The insides.

Quite a few layers in the base.

A side view

and finally with the lid back on hiding it's contents.

To finish I thought I'd share the trio with you. A reflection of some of my favourite subjects all with a vintage flavour.

As it is a Steampunk tin I'm also going to take the opportunity to join in with SanDee&amelie's Steampunk April challenge. 'Anything Goes' - Steampunk/Industrial

Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to hop across to see what the rest of the talented design team have created to inspire you. Can't wait to see what you'll turn into treasure!

CAS meets Steampunk!

Hi everyone, thanks for all the lovely comments you've left recently. A quick post from me today. Just thought I'd share a card I'd been asked to make. Sometimes keeping it simple is what's requested ....hence the title. I thought I'd take the opportunity to combine it with the current challenge over at SanDee & amelie's  blog which is 'Three's my lucky number' .

I hope it scrapes in as an entry...definitely a trio and watch, cogs and grungy background with gilding fit the steampunk bill......just hope it's not too CAS!!

The background is a brayered acrylic ink one from a recent post, with a little florentine treasure gold over the embossed areas. Thanks for stopping by.

Time flies...

oops 2nd attempt to post!

A few months ago I mentioned I'd been trying to make a chunky ATC for one of the challenges but that Mr Mojo decided to leave the building, and so he has been sitting there forlornly looking at me from the corner of my work space ever since. However here he now is in all his rusty grungy glory (not sure why he is a he but he is).  Hopefully he will now sit happily on my shelf stretching his rusty wings.

He started off as two wooden stamp mounts (I decided to turn some of my wood mounted stamps into unmounted stamps, but I kept the wood of course). I knew I wanted him to have rusty wings and then a couple of challenges came up that inspired me and pushed me into finishing him. The blocks still had some remnants from my first attempt so I covered the blocks with terminology tissue wrap.

I used broken china and antiqued bronze distress paints for the eroded metal effect of Tim's and wanted to continue this effect throughout.

I already had these die cuts and circles in my stash and the colours just lent themselves to the project. I stamped in potting soil archival on both with some craft stamper free stamps, one is appropriately 'Tempus fugit' (time flies).

Part way through assembly. I've used paper and metal embellishments. I've also used verdigris, black and copper embossing powders, black archival and treasure gold in florentine, spanish topaz and onyxite. 

Some close ups of his rusting body.

Over at 'A Vintage Journey'  they celebrate all things Tim influenced and it definitely is inspired by his vintage grungy approach and techniques, just hope it's eligible. I'm entering for the first time, it's only their 12th challenge!...although I've followed it, I've just not been able to enter before; the theme this time around is of course...'Time Flies'. 

I'm also pleased to be able to enter one of  SanDee & Amelie's Steampunk challenges for the first time as well. This time it's for the Summer bonus challenge which is based on a mood board, I think I've used virtually all the colours and the corroded metal cogs and gears but just lightened with a bit of blue.

Lastly I'm entering it in the Craft Stamper Take It, Make It August challenge , this month the challenge is to use any of the techniques demonstrated in Craft Stamper this year so far. From June 2014 I've used the eroded metal effects (Distress to Impress) but from the same issue I also used the blistered paint technique (Blistering Barnacles) on some of the metal work and was inspired by Trish Latimers masterclass on inventive feet. I enjoyed doing it... and that's all that matters, thanks for stopping by and hope you enjoyed the post.