Steampunked cigar box: by guest designer Lori Woods

Hello everyone! I'm very happy to be back for my second guest designer post and this time I've gone steampunk! Normally my steampunk project are covered in gorgeous rust and patinas but I wanted to really showoff these fantastic steampunk shapes so I went for a metallic colour palette instead.

 I started with an old cigar box and used a stencil to create some texture. I added two of the Ornate Decorative hinges to the side to recreate a box effect and then covered everything in a mix of gold and bronze metallic paints. 

I used the Steampunk Mechanical Clockworks motif and Steampunk Mechanical Clock shapes, along with Mini wood cogs to create a focal point, layering them together to give the piece dimension. I painted this with silver metallic paint and attached it to the box.

Although I loved the mix of metallic colours, everything was too bright and clean so I took some watered down black acrylic paint and used this to create shadows around the shapes and give the box a slightly dirty and worn look. I finished off with a word element from the Apothecary set and my steampunked cigar box was done!

I hope this gives you some inspiration- these steampunk pieces are fantastically detailed and could be used in so many ways on different projects.

I used:

Ornate scroll decorative hinges

Steampunk Mechanical Clockworks motif

Steampunk Mechanical Clock

Mini wood cogs

Word elements- Apothecary

We're All A Little Mad Here/ Liz Marsden

  Hi guys, I saw this fabulous Mdf Journal book on the Calico Craft Parts website, you can buy it with inner sections for 5 different layouts, I chose the one with 2/ 4 sections this time, these I glued together and adhered into the base inside,

I will start with the outside front cover, which I painted with some acrylic paints in a couple of shades of blue, I painted the lighter shade first, then when dry went over here and there with the darker one, I let these dry completely, I painted the inside sections at this stage too,

I wanted to make the journal with an vintage Alice in Wonderland theme of which I had in my stash some images and a stencil, so taking the stencil and some modelling paste I stencilled through the word stencil placing it towards the top so I could adhere an image lower down,

I also used a hearts and clock stencil at the opposite corners of the journal front to balance it up,

when all the stencilling was dry I went over the top using some waxes in blue and gold, this highlights the stencilling, and kept the vintage look,

I then added these fabulous small Fleur-De- Lis hinges on the front,I kept these in the colour they came in to match with the book spine which I had left as it came too,

The journal comes with a piece of Mdf you can use to close the journal with, I haven't used it this time though as instead I used some stretchy string to go around the cover and back,

I cut down a scene of the Alice papers I had in my stash along with some Emphemera which I adhered onto the back of the front cover, this gave interest with out being to bulky,

I gathered together some more die cut images, flowers, another saying and a bottle which I had filled with glitter to look like the Potion Alice drinks, then on one of the sections I used the adorable caddy kit add on in small, for the mdf Tea, teapot and cups which of course fit brilliantly with the Alice theme, these I again kept in their natural colours as the inside spine to make it all mix and match,

These are so useful !!!and can of course be painted etc if needed,

I created this for my Granddaughter who loved it!! 

Calico Craft parts:

Journal tray 

Caddy Kit add on sheet - Tea Set

Hinges - Fleur-De-Lis

Do check out these and lots more Mdf and Plywood products at reasonable prices,

Happy Crafting!!

Hugs Liz xx