The inventions of man

Have you had a chance to join in the challenges hosted by Linda Ledbetter over at StudioL3?  She's working on some neat Grungy Monday themes using Tim Holtz's blog as inspiration.  This week she chose to go back in time to his 2009 Christmas tags, Day 8.  It's all about a neato vellum technique.  I've never done anything like steampunk before and not sure it's my cup of tea but thought I'd try it this week.

I started out looking at a blank canvas, not even a coat of gesso on it.  It's only 4"x4" so I opted for no gesso and slapped on some Claudine Hellmuth paints...Traditional Tan, Dab of Yellow, Altered Orange and Landscape Green paints.

From another day in time I had adhered some sticky metal sheets to grungeboard.  In my efforts to use up scraps and small pieces I tore the metal sheet off and inked up the rough side of it with Willow, Meadow and Clover alcohol inks.  Love the texture this added to the formerly smooth silver finish.  Ran this piece (a 4x4...gasp...made for this project????) through Tim's Steampunk On The Edge Sizzix die and glued it down to the canvas edge.

Using Jet Black Archival Ink I stamped the men from  Tim's Steampunk set on to a scrap of white cardstock.  I carefully smudged my ink blending tool (with whatever red it had on it) onto the faces; the edges were touched with yellow and brown distress inks.  A piece of 28 gauge floral wire was wrapped around them.  Tim's vellum technique came into play on the plan that is behind the men.

I found a green paint chip, smeared some Gold paint dabber on it with my fingertips then cut out Tim's mini gears.  The green brads were sanded and topped with Butterscotch Alcohol Ink.  A gold clipola and a key had Clover paint dabber smushed on them and wiped off.  I thought the piece on the plan looked kind of like a piece from a lightning rod so I glued it onto cardstock then added a bit of twisted wire to the tip.

Keeping up with the metal theme, I took Wendy's paper fastener stamp (from Just Sew Artsy) and stamped it in Jet Black Archival Ink on shrink plastic.  Once it was shrunk and cooled I ran the Gold paint dabber around the edge.  I also ran the Gold paint dabber around the edges of the canvas.

So, here's to a little of this and a little bit of that!