Steampunk cuckoo clock

Recently I discovered all these wonderfull challenge blogs out there and started to participate. Mostly to challenge myself and get inspired by all those wonderfull artists around. Now I do not consider myself to be an artist, but...I do love watching what other people create and I like sharing my creations as well and what better way then by a challenge...

This time I made a wall hanging inspired by Sandee & Amelie's Steampunk Challenge blog: Cuckoo clocks go steampunk. I love steampunk, so when I saw this challenge I knew I wanted to participate. I must admit though, it's been giving me a little headache... because somehow my mind didn't want to stay on the cuckoo clocks and kept wandering off to Ada Lady Lovelace and the analytical engine. So I somehow made the two come together and I hope it still counts as a cuckoo clock. And since I used a touch of green troughout this project, I'm allso entering this wall hanging in the PanPastel UK challenge no11: a touch of green, though you have to look really close to find the green...

Spooky Tag

Well, maybe not so spooky, but the picture I took is...

Altered box

My daughter gave me some old diddle boxes that she no longer liked. We figured we would alter them. So last night I started on one of the boxes. I didn't really know where I wanted to go with the box, but I thought it would come to me as I progressed.

Art journal - insert finished

I finished the last few pages of the mini art journal insert. I tried some cool layering and distressing techniques. Unfortunately, I completely forgot to make progress pics. I'll try and remember that for next time, as I always enjoy watching the process of how one thing (or several things) becomes somthing completely different and unexpected.

Here's a sneek peek at the back cover of the booklet, wich I entered in the Eclectic Paperie Challenge: Fabric, since I incorporated tule fabric in the design.

My art journal...

Another first, a small art journal, not finished obviously, but working on it... you could say a work in progress.

I find it very helpfull in getting my mind organized and getting some of the thoughts that might seem unclear at first, out into the open. It's a great way to try out new techniques and just play and experiment...just what the doctor ordered =).

Here are some quick, slightly messy, pictures of my work in progress.

The front cover...

12 tags of 2013 - march

Stepping right out of my box here and entering my first project specifically made for a challenge. Allthough I like creating with a goal I'm not one to compete much, let alone to set myself up for competition in such a talented community... but then I decided things had to change, I have to change, so no more self imposed restrictions and just let my inner creative spirit run wild... and enter a challenge.

So yeah, I made a tag for the 12 tags of 2013 - march - Tim Holtz challenge. I was a bit intimidated by all the talented entries, but once I got going, it didn't matter anymore.

Here is my interpretation of Tim's Spring Bunny Tag.

A flowery TP mini album

Last week I tried my hand at making a second TP mini album.
This time I was going to use the papers I bought, in stead of all sorts of free images downloaded from the internet or made myself. I have seen all sorts of beautifull TP mini albums and they all include flowers of some sort.

Now I am not a very flowery "girl" and I have never made any paper flowers before, except maybe when I was a little girl, but I was determined to use flowers on this one.

The making of the mini was rather easy, I used the stack the deck method and build the mini. Using the papers was an brise. I kept it rather plain at first, so I could add decorations later. The decorating, however, did give me a little headache and I struggled with it somewhat. Putting things on and taking them off again, making flowers and throwing them away...

In the end I did manage to produce a flowery mini album that pleased my eyes. So yeah, here it is, not entirely finished, still some embellishments and trinkets to attach, but for now I will call it a day.
Hope you like my steampunky, flowery mini album.

Chatelaine with an Aide Memoire...

The reason for all my bookadventures...

I wanted to have Chatelaines for our victorian style costumes to wear at the Elf Fantasy Fair in the Netherlands. When researching the subject, I found them to be way to expensive to just buy a complete chatelaine, let alone 3 sets. So I decided I would make them myself.
This turned out to be a complete journey all by itself. Trough historical sites, jewelry making sites and tutorials, ebay adventures and finally, book making sites.

 Because every respactable chatelaine, seems to have an "Aide Memoire" attached to it.

Altered book, my new iPhone case

Lately my daughter and I have been making books and booklets, among other things. We even started a little DaWanda shop to sell some of the booklets we make. It's called "Morgan Le Fea's Trinkets, after my daughters second name.

Making these booklets is very relaxing and leaves room for all sorts of creativity, as I found cruising the internet. So much creative people out there, it's amazing, and, as I found, many blogs reside here on blogger (or blogspot, whatever it is called). So I thought I would start a blog here as well.

I do have another blog on lifejournal (also called Morgan Le Fea's Trinkets), that is more focussed on making victorian clothes and unmentionables (another one of my interrests). As time goes by, I might transfer all the blogposts and photo's from lifejournal to this place, but for now I will leave it as is, as the corset making community on lifejournal is a very active one and I would like to keep in touch with what happens there.

Anyway enough ramblings on my part, on to the pictures of my new Victorian style Steampunk iPhone case.

All different sizes...

Since I have been on the outlook for information about making a little booklet for a chatelaine, I found many good tutorials online about making booklets. Though none that specifically describe what I am looking for, I find them all very interesting and enchanting. There are many styles and sizes of booklets. Uncountable ways of binding them, or materials to use. Some are only for the specialist, with years and years of training, while others are child’s play. In order to be able to make the style of booklet for my chatelaine, I need to build some experience in binding and material use. So I have been playing around with making different styles and sizes of booklets. From teeny tiny, to medium sized. Here are three examples of this. I hope you like them =).