Our Lady of Steampunkiness

In the midst of several blog challenges I'm doing this week, I decided to make something just for the fun of it, using the pitiful remains of a couple of other projects that hadn't remotely worked out the way I'd hoped. That happens a lot around here, by the way. You know how some people say they have an inner child? Well, I have an inner mad scientist. She likes to melt stuff and burn things and mix mediums with frighteningly wild abandon (truly, it's a wonder I haven't blown the place to smithereens by now).

This card started out as a jewelry project, then sort took on a life of its own. I'd been re-reading Suze Weinberg's classically awesome Melt Art Impressions book and was captivated by her Faux Dichronic Glass technique (page 28, if you happen to have the book handy). Basically, you take a piece of chipboard, dip one side into clear, melted UTEE (tinted with a few drops of ink), press a piece of rainbow foil against the hot UTEE until it cools, peel off the foil backing, and re-dip the piece into more hot UTEE. You end up with something like this:

It's kind of dichronic glass-y, huh?  It really does look better in person. All that shininess is crazy-hard to photograph.

However, for my would've-been jewelry project that you see on the card up top, I wanted to use a Tim Holtz Ornate Plate, so I modified the process a bit. I cut a piece of grungeboard just large enough to fit the back of the plate and glued rainbow foil right onto the grungeboard. I attached this to the plate with brads, then carefully poured melted UTEE into the frame and let it cool. It actually worked pretty well (okay, maybe it seeped through the back a little...). I re-melted the UTEE with my heat gun just enough to allow me to press the little metal mask into it. Here's a close up:

I could have stopped there and called it a pendant, but by then I had a full-on case of Foil Fever (a strange condition wherein one becomes so mesmerized by shiny stuff that she decides she needs even MORE shiny stuff. You will not find this malady listed on WebMD, but trust me, it's real). And so, the pendant became the centerpiece of a foil-festooned card. If you can see past the visual cacophony of all that rainbow sparkle, you'll notice a couple of the new Tim Holtz Alterations Gadget Gears and the image of a cool science woman stamp that I took off its mounting block and now can't identify. I really need to stop doing that.

And so, that's how a wannbe necklace became a (very heavy) greeting card. Sure, I could disassemble it and wear the pendant, but instead I'll probably just make another. That way, I get to melt more stuff!

Hugs,

Linda