Poetic Inventions

Hi everyone!


       I am here to show you my DT creation for the new challenge at Sandee and amelies's steampunk challenge. This month the challenge is 'Inventors and Inventions'.

      I struggled with this challenge subject. As you know my Steampunk work tends to be a 'Twist of Steampunk' though I have been known to dive into the full works occasionally. I was so stuck on 'Inventions and Inventors'.....what shall I make?

      I was thinking about it for ages and by this point I wanted to make a notebook. I had seen Coptic Stitching and loved the idea and decided to see if I could do it. Who could the notebook be for? Well my daughter adores notebooks...she is of the opinion that having too many is never enough and she is always writing. She writes stories, but writing poetry is her main passion. Another notebook for her collection perhaps?

      And then I had the idea to focus on her poems as inventions. Perfect for the challenge....

    This was my second attempt at Coptic stitch...the first fell apart in my hands! It is very tricky to keep all the pages aligned and stitch at the same time (mine went a bit wonky, much to my annoyance....but practise makes perfect!)

     I began by using the signatures (the sections of pages) that I had cut out for the previous attempt. Cutting all the pages accurately is a bit of a nightmare as even a millimetre difference makes the pages look untidy...... 

- A good tip is to use a cheap kids sketchbook, tear out all the pages, divide them into groups of 5 and fold them. Use the cardboard backing of the sketch book, cut it in half and there you have perfectly sized pages and the cover ready to decorate. No measuring needed.....

     Like I said, I had cut the pages out already (and didn't want to waste them) So I cut out the covers from cardboard and I was on my way to making a notebook...

     I knew my daughter would like pink, and I chose her favourite shade 'Worn Lipstick'. I swiped some of the Worn Lipstick DS onto the craft mat along with Tarnished Brass DS and some Picket Fence DP. I spritzed with some water and placed some ordinary printer paper into the inky puddle. I picked up the paper and kept dabbing in the ink mixture until it was all covered. Then I placed the paper down on the mat and dabbed some extra Picket Fence DP over and rubbed it across the paper with my fingers, leaving streaks of white paint.

     When dry I covered the cardboard covers with the pink paper and then began stamping.

     I used a Tim Holtz stamp using Picket Fence DP...............

...........and then stamped some Tim Holtz butterflies with Gathered Twigs DI. 

I added some Cogs and a 'Create' stamp in the same ink.

     

I cut out some of the paper I made for the cover and stamped a flourish stamp on it in Coffee archival ink

 ........and used some letter stickers to make the word 'Poetic Inventions' 

I stuck the words on to the flourish stamped paper and then stuck that onto card that had been coloured with Walnut Stain DS. A couple of brass screw brads were added to the title.

I used some brass flowers with little watch gears in them 

and I added a brass tag with the word 'adventure' on it with a brass key.

    Coptic stitching can look pretty, but on this notebook it looked unfinished. So I made some faux leather card. I used Walnut Stain and Gathered Twigs DS that had been spritzed with water and scrunched some paper in it. When dry this was stuck both sides of a piece of card and cut to size and stuck to the edge of the book. 

So there is the 'Poetic Inventions' notebook......Hope you like it! 

Why not come along and play? We would love to see you there getting 'inventive' with Steampunk!