METALOGY - A STEAMPUNK HOT AIR BALLOON

Good Monday morning everyone! I hope you had a fantastic weekend!  It's time for this week's Simon Says Stamp and Show's challenge!  I LOVE this theme....

METALOGY!

When I think of metal, I immediately think "STEAMPUNK".  And when I think of steampunk, I think of hot air balloons.  So ...

I have designed this steampunk style hot air balloon that I discovered is very hard to photograph in order to reflect it's true dimension and vintage feeling!  It is approximately 9" long from clock key top to tassel bottom.

I began with a 3" styrofoam ball and Ranger's Metal Foil Sheet strips.  I cut them into 3/4" width strips and randomly cut their lengths.  I then laid my metal strips on my Ten Seconds Studio Humungo pad and ran a detail wheel down the edges of the strips; making the edges looked soldered. 

Since the Metal Foil Sheets already have an adhesive backing, it was easy to simply attach the strips to the styrofoam ball.  Then I added some little pearls to many areas of the soldered strips to look like rivets.

I wanted my hot air balloon to look vintage, so I painted over the metal foil first with black (heat set it dry) and then randomly dry brushed the "balloon" with a rusty acrylic paint color.  When that was dry, I lightly added some gold highlights with a Gold Paint dabber and also some gold paint swiped onto my finger. 

Next I wanted to add some metal chains to use not only to embellish the balloon but also to attach the "basket" underneath the balloon.  

I found a really cheap bag of cool assorted chains at a flea market and have used the heck out of them!  Here, I cut 5 1/2" sections of a gold link chain.  Then I cut it at 3 1/2", where I inserted Tim Holtz' Mini Gear and joined them to each section of the chain with his Jump Rings.  Then I attached the remaining bottom section of the chain.

Because I was using a styrofoam ball, I could simply attach the chains at the top with straight pins pushed into the ball.  I also anchored them to the sides of the balloon with a straight pin.  Here, you can also see the transformation of the hot air balloon itself, from shiny silver metal to a rusty, vintage, more steampunk look.  I liked the way the chains looked against the balloon but it still needed something.....more chains!

So, I mixed the colors of my chains and draped an antiqued silver link chain across the balloon, spanning from gold chain to gold chain.  I cut those silver sections of chains at 3" and secured them with the straight pins that I had used to anchor the gold chains in place on the sides of the balloon.  Finally, to hide where the chains all came together and also add some more "umphf" to the balloon, I heat embossed these wonderful little vintage looking star circles from Tim Holtz' Bitty Grunge stamp set using Queen's Gold Embossing Powder.  I cut them out, lightly distressed them with Gathered Twigs Distress Ink and hot glued them in place.  I love the vintage feeling they add.

I added this metal assemblage to the top of my balloon.  First a copper piece topped with an antique gold clock face and a Tim Holtz antique gold Clock Key on top.  All hare screwed together and hot glued in place.  This really finishes off the top of the hot air balloon nicely and adds to the steampunk charm.

Now I was ready to create and attach the "basket" to my hot air balloon.  In keeping with the Metalogy theme, I wanted the basket to be metal but I wasn't sure how to go about creating it.  Then it hit me .... a bathroom size Dixie cup!!!

Even the bathroom size cup proved to be a bit too tall for my liking, so I measured 1 1/2" up from the bottom and cut around the cup.  Next, I cut a piece of Ten Seconds Studio's chocolate colored sheet metal to cover my Dixie cup.  I dry embossed it using Tim Holtz' Checkerboard Texture Fade and then slightly sanded the raised areas of the metal.  Finally, I added highlights of gold onto the checkerboard pattern using my Gold Paint Dabber.  

The "basket" was really coming together but, even with the embossing, it still looked plain to me.  So, I added some metallic foil Dresden trim to the top and bottom.  Then I hot glued four of Tim Holtz' Pen Nibs to the basket to attach the gold chains from the hot air balloon.  I adjusted the lengths of the bottom section of the gold chains to proportionally fit the hot air balloon to the basket (leaving just 4 links of gold chain underneath the Mini Gears).

Underneath the hot air balloon, I added an assemblage of a Tim Holtz' Mini Gear and a Tassel in the center to attach to the underside of the balloon "basket".  Now the balloon was finished but it needed a passenger.

So I stamped one of my favorite fellas from Wendy's Vecchi's European Art stamp set onto a piece of Manila Cardstock using Coffee Archival Ink.  Then I colorized him using Milled Lavender (skin tones) and Tumbled Glass (shirt) Distress Inks and a Small Sakura Water Brush.  I attached more Mini Gears to his hat and a steampunk-ish hand from Tim Holtz' Warehouse District stamp set.  It is attached with a coiled piece of wire.  

Finally, I added a little "signage" to my balloon:  an "Admit One" ticket and an "Enjoy The Journey" flying banner.  Enjoy the journey is appropriately enough from Tim Holtz' Going Somewhere stamp set.  Both pieces are stamped on Manila Cardstock and distressed with Gathered Twigs and edged with Black Soot Distress Inks.

So, that it's it ... my high flying steampunk chap in his metallic hot air balloon!

Check out the wonderful metal inspiration from all of the Design Team over at Simon Says Stamp and Show and then enter our challenge. You could be the lucky random winner of our ...

$50.00 credit voucher to spend at Simon Says Stamp!  You might also be one of our very talented TOP THREE choices for the week! 

I hope my metal hot air balloon has gotten your creative wheels turning!  Thanks for stopping by my blog and good luck with this week's challenge!

Here are the products available at Simon Says Stamp that were used in this project:

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