Steampunk Carousel

I have been a bad blogger for a while but unfortunately work and family demands sometimes have a tendency to take over!!

Today, I thought I would tell you about a crafting group I started last year. We call ourselves JoLLieStaMpeRs - each capital letter represents each of the original members of the group, Joan (me), Lou, Lisa, Sarah, Moira and Rachel. We have more ladies now and we meet about once a month to have a crafty play.

Each playday we set ourselves a project and it never ceases to amaze me that although we all start off with the same products all our projects are so different! One project we decided to do is based loosely on Studio 490 Art parts but we improvised using cardboard for the bases, cardboard tubes and cardboard tubs for the stands. 

Here is my version, I call it Steampunk Carousel!

The tube, circles and tub were covered in some lovely papers kindly given to me by Sarah. I die cut some spellbinders and alterations cogs painted them firstly with  black and then bronze eco friendly acrylic paints and before the bronze paint was dry I used the blunt end of a paint brush in a stabbing motion to give them a worn aged effect. To dull the bronze the cogs were swiped with black soot DI. The largest cog was glued to the top of the tub and the others around the base and onto the tube. A length of vintage tape measure ribbon was wound up the tube.

I stamped out the 3 mannequins from the Kanban Jasper set, two of Jasper and one of each of the female mannequins,  twice onto card and then onto the backing papers and  paper pieced them back and front  then stuck them back to back with a wooden kebab stick down the middle and this was poked into the tub at the bottom. I used the fringe from a pound shop scarf to dangle around the mannequins.

I had a load of small chiffon strips I had also bought from my local £1 shop - I love poking around in there to find bits and pieces to add to my crafty stash. I cut lots of different size circles with my spellbinders dies (I found putting the chiffon between copy paper worked a treat for a cleaner cut). Using a candle I seared the edges of all the chiffon circles which is a technique Leandra and Lynn from Artsy Crafts showed us - they called them illegal flowers! It was a bit time consuming given the numbers of flowers I created but well worth it for the crinkly effect. These were layered up and sewn together with a brass button and glued around the base and the top.

The three alterations cogs were glued together with a clock face in the centre of the largest one on both sides,  brass metal flowers were stuck to the smallest one . I think the Chocolate Baroque Steampunk stamp sets are fab and I used this hat stamp from the Steampunkery set to sit at the top of my carousel. It was stamped onto the same papers as used for the paper piecing and some stickles were dabbed onto the winsg. The brass wings were cut with the heart alterations die and then dry  embossed for texture.

I thoroughly enjoyed making this project although I didn't finish it at our playday - too much chatting methinks! LOL!.

Happy Crafting!

I am entering this project into the following challenges:

poequoththeraven.blogspot.co.uk/ Anything goes

simonsaysstampschallenge.blogspot.co.uk/ Anything goes

diecuttindivas.blogspot.co.uk/ Anything Goes

ppp-makeitmonday.blogspot.co.uk/ Always Anything Goes