Steampunk Tissue Boxes

My studio met with a certain demise over a year ago, and since that time I have been focusing on my digital designs, until I could acquire a new building that won't fall prey to every little water disaster that comes my way. My husband and I went down to a cedar shed dealer where we ordered a custom building that will be delivered in a couple of weeks. It is 14x40 with 16ft of loft space, and I will have room to stretch out and be all kinds of messy, and still have enough space for workshops.  

In the meantime, this is a favorite project that I left in my drafts folder, and thought it would be a great time to add something new (And knock that Christmas Tree off the front page!). 

I used almost all Tim Holtz die cuts, and painted them with iron paint and then rusted them. My favorite detail is the picture wheel. I scanned a black cut and made a digital template, then printed pictures on acetate. It is a time consuming project, but it is full of wonder and inspiration. 

Tommy

This is my best friend when he was probably two years old. His grandfather worked on cars and was the Sedro Woolley fire chief for ages. I love the photo on top, because I always imagine what he was saying to his grandson at his kitchen table in Sedro Woolley, WA.

Grandpa Tommy, and his grandson Tommy.

We have a variety of Tim Holtz Alterations dies. The gear set, Word Play alphabet, mini old jalopy.

There is a large piece of acetate cut with a Spellbinders, grand size circle die. I rubber stamped gears and cogs on it to give it a very dimensional look. The idea is that it is digital media brought to life. It is very subtle. but it mats the entire circled section. The bottom of the acetatate is stamped with StayzOn ink, and the top is sprayed with black webbing spray.

Spellbinders circles and sprightly sprockets by Donna Salazar.

Tim Holtz Ornamental Sizzix die, and Stampers Anonymous. 

The center is an expensive laser cut chipboard piece. I can not recommend using them because they are incredibly fragile to paint on. 

This is the Tim Holtz Alterations picture wheel die. I scanned a black cut out and extracted it from the background into a PNG file. Then I took a series of photo's to the time, and placed it in a template to insert behind the picture wheel, which is cut out with chipboard, and coated with a rust and patina process.

I uploaded a small gift for you, if you would like to make a picture wheel yourself. Please see my free downloads page and look for the black template that is the scanned image of an actual die cut. There is also a block mask that you can clip your photo to in photoshop.

Thank you for stopping by!