artsaveslives: Eclectic Vintage Gentlemen

The title refers to the theme of Stephen's book in the Kindred Souls round robin. NOT to my social life. The book was waiting for me when I returned home from Key Largo, and in between posting about the retreat, I worked on my page for him.

The pages that were already done were so interesting and different (eclectic is the right word!). I had an idea of what I wanted to do, and for a change it didn't take me too long to figure out how to accomplish it. I wanted a steampunk feel and a bit of humor. Oh, and it had to be easy to look at too.

So, here are the brothers Boeing, imaginary founders of Boeing aircraft, in the early days of air travel.

The background started with paper from Graphic 45's Steampunk Debutante line. I liked all the hot air balloons on it, but the paper was very dark. I lightened it up by scraping some Ranger picket fence distress paint over it with an old credit card. It was then light enough to add some stamping, stenciling, paint splattering, embossing, and so on.

The three gents are from a Tim Holtz stamp (embossed with walnut stain distress embossing powder). I did have to cut them apart and squish them together again to fit them into the basket. Also from Tim is the compass (embossed with black powder), as well as the small images on the bottom right and the two balloons on the upper left. (All from the new Tiny Things stamp set).
The balloon carrying the brothers off is from Oxford Impressions, stamped on glossy paper, embossed with black powder, and colored with a variety of alcohol inks. There are also some other balloons from Oxford Impressions, but I'm not sure if you can see them. Both the balloon and basket are raised up off the page; the basket with pop dots and the balloon with a wiggly springy thingy. It bobbles when you touch it!

The metal scallop border is by 7 Gypsies. The balloon's basket is from me. I just cut a shape, covered it with some scraps from my gelli plate print pile, and added some gold embossing. The ticket on the top is also one of Tim's stamps. Oh, and there is a tiny compass glued to the center of the compass stamp. There are also two air travel related charms dangling from the page that you can't see much of in the photo.

The back of the page in this round robin is supposed to be finished, not highly decorated, and contain our information. On the page Stephen did, he put Laurel and Hardy on the back, and everyone who followed did the same. Who am I to argue with success? I found an image from a film in which the funny men flew a plane. Perfect! And you can still see most of the Graphic 45 paper I used underneath.