Ironmongery with the Snarky Sisters

With this steampunk-ally cool graphic from our snarky sister Lee, I am pleased to announce our new Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers challenge begins today: I is for Ironmongery! (We haven't run out of different ways to title our annual steampunk challenge yet...) Some of the sisters are totally into steampunk; others, like me, only dabble occasionally, but it's such a fun genre to explore. And explore I did, with <gasp> three different projects to show you today!

I was inspired to dust off my gelli plate and acrylic paints and make some steampunk backgrounds. If you've ever played with a gelli plate, it's not really something to just make one print. So here's a selection from my morning of play time...

I refreshed my gelli print techniques by watching this video by Shari Carroll. She uses regular printer paper for her prints! I tried it, too, and really liked the results. It does mean you are working with very thin paper to make the rest of your card, but if you're careful, the results are fine. Here's my first example, where I even managed to include a trace of snark: 

This is the third print I lifted from this particular arrangement of paint and die cuts - another great suggestion of Shari's is to use freezer (or in my case, butcher) paper for your die cuts - when you lift them from the plate, most of the paint stays behind, as you're seeing here with the gears. I also love that it left the perfect place for my young man to stand and rest his hand. Going through my Tim Holtz snarky sentiments, this one seemed to work. 

Now a not-so-snarky one: 

This time I used a stencil for my print, before stamping and embossing the steampunk bird on patterned paper and fussy-cutting him. A sentiment and a few die cut gears (from the same patterned paper) and I have that rarest of beasts, a clean and simple steampunk card! 

Finally, my brother's birthday was a few weeks ago. In making him a gift bag, I was feeling in an artsy/inky mood, and made him somewhat of a "steampunk lite" one: 

Stencilled brick, clear-embossed clocks, a spooky chandelier, a few die cut gears (again!) and a larger version of the same Tim Holtz paper doll as on my first card. 
And there you have it! And I'm just a small cog (haha) in the blog full of inspiration on the Snarky Sisters site! Be sure to visit to see my sisters' creations, and also our current Queen and guest designer, Tristan! Hope to see your Ironmongery creation in the links. 
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