Steampunk Kitty

So, several months ago, I saw these Finnabair altered steampunk-style horses popping up, and I fell in love! I found this video tutorial: “Altered Wooden Horse - tutorial by Finnabair”

Then I went to our local flea market and bought some old horses, and decided that I could also do this with my favorite animal--a cat! I bought a couple old cats and then set to work.

Here's the before:

Pretty ugly, right??

So I painted it, added some fun stuff, created a hat out of clay, and here's the result:

I think it's quite an improvement, don't you think??

Thanks to Finnabair for the great inspiration! I now have a lot of other items I am planning on altering... :)

Mixed Media Monthly Challenge #1!

It's finally here, Challenge #1 for the Mixed Media Monthly Challenge Blog! We hope to inspire you to create something each month, with only a handful of rules and hopefully a lot of room to play around and try new things.

For our first challenge, all we ask is for you to use some spray inks or mists. If you don't have any, you can buy a spray mister from the travel section of Walmart/Target/etc for a dollar, and then use watered down acrylic paint, liquid watercolor, or re-inkers (or if you want to go crazy, mix all 3--I've done it before!)

Here's my journal page:

Closeups:

Here's the step-by-step (no photos this time, sorry):
1. Start by gluing down thin strips of pattered paper horizontally along the bottom left and top right.
2. Add some washi tape and masking tape on top.
3. Scrape on some heavy gloss gel (modeling paste would work too) through punchinella.
4. Glue down some ephemera (tickets, flower, foil tape that was run through an embossing folder, butterfly die cut)
5. Use stamps in random places to add visual texture (I used Prima's small acrylic Vintage Vanity stamps--my absolute favorite for this type of project)
6. Use a bit of gesso over top in random places.
7. Now go crazy with spray inks! I used Dylusions Red, Bubblegum, and Sunshine. I also used some Luminarte Silks along the edges. Oh, and to finish it off, I used my brand-new Prima Bloom Spray (Gilded)
8. Add some words, glue the pages down into the journal, and that's it!


The journal I used is the Prima Sunrise Sunset Mixed Media Journal by Finnabair.

So, I hope you will play along, we would love to have you join us. I can't wait to see what you create! Visit the blog here for complete rules and prize information.