All Steamed Up

   Good morning and welcome to my 100th post.

   This is my entry for SanDee & amelie's Steampunk Challenge 3D section. This month it's a steampunk cuckoo clock and I've had a lot of fun with this. A few month's ago I would never have thought of trying something like this, it has no function, no purpose but it was fun to make and I love it. Thank you to the ladies at the challenge for stretching my imagination, it's like being a child again....anything's possible.
   I began with a birdhouse pattern downloaded for free from one of the crafting magazines. I cut the roof from silver mirri card and embossed it with a checker plate mask, masks give a softer impression than folders which can be just as effective. The silver was a bit bright so I toned it down with a Ranger Acrylic Dauber Espresso brown, dab it on and wipe some of it off.
   The bottom and sides are cut from gold satin card and then run through a cogs embossing folder. They have been given the paint treatment too. I chose to cut little doors in the front instead of the hole on the pattern.

    There are two holes cut in the bottom to let the chains and weights hang down, this is from an old necklace I found in a charity shop.  I have cut various cogs from dark brown pearl card and attached them with brass look paper fasteners.
   The winged clock is from Inkadinkado stamped and embossed in copper, the wings are layered but that doesn't show too well in the pictures.  The cuckoo is a Marianne die and he hangs from jump rings through an eyelet just above the doors.
   Once all outside decoration was done I stuck it all together and added foil tape to the side joints with dots of Cosmic Shimmer PVA in copper to look like rivets.

 The chimney should really be a cylinder but that was very tricky to get just right so I opted for a square one. It's cut from the same brown card as the cogs and attached inside the roof. The 'steam' is a cotton wool ball opened out and fluffed up.
   The ribbon that it hangs by is through a hole in the roof, inside the roof the ribbon goes through a button so that it won't pull through.
   
There is a new challenge blog over at Country View Crafts which this month is Pick and Mix so anything goes and they accept altered art too. There aren't many rules and if you need anything to complete your creation they sell lots of lovely things on their website.

   There is another challenge that accepts altered art as well as papercrafts called Crafty-emblies. They also have a shop with lots of lovely things just crying out to be altered. It's so good to find challenges that stretch your crafting that little bit further.

  Happy crafting.