Theme Thursday - Masculine

I was so happy when I saw that the theme for the Thursday challenge was masculine - I'll take any chance to show off the pieces I made using the new SteamPunk stamps from Artistic Outpost!

The base of this hanging is made from a wood cigar box lid. It was new, but I wanted a vintage look so I sanded and burned it and inked it up a bit. Most everything else is just bits and pieces of wire, metal, found objects, etc.

One my favorite things about this piece is how I used my tiny attacher (baby stapler) from Tim Holtz. I was trying to figure out how I was going to get all these....what's the word...fussy, hard-to-stick...funky, floppy elements. How was I going to adhere them to the wood?? I whipped out that baby stapler and - presto! It punched right through the wood and clamped everything down quite neatly. When it came time to attach my handle (from Navel Jelly, very cool!) I tore off a couple piece of cloth measuring tape and again - baby stapler saved the day. I love that thing! Tip - if you want your staples to have a vintage look vs. shiny, rub them down with some black and brown Stazon before you load them into the stapler.

One more cool thing - see the brown fabric-y stuff under the stamped image? It's a paper towel that's been dyed using diluted acrylic paint. It's a technique I found in Ruth Rae's book. It looks almost like leather. Love that idea!

Make sure you check out the post below for more great masculine Steampunk-y goodness. There is also a ton of great artwork using these stamps in the Artistic Outpost gallery.