Owl Flight

A clockwork owl in flight, a mechanical miracle featuring an Aurora Wings, Distress, Distress Oxide, Perfect Pearls, and a Tim Holtz embossing folder.

Supplies

LinkDeli.com

Putting It Together

I printed this image on 90lb watercolour cardstock several weeks ago and had it tucked in my bag of images waiting for me to get around to it. I love steampunk.

I decided to paint the 'features' as cloth but stayed with browns and neutrals, natural owl colours. I use Distress ink minis with waterbrushes.

For the body and struts, I used several colours of Perfect Pearls for the metallic parts of the owl. I used blues on the eyes and covered them with glossy accents to make them distinct and emphasis the unnaturalness.

I fussy cut the owl with a narrow margin.

While painting I keep track of the colours I use. Geesh, this one has quite the laundry list.

But I wasn't done with colours. I decided to make a background with Oxides. I started with Vintage Photo, Spiced Marmalade, and Fossilized Amber, using the blender tool to smooth and blend them on the panel of Elizabeth Craft Designs soft finish cardstock. The panel started as white. I like the subtle pebble texture of this cardstock when I am blending, but I can't use too much water since it doesn't hold up to very wet well.

I heat dried the panel and added in touches of Peeled paint as well as the first three.

 After heat drying again, I added a little bit of Fired Brick.

I sprayed the panel with water to get reaction and interactions.

 I added Perfect Pearls to the panel both as powder brushed on and in a mister mixed with water.

When I finished colouring the panel, I used the blending tool to add Vintage Photo to the edges and then ran it through the Big Shot with the embossing folder.

I dry fit the owl on the panel and was thrilled by the magic.

I adhered the panel to a card base made from Stampin' Up Natural White (retired). I used foam mounting tape to adhere the owl and give it dimension. I couldn't fathom adding a sentiment to the front and taking any focus from the owl or cover the background more.

Inside, I used the Tim Holtz Phrases II stamp set for a sentiment and numbers along the right. The gears are from Elizabeth Craft Designs. The gears are stamped in copper, the numbers in copper and gold for a bronzey look. The sentiment is stamped in dark brown to fit with the colour scheme of the rest of the design.

Challenges

Try It On Tuesday: Steampunk/Mechanical
Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge: Touchy Feely
Tuesday Throwdown: For the Men
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge: Emboss It
Crafty Gals Corner: Vintage
Fab 'n' Funky: Vintage
Through the Craftroom Door: Anything Goes
Crafting From the Heart: Anything Goes
A Bit More Time to Craft: Anything Goes
Happy Little Stampers Watercolour challenge: Anything Goes