Steampunk...

...from a different perspective.

(Photo heavy so settle down with a cuppa)

Saturday 6 February was the first Andy Pearson workshop of 2016 and with all the madness that has been going on at work and with Mum, this was a break that I NEEDED - 5.5hours of not having to think or worry about anything other than cutting a piece of paper straight or getting the 'sandwich' right for some die-cutting & embossing.

Now most folk will think of Steampunk as being Industrial & Grungy but our first make of the day threw that notion to the wind.

For speed, Andy had cut a tub full of cogs from pretty pale aqua card. Our first job was to make two borders from these cogs that would be used as a raised embellishment on the finished card...

 ...Having marked the required length on a piece of paper, I put together my borders using Cosmic Shimmer PVA glue (Creative Expressions) and put them to one side to dry.
The main panel for the front of the card was embossed with an 8x8 embossing folder...

 ...covered in clocks & pocket watches. This was matted onto silver miri and then onto a larger square of the aqua card.
After a session of die-cutting clock faces, hands and a few leaves...

 ...the card was constructed with the help of some PinFlair Gel and some bronze coloured metal gems.

The second make of the day was a bit of more traditional Steampunk.

Three panels of black CS were embossed with more clocks (I also used brickwork on one of my panels) and then gilding wax was applied - Decadent Teal was the shade I used on my panels...

 ...the loose cogs were waxed with Mink to give a contrast and the embossed panels were then matted onto some silver miri.
This was the finished result...

...and will offered to a friend who asked me to make a card for her husband (great timing).

The last project of the day was a giftbox/cracker box made to look like metal.

Starting with plain black CS, the various pieces were die-cut...

 ...waxed and assembled. The cracker box is a Tonic die and the cogs panel was a strip die (I think it was from Cheery Lyn) that we cut to size. I used Pumpkin and Mink gilding waxes to colour my piece so that it had an 'aged' and 'rusty' look to it.
The box was finished off with some wooden leaves, jute string and burlap butterflies...

...some of the cogs also got a few silver pearls added to make it look like bolts.

 So the three projects were...

 ...quite different. A quite straight forward bit of...

 ...embossing & waxing using darkish colours. A very clean (but not simple) effect...

 ...using pale colours and not a bit of wax or ink in sight. Then the last piece...

...lots of texture and shading making CS look like something else.

A fabulous day.

Pinnacle Crafts have weekday lessons every week and weekend workshops on a regular basis so if you live within access, check out what is available.

Thank you Andy for a wonderful 'playday'.......................................................................