Once Upon A Time

Hello and welcome, with an especially big welcome to the newest followers...  I'm so happy you decided to jump on board, thank you!

You know those times when you get an idea and it consumes you and you start to think you've bitten off more than you can chew trying to get this thing that's in your head to take shape in real life... well, this is one of those.  And I warn you this is a lo-o-ong post - and, coming from me, that's saying something!

It started with this month's Steampunk Challenge set by SanDee and die amelie: Steampunk Fairytales - well, that fairly set me buzzing.  I figured I had the whole month to get it done - but then SSSaS came up with Fly as their theme for this week and, given what was in my head, it was perfect... so my deadline suddenly came concertina-ing towards me!!

So, without more ado, here's my Book of Steampunk Faerie Stories, which I'm also going to put In the Library at Craft-room Challenges...

That's the inside but the cover is also part of the deal.  And that's where I'm going to start.  (Scroll down for more flying pumpkin pictures!)  The cover was really inspired by the work of the amazing Finnabair - an attempt to capture some of her extraordinary style, which seems so suited to the Steampunk Fairytale theme.

So this will also go into Snazzy's current Inspired by Anna Dabrowska challenge.  I'm more thrilled than I can say to have got a place on her UK workshops later this year - fizzing!  (Okay, so now I'm buzzing and fizzing... good vibrations.)









All the metal hardware - some by Anna Dabrowska herself, some Idea-ology, some from The Funkie Junkie Boutique's new filigree range (on offer this week as the Friday Focus), as well as some wooden cogs - sits on embossed card glued to one of my mother's old work diaries (and there are many more of them - yay!).











I added some die-cuts - the lace and clock hands - as Anna does, and glued it all down.  I say that like it's nothing, but it was one of those days where nothing wanted to stick, so there were quite a lot of bad words involved at this stage.







And the other problem is that you go through several really good-looking stages on the way...  I already quite like it "naked"...













... and I was seriously tempted to stick at the gesso'd stage.  I think you can count on there being a project that does that some time soon!











But eventually I took a deep breath and set to with the spritzing.  I masked off the bookplate centre so that the "faerie" sign would remain readable.










That is my favoured spelling of the word, by the way... to me the land of faerie is a dark, mysterious place; certainly mischievous and possibly malign, and I feel  f a e r i e  offers a taste of that better than the pink and Disneyed  f a i r y  word.

Once done, I used Black Soot DI to add more definition and finally burnished with Treasure Gold in Aquamarine.









(A thank you shout out goes to Andrea of Eclectic Meanderings - delicious random musings, often with a musical bent, with a "salon" for discussion in the comments on each post, like the 18th century salons I wish I could have participated in! - for giving me this. 

Aquamarine would probably have fairly low down my list of colours to get but, as it turns out, I use this all the time, and on this project it's played a huge role.)







I'm not going to do a complete "here's what I did" because then we really would be here til tomorrow, but there are bits where in future I'll want to know what I did (!) so there'll be a bit of how-to-ing as we go.

Moving to the inside pages, tin foil is one of the primary ingredients... I raided the kitchen drawer and went off to play.  I always knew this would be a book, and the flying carriage was the other immediate thought - but how to make it?

The body of it is foil mounted on card, embossed, painted black and rubbed back, and then cut into petals which I could form into a dimensional carriage.  

It's sort of Cinderella - so was sort of intended to be slightly pumpkin-esque, but this is a flying steampunk pumpkin.







And, given it's pulled by those magical birds, it also has echoes of the Six Swans for me.  Yes, I know they're not swans, and there are more than six of them, but since when were fairytales literal?

The bonneted young lady along for the ride is a Prima stamp, coloured with Distress Stains, coated in UTEE, and she too has had a sprinkling of faerie dust a.k.a. Rock Candy Dry Glitter.  

She's mounted on about four layers of padded tape, cut into tiny pieces to fit behind her.

The circle behind her is the centre of a die-cut TH Weathered Clock.  It was cut from another panel of foil-covered card, but this time it was alcohol-inked in blues and greens - very faerie - and has a sprinkling of Frantage Aged Silver.








On the reverse, I created a layer of crinkled, inked tin foil.












You can just see it on the insides of the clock wheels bracing the structure.  Love this effect, so I think it will get a more prominent airing some time soon.








On yet another piece of tin foil + card I did both techniques: first the blue/green alcohol inking, then the embossing, painting black and rubbing back... and that's what the lettering is die-cut from, using the fantastic WordPlay die.

They then also got edged and burnished with the Treasure Gold.

And they are one of my favourite parts of the piece.  

Is there a more exciting phrase for a child than "Once upon a time..."?  

Here we go into our imaginations...










I used the leftover bits of embossed card in both colours to handcut my little castle/forest.  

I'm still not sure which it is that she's flying over, but I guess that's now in the eye of the beholder - what do you reckon, forest or castle towers?  Both very fairytale, so either will do...









The background is layers and layers of stuff: gesso, papers...











... stencilling, texture paste...








... tissue tape...










... inking, painting, stamping...

The stamping includes my favourite script stamp from the Tim Holtz Apothecary set, and my much loved Stampology Silhouette Blossoms.

Just such fun playing.

And talking of playing...

The faeries (see, these ones are definitely mischievous, just look at them) are torn from Prima's Nature Garden papers, and the rest of the page is scattered around too.

I added white pen doodlings to highlight them in the moonlight, and there are Rock Candy Stickles and Dry Glitter to create the magical aura around them (same treatment for the birds).  You really catch the sparkle best as you move it around of course, but I'm not on the video-ing yet...

I used the Tando Steampunk Christmas Tree mask with some texture paste to create all the cogs and gears (obviously I used it only partially, rather than having the whole tree).












They've had some dry-brushing à la Andy Skinner, as well as the Aquamarine treatment.













The book was fairly willing to stay open and upright where I wanted it, but I decided it would be wise to create some braces, so the Weathered Clocks were pressed into use.  

I love that they give the look of machinery while also echoing the Once Upon a Time and clocks chiming midnight of the Fairytale theme.










There's also an extra little support round the back, two bits of clock die glued together and embossed with Frantage Aged Silver.

I have to confess this piece fell off while I was photographing, and it turned out that in fact it's not needed... I'm delighted that the main braces hold the piece perfectly well.

So it's photo-heavy, information-heavy, imagination-heavy, and actually quite heavy in real life
with all that metalwork... but I hope you've enjoyed the tour around my little piece of Faerieland.


It's now displayed on a corner shelf so that you get the full benefit of both sides.


Thank you so much for taking the time to stop by (if you've made it this far)... and if you leave a comment I'll do my level best to return the visit.  




For now I'll wish you all a "Hezky vikend!" (a lovely weekend), and leave you in peace to enjoy a bit of Yeats...

Faeries, come take me out of this dull world,
For I would ride with you upon the wind,
Run on the top of the dishevelled tide,
And dance upon the mountains like a flame.
William Butler Yeats

I'd like to enter this in the following:
Sandee & amelie's Steampunk Challenges where they have invented the Steampunk Fairytale
At Simon Says Stamp and Show they have invited us to Fly
The Craft-room Challenge is spending some time In the Library
At Snazzy's they want to know if we are Inspired by Anna Dabrowska - well, um, yes!
At Anything But A Card they'd also like to know who or what we are Inspired By
At the Inspiration Journal they are playing with Marvellous Masks and Spectacular Stencils
I've just seen that one of my favourite challenges, Artful Times, are also playing Stencils and/or Masks, so I'd like to add this over there...