Hats Off To Grungy Monday

After three very long days spent in overheated rooms, I have been officially released from jury duty.  I'm all for doing my civic duty, but do they really need to have the courtroom thermostats set to 90?

But, more to the point, I once again have the time to indulge in my favorite passtime....getting my hands good and inky.  Like many of you, I participated in all 35 weeks of Linda's Compendium of Curiosities challenge, and was saddened by it's end.  Fortunately, Linda anticipated that and has begun another set of challenges, called Grungy Monday.  Each week Linda will give us a link to one of Tim's videos or blog tutorials, and challenge us to use his techniques to make a piece that is uniquely our own.  Can you see me smiling?  And there even will be guest designers!

For our first project, we're going back to one of Tim's 2008 12 Tags of Christmas.  A great one (weren't they all?) with very doable techniques.  Click on the link to get all the details.  Of course, given the title, Tim's tag is all red and green and features a lovely reindeer.....not what I have in mind as March comes to an end.  This is what I came up with......and coincidentally enough, as it prominently features a hat, I'm also submitting it to Simon Says Stamp and Show.......a hat!

I had GREAT FUN doing this one......I love steampunk and I got to use products from many of my favorites.  The background technique, straight from Tim's tutorial used both his own gears masks plus some I made myself from his Gadget Gears die.  I made the spray with vintage photo reinker and green patina perfect pearls.  I added quite a bit of stamping over that, all from Oxford Impressions.  The torn paper down the middle is from Graphic 45's Steampunk Debutante line.  The bird's body is also an Oxford Impressions stamp, and for the technique I covered the black embossing with a mixture of both blue and green patina perfect pearls and water.  I replaced the bird head with the steampunk man from Wendy Vecchi's Seriously Art set, and he got the same treatment as the bird.

The hat was cut so that a bunch of watch parts (real ones, from my stash) could come pouring out.  I added a bowtie with a little watch part embellishment.   There are some additional touches (the pointing hand, the arrow and the two parentheses) that are actually stickers from Heartwarming Vintage.

I'm sure looking forward to the next set of challenges, and still have one to do for Everything Wendy Vecchi.  I've said it before, but......so many stamps, so little time.....