Steampunk Printers' Tray - and more info on my Moulds Course

I quickly blogged this tray last night and thank you for the lovely comments. Here I am with a bit more detail. The 'Printers' Tray' was originally a wooden tray which had housed some (very sickly) sweetmeats such as marzipan fruits which were reduced in the French supermarket after Christmas last year, and this is the second resurrection of the tray. The reasons for making it were firstly that I wanted to enter Happy Daze's 'Dangling Things' competition because I love to have things that dangle on my projects, and secondly because I had already cut into the beautiful papers (Graphic 45 Steampunk Debutante) last week so I thought I would use them up. I did a PVA crackle first with some peach paint. You can just see a little crackle round the edges.

1. This section has the men from the Tim Holtz Steampunk stampset (thank you to Alison for letting me stamp them up). When I cut them out I cut a little ledge so I could glue them down to the front of the tray to add some layering. The photo corner is one of my home-made moulds, made up in clay. The teal-coloured clockface is from DezinaWorld, with some cogs and watch springs added.

2. This section has some vintage pen nibs, and in the middle a piece from the papers popped behind a Fragment. On the right is an actual mini pocket watch (it has a butterfly on the front which goes well with the design). I removed the watch mechanism and back of the watch and cut a circle of one of the paper designs and then popped the back on again. On the opposite face I made a clay watch face from a mould, glazed it, and added a game spinner.

3. For this section I popped some shrink plastic cogs onto the background paper and added the butterfly strip at the bottom. I painted and gold embossed a grungeboard flourish and cut out some of the tiny butterflies to add to it.

4. For one of my dangly bits I used some Primark chain and added a birdcage charm, a ring of keys, and a tiny deep recess frame - wonder if anyone can guess where the tiny image in the frame came from? You probably won't, but I will throw down the gauntlet anyway! I then filled it in with Glossy Accents. The butterfly to the left is another mould, and bottom left are some home-made flower and leaf moulds made from some Primark charms off a charm bracelet. Ok, now the Charlotte doll, not my best decision. It is a home-made mould and I stuck it on and added the home-made angel wings. So far, so good. Then I remembered I had seen a number of these on Vintage sites where they have very black hair and very rouged cheeks. So I decided to do this, 'in situ', after I had already glued it down, which made it fiddly. Unfortunately it looks a bit like Friar Tuck. I may take the whole section out and re-do it, but it's good for a laugh, for now. Added more shrink plastic cogs.

5. I love the paper in this section, so I kept it simple! I added a top hat, and as another dangly bit, a clock charm from a Primark charm bracelet. To cover the hook I carefully cut out some flowers from the paper and glued it across the corner of three sections, to give the effect that the lady is in a 'shady bower'.

6. I framed the beautiful lady's face with a heart shaped frame, a home-made mould made from a set of Poundland plastic frames. I gave her a bit of lippy because I never go out without it! I cut a hot air balloon from another piece of the paper and raised it on silicone glue (actually I used a lot of silicone glue on this project to utilize the depth of the sections and create layering). I thought she looked like she would wear a string of pearls so I just draped some bits of Primark pearl necklace around, and added some triple gold embossed die cut cogs and another shrink plastic one.

 

7. Centre stage for a bit more dangle, is this stunning bird cage which was a gift from Brenda as I fell in love with it when we went shopping together, and she popped back to get it for me on her way to the car as it was the last one. I was so touched, and I am going to move it back and forth across projects for now, so I can keep using it. Can you see the little birdy inside? Then I added two brown glass apothecary style bottles, decorated with 7 Gypsies labels. The smaller bottle is a 7 Gypsies one, but the one on the left is a Tisserand essential oils bottle. I use a lot of these so it will be a good source of bottles. I just put gold memory foil around the lid. I popped another of the images from the papers behind microscope glass and edged it with memory foil, and added a home-made mould crown. Crossing over the two sections is an ornate frame I cut from the TH tag die, cutting it in mountboard and them in some of the papers, and putting the lady on the chair behind it, and added two screwhead brads.

8. Very simple section as I wanted to balance the rather cluttered overall design. Just some shrink plastic and grungeboard cogs on a cog background.

9. Some of the corset design paper from the pad, with a corset image on the right behind a Fragment. The feathered birdy is bought, and I gave him a top hat and glazed it with Glossy Accents. His bird cage is a mould made from a shrink plastic version of the Tim die, then made up in clay and glazed. I had a tiny mirror charm sat on my workdesk and I thought he might like to look at himself, like canaries do, or is it parrots!

10. Getting to the end now! One of the papers is like a vintage newspaper and I liked this ad for paste to polish your trumpet (as you do!). I popped a circular Fragment over it but also carefully cut around the text above and below as I thought it added something. Of course I then had to add a trumpet. No, not a mould! I think it is a cake-decorating item. On the right to finish off is a cog made from a mould.

Phew! good job I didn't try to type all this up last night. Hope it wasn't too much boring detail. Thank you so much to those of you who have written to me in response to the on-line course on moulds. A few questions have arisen from this and I wanted to say that of course we are entering the holiday season but please don't worry as the course isn't timebound and you can do it at your own pace. If you are interested, please do get in touch at lucy@cedmondson.net - or just to say Hello!