Steampunk Boutique Experience

Hi again,

It's Elle here from Empire of the Cat, and here's my project for today:

To make this project, I will be using the following chippies from GSL:


 There are two dress form / mannequin types included in this set but for my display I really wanted three so I used this circled piece of chipboard which I thought looked a bit like a dress form.  As you can see, it is just the waste piece that was leftover from the large wings that were there.  I have circled it for you in the photo below.  I cut out the whole piece and kept the cogs in place.

Since she would need something to stand on, I decided to use this key from the Steampunk Lightbulb set, but if you don't have this set, you could use something else as this is the only element I used from this set.

Here's how I laid them out inside the box to check that everything fit. 

The next step was to paint everything with white gesso - all of the dress forms and the inside and outside of the box pieces.   I am not using the internal dividers so I will keep them for another project.

Once everything was dry, It was time for the fun part - heat embossing!  I am using an Emerald Creek EP called Wrought Iron which seemed appropriate.

I ended up only using the EP on the dress forms, here's a look at them after heat embossing.   Now at this stage I was considering using that pink alcohol background in my display box but you'll see below that I changed my mind.

Much as I love the bright pink with the black embossed pieces, I decided to use one of these other backgrounds from my stash and so my project was definitely heading in a vintage direction!

Time to construct the box!  I am using regular white glue to glue everything together.  I made sure to measure my paper pieces first - much easier to do before the box is constructed.

Since my project is basically a display "window" I thought it could use a sign, so I die cut these letters from some old cardboard boxes, and since the cardboard was quite thin, stacked them on top of each other to make them more robust. But where to put my sign?

To construct my sign I am using this old piece of acetate from a cake box which I will wrap around the top of the display box and glue into place.  I laid everything out to make sure it would fit across the front of the box.

Now it was time to cover all of these elements with black gesso, ready for painting.  I don't have a painting photo but they were painted with black and metallic paints.

Leave all of those elements to dry and start gluing the background papers into the box and paint the outside of the box - I used Little Black Dress of course!

Next, adhere the acetate to the top of the display box, and then begin to arrange the painted gears and cogs, gluing them on to the acetate, and then add the STEAMPUNK letters on top.

Now to add the dress forms / mannequins to the display window.  I am using black foam tape 3-4 layers of it to attach to the back of each dress form (in a place where it won't show) and then affix them to the back wall of the display box.

Here's how the ladies look once they are in place:

At this point I was "finished" but I felt that it needed something else, and that something else was little feet.  I used a couple of plastic bottle caps, gessoed them and painted them in black metallic paint.  Once the paint was dry, I glued them in place on the bottom of the box.

And then, just when I thought I was finished, I found this little label that was leftover from another project and I thought it would be perfect as additional signage.  It was already gessoed so I gave it a coat of pewter metallic and added these word stickers from Prima.

Turns out I wasn't happy with how it looked, so I ended up repainting it in black acrylic.

I then glued it to the centre of the display box at the bottom.  The addition of this little plaque really finishes it off perfectly!

And that's my project for today.  I hope you enjoyed following the process and seeing the finished project.  Let me know in the comments below!


Elle
Empire of the Cat


PROJECT RECIPE

GSL:
Specimen Box C12Q
Steampunk Shape Set D33A *coming soon*
Gears Shape Set BB13
Steampunk Lightbulb Set D20D (one element used, can be substituted)
Stackable Labels Shape Set D35H (one label used, can be substituted)

Other:
Embossing ink and embossing powder
Silver, copper, pewter metallic paints
Black and white gesso
PVA glue
Black chalk paint
Word stickers
Double sided foam tape (black)
From stash: background paper, acetate, cardboard letters, bottle caps,