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Monday 27 June 2011

Gothic Does Steampunk!

Firstly some good news, I was thrilled to be asked to join The Happy Daze Design Team. It was a really lovely surprise. Happy Daze has such a talented design team, and to be honest I'm little in awe of them all as they have some really inspiring blogs.

Happy Daze run a monthly challenge and a winner is randomly drawn and gets a voucher to spend in their online shop, which has loads of interesting crafting goodies. To enter you just need to use at least one item from their shop and post a picture on their facebook or blog page.

The theme for this Monday is 'Dangly Things' and I decided to make a hanging and a necklace using Lost coast Designs labels available from Happy Daze . These stamps are my favourite of the moment as they are very versatile.

I like steampunk but find the grungier elements of it quite difficult to do without it just looking dirty, so I decided to combine it with a touch of gothic. I used a digital background paper, which by the time I finished was completely unrecognisable LOL.  I used distress inks and some Graphic 45 stamps to punk up the background and then found by using black STAZON I could turn any metal embellishments black so everything got the stazon treatment including some copper german scrap. I used the lost coast stamp as my cental image and sprayed it with a few coats of varnish to make it nice and glossy and a black tassel and some chain to finish.

I also am entering this into the Just for Fun challenge which is steampunk and Sunday Stampers which is 'Words'



Still having camera issues at the moment and after my last one broke a few weeks ago this one is looking rather like it's going the same way as the lens protector didn't want to close today whilst out at Cambridge Botanical Gardens which was glorious if a touch on the warm side! 

The necklace was made using the same set of stamps and some shrink plastic. I got this idea from Lin Brown's blog Yours Artfully



I find stamping on shrink plastic quite difficult, but if you paint a thin coat of acrylic paint on the plastic first the stamped images gives a sharper impression. It's also important to punch any holes needed first before heating as the shrunken plastic is quite brittle and liable to break.

A few pictures of the stunning array of flowers at the Botannical Gardens!









Thats all for this post, thanks for looking.

Happy Crafting  X 

22 comments:

Zoechaos said...

Great hanging, very sexy with the red and black and those vintage images. Congratulations on joining the Happy Daze DT and thank you for joining us at Just for Fun XOXO Zoe

Anonymous said...

Fabulous projects Paula. Lovely photos. Thanks for sharing. Congratulations on the CI challenge.
Regards Florence.

Daniele said...

congratulations on becoming part of the design team , love your gothic/steampunk project

fatmonica said...

Love the hanging frame-the red and black is gorgeous!The necklace is great-thanks for the tip about the acrylic paint!

PsyPenguin said...

Wow! That gothic hanging is absolutely stunning and the necklace is beautiful. xx

Dolly Daydreams said...

What a fabulous hanging really sexy and divaish love the red. Congrats on your DT post with Happy Daze , they do indeed have a fab team but now it's even faber !

Marie

Meggymay said...

Love your projects, the necklace is fantastic.

Rachelxx said...

Congrats on your DT position.

Love both pieces :-)

Hels Sheridan said...

Cor those pics are stunning so I am imagining it is even more gorgeous in the real, as most things are... love that goth look you have... and those flowers... lush! Ta for joining in with the sUnday sTamper ... oh and.. CONGRATS on your new DT position... way to go!! x

Von said...

Thank you for joining us at Just for Fun with your super hangind and the neckless is just me ;) Such a good idea to colour the metal with stazon must remember that :)
Well done on the DT place
Von x

Silvia(Barnie) said...

Wonderful hanging and great necklace. Thanks for showing the wonderful photos.

sam21ski said...

Fab hanging and oh what a difference the colours make, it looks stunning.

Thanks for sharing and playing along with JFF this week.

Great necklace too.

Sam xxx

http://sam21ski.blogspot.com/

Neet said...

Congratulations on your DT place. Must check those blogs out. Lovely hanging you have done and the necklace is gorgeous too. Thanks for joining us at JFF - Hugs, Neet c

Jaqi said...

Stunning work, thats a fab image works so well, what an ispiration its brilliant

Moira said...

Gorgeous work and welcome to the Happy Daze DT

Karin said...

Fabulous projects

Sue said...

Love these projects and the stamps are just great. Hope the camera's OK

Elly said...

Thanks for the information about painting with acrylic first. I only played once with the shrink stuff and i dind't made any jewellery yet, but your necklace gives me an idea. Awesome, love the steampunk lady. (:o) Elly

Zuzu's Blog said...

Love the steampunky lushness of both these items. really beautiful stuff. Z x

flutterbycrafter said...

Stunning work and congratulations on being on the Happy Daze DT

Ginger said...

gorgeous items, and welcome to the DT Paula, G x

Hobby Musician Keyboard said...

Dear Ephemera,
I Just arrived at you blog. Oh my, do I love your art and creative mind! I'll be watching this blog closely, thank you for giving us so much of your time and mind. You make so wonderful and lovely works! I enjoyed the visit on your site. Many thanks for your beautiful inspirations!!
Many warm Hugs from Marina from Germany
I invited you gently to visit my creative Website: Bettyscardsandpaperdesign.com