Ringing out the Old Year Tim ... Holtz December Tag for 2014

Just in time!  It is about an hour away from 2015 and I am getting this post in just under the wire!  This very short post serves two purposes:  (1) to display my frosty Tim tag for December and (2) to serve as "proof of life" to you my crafty friends that I am indeed still alive.  

I have been AWOL (absent without leave) from my blog and Pinterest lately. I'm doing well but I've been quite busy getting myself ready to go back to work in January. I will catch you up on everything in the weeks to come.  Thanks to all of you who checked up on me.   I will be in touch soon. I promise. 

So let me get this tag online before the clock strikes midnight.  Here is my attempt at another amazing tag from Tim Holtz. Check out his blog here for the step-by-step directions for all the cool techniques on his December tag. 

I used some aged black embossing powder on the light post before adding the glitter. It looks amazing in the light.   Wish I could go into more detail but I've got a chest cold and I need to get back to bed.  

Before I go, I wish you all a fabulous 2015.   

Mary Elizabeth

Happy Halloween with Tim ... Holtz October Tag of 2014

Hi all! Here's a quick post with my take on Tim Holtz's October Tag.  Check out Tim's Blog for his fantastic tutorial. 

Not a lot of time this evening, so I'm just going to leave you with some close up pics.

Hope you have a great week!! -- Mary Elizabeth

Mad Alchemist Notebook

Take a mad scientist, add a dash of magic, and mix it all together with some finger painting and you have the perfect recipe for my latest project.  I've made a Mad Chemist Alchemist Notebook for Compendium of Curiosities 3 Worn Covers Challenge (#13).  I hope you all have been able to play along.  The current challenge is all about the versatility of Tim Holtz's Worn Covers and there is a lovely $50 shopping spree from Inspiration Emporium for one lucky entrant.  (If you haven't checked out this website and you love crafting, you gotta drop by.  Love shopping there!)

I was so excited about this challenge.  I had one of Tim Holtz's Composition Worn Covers, but I was at a loss as to what to do with it.  There are so many cool inspiration pieces from the Curiosity Crew (oh ... go check them out!) and I had way too many ideas floating around in my head (including the lymric keeper ... still gotta try that one some time Linda :) )

However, one afternoon, I was playing around with Wendy Vecchi's Crackled Texture Paste (great stuff!) on a burlap canvas and throwing paint and stain and ink on it.  Part of the panel ended up looking at what I envisioned dragon skin would look like and that is how I came up with my idea of turning Tim's Mad Chemist into a Mad Alchemist.  I know ... that's a bit of a leap, but see if you can follow my thinking.  What if the Mad Chemist started to learn some magic (just in time for Halloween, of course)?  Being a practical scientist, he would just add his Alchemy notes to an existing science composition notebook.  However, these secrets may be a little more valuable to him and thus he would probably need more security.  Through his connections with the magic community, he manages to acquire a Dragon's Eye Security System (notice the keyhole in the dragon's eye below) that just happens to come with a bit of dragon skin for easy attachment to the individual's chosen valuable.   Ok ... yes ... my imagination ran a little wild this time around and I lost the reins.  That's when it's time to just hang on and enjoy the ride :)

 

So here we go.  I apologize in advance for all of the pictures.

After I had the dragon skin, I needed a dragon's eye.  I remembered I had some of Tim's tear drop Facets in my stash.  I used some alcohol ink on Ranger's Glossy Cardstock to get the fiery iris of the eye.  I then used my facet to trace and cut out the eye.  A black sharpie added the pupil and (can't remember the name of the part that surrounds the iris -- oops).  Now to put the paper onto the facet.  I put my paper on my craft mat (this is a critical step) and used a thick layer of Glossy Accents to cover the entire piece of paper.  Then I pressed the facet down onto the paper.  I pressed down until  Glossy Accents squirted out around the sides of the facet and I didn't see any air bubbles in the Glossy Accents between the paper and facet.  I cleaned the craft mat around the edges of facet with a damp cloth (careful not to move the facet and paper).  Then I left it to dry over night.  It turned out great!  The one you see below was my first attempt.  It turned out too big for the cover, so I created another one and this time put the keyhole in the pupil ;)

Now that I had the dragon's eye, I needed to create its skin.  I decided to use canvas instead of burlap for the actual project because it would be easier to mold around the torn cover.  I ended up using a piece of Sticky Back Canvas for the base of my dragon skin.  This worked great since I didn't have to worry about applying my own adhesive.  The texture paste process took two steps.   First I put down an extra facet (the same size and shape of my dragon's eye) on the canvas in the location where I wanted my eye.  Next I applied some "glops" of the crackled texture paste to the canvas.  Here is where the finger painting comes in ... I spread out the paste on the canvas with my fingers.  I tried all sorts of implements to spread it around the facet, but nothing really worked.  I didn't want a flat level surface.  I wanted it to have some contour to give the feel of a three dimensional dragon's facial contours (not that I know any dragons in person ... but the facial contours of my imagination's dragon :) ).  After I had a good, fairly thick layer of paste down, I pressed in Tim's Honeycomb Stencil at the top and bottom left-hand corners of the paste-covered canvas to make it look like larger dragon scales were taking over as the skin went further away from the eye (you can't see this in the picture below ... check out the pic of the entire front cover above to see this).  I then took the facet out of its "eye socket" which left a hole for me put the real eye in after the texture paste dried, cracked and was colored.  I left it alone to dry overnight.

When I came back the next day, I was thrilled to see all the cracks!!!  I started with some Peeled Paint, Frayed Burlap and Walnut Stain Distress Paint to begin my coloring.  I really did not use too much and spritzed it with water to let it run and dabbed up the excess with paper towels.  Then I grabbed Black Soot Distress Ink and blending foam to work the black ink into all those wonderful cracks.  I worked in small sections and used a paper towel to take off the black ink off the top of surface (the foundation layer of Distress Paint, once dry,  resisted the water-based black ink).  Then I grabbed Matte MultiMedium and mixed it with Peeled Paint, Frayed Burlap and Walnut Stain Distress Ink.  I used these colors to give me some more intense, yet translucent color, to the dragon skin.  I let that layer dry.

I came back and took my dragon's eye and put it in the premade eye socket.  I adhered it with MultiMedium.   I let that dry for awhile then came back and added another layer of Crackled Texture Paste around the eye to create the scales and wrinkles directly around the eye (again with the finger-painting method).  I used the same drying and coloring process (adding some Distress Stains to create a more intense color around the eyes).  I did use a heat tool to dry the skin create some bubbling of the MultiMedium.  It made a great addition to the dragon skin effect. After everything dried, I cut out the piece that I wanted to wrap around the outside and inside of the front cover.  I added some shading with a Black Soot Distress Marker  to highlight some of the three-dimensional features as well as provide the dried-up skin look to the edges.  Then I painted edges with a coat of Matte MultiMedium.

I took the backing off the canvas and adhered it straight to the worn cover.  I took a little more MultiMedium to go over the "bend" where the canvas wrapped around the edge of the front cover.  This was to keep the crackled paste from cracking off as I grunged and added more crafty goodness to the project.

Whew!!  What fun!!!!  I was so glad that worked.  I held my breath every time I sat down to work on it.  I turned blue a couple of times.  I used a Tiny Attacher to add some small criss-crossed staples around the edges (and colored them black with a Sharpie -- thanks for that idea Tim!)  Then I grabbed a screw top brad to add it to the left hand edge where I couldn't get the staples near the notebook's spine.

For the rest of the cover, I used a variety of remnant rubs, stencils, Distress products, stamps, papers, sandpaper (to really distress the edges since the Mad Chemist had used this notebook for some time before adding other Alchemy elements), tissue tape, etc.  I created my own pocket folders out of kraft paper, lightly painted with Antique Linen Distress Paint and then covered with Black Soot Distress Ink.  That served as the base for each decorated pocket.

Here are some pictures of the rest of this project:

 I have had a blast getting inky this week.  It has been such a fun make.  I hope you've had a chance to craft this week.  I'm looking forward to getting back around to your blogs for more inspiration this weekend.  Hugs to you all!  Mary Elizabeth

I Just Love Fall!!!

 Hi everyone!  It is one of the most gorgeous times in our North Carolina mountains and I just had to celebrate it with a card. 

 We have oodles of visitors this weekend to view the colorful leaves.  The roads are packed, especially along the Blue Ridge Parkway, with "leaf lookers".  Here is a quick shot off my balcony to give you an idea at the beauty we have here.

I started this card by stamping these wonderful blueprint leaves onto watercolor paper.  I used Distress Markers in warm fall colors to color the leaves.  I tore the edges of the paper and used both Distress Ink and Distress Markers to bring out the layers. 

I went with some rather neutral browns, blacks and creams to embellish and provide the background for my stamped leaves.   I love the leaves and acorns on the printed background paper.  I used a Walnut Stain Distress Marker to outline the background rectangle.  This awesome Journey token was colored with Ginger alcohol ink and then hit with some Antique Linen Distress Paint.

And of course I had to have a car to represent our "leaf lookers", so I fussy cut a wonderful vintage car that I stamped using another Tim stamp.   I layered this with some brown trim (stapled with a Tiny Attacher) and a vintage "Discover" stamp from TPC. 

So there it ... my card to show how much I love this time of year.  And that is why I'm going to enter this in Simon Says Stamp Monday Falling in love with…Challenge.  If you have a moment, drop by Simon Says Stamp and look at the Design Team's projects.  They are fabulous!!!  You should be able to find some inspiration there.

Hope you are enjoying your weekend as much as I am!  Happy crafting :) -- Mary Elizabeth

Toil & Trouble with Tim ... Holtz 12 Tags of 2014

I'm back today with my version of Tim Holtz's September Tag of 2014.   I won't go into details here because Tim has a great tutorial here on how he created his tag.  I love this tag because it gave me an excuse to use a recently acquired blue print stamp!!  I'm really enjoying fall and Halloween crafting right now.  So, on to the tag ...

I pretty much followed Tim's directions for the September tag.  The one thing that I did not have was a very light colored alcohol ink.  So, I used this Lettuce green color Tim's Latticework stencil.  Fun!

Here are few more close up pics of details of the tag:

One last picture of the entire tag.   Hope you had time to create your own version of Tim's tag this month!  Have a great week!!  -- Mary Elizabeth

Scared to the Bone! -- Chiari Awareness Month

Hi everyone!!!  After a brief holiday to the beach, I am finally back in crafty blogland.  I am so glad to be back and see all the amazing things you guys have been creating while I was gone.   As for myself, I couldn't be away from crafting while on holiday, so my mom helped me load up several of my art supplies and off we went to surf and sand.  While I was there, I created this piece that serves a two-fold purpose for my artistic heart.  First, it is a piece that I created to represent the emotions I've gone though over the last couple of years of my Chiari illness (more about this at the end of this post).  As I stated in my last post, this is Chiari Awareness month and I wanted to share my story with you to educate those who aren't familiar with the illness and provide support to those who do.  My sincerest thanks go out to all those who have been passing my story along on Facebook and have been visiting from Pinterest.  To those of you whose lives have been affected by this illness (either by having it or loving and caring for someone who is suffering from it), my heart goes out to you and I offer you some hope, because there are things out there that can make life better.  I'm living proof of that.  Next, on a cheekier note, this piece also is a representation of the devilish part of creative soul who loves spooky Halloween :)  For that reason, I am also entering this tag in Frilly and Funkie's Haunting Halloween Challenge.

So here's a little more about how this tag came to be.  I was thumbing through my Halloween supplies and found some stickers by My Minds Eye.  One of them said "Scared to the Bone" and as soon as I read that it resonated deep within me.  This phrase exactly represents how I felt when my neurosurgeon, Dr Paolo Bolognese, described the surgical option for my secondary condition (retroflexed odontoid) a couple of years ago. (If you are interested in why this was so terrifying to me, you can find out at the end of this post when I update you on the latest specifics of my Chiari journey.)  It also was such a cool, scary Halloween phrase.  So I grabbed my favorite Tim Holtz Halloween stamp of all times (ok ... so far), this awesome skull from his Apothecary set and off I went to stamp.  I must confess, I planned to use the My Minds Eye sticker on the tag ... however I ruined it by trying give my sometimes aggressive vintage touch.  Sigh.  But I found a wonderful alternative that allowed me to add the sentiment anyway.  Check it out -->

Scared to the Bone Tag Details:

I began this tag by stamping the skull with black archival ink onto watercolor paper (it was the paper I had on hand at the beach).  If you are interested in stamping on watercolor paper, you out to check out some of Tim Holtz's videos or take his Creative Chemistry class.   He's terrific and discussing how stamps and different inks react with different paper.  I used Antique Linen Distress Ink on a blending tool to give the skull some aged dimensionality around the edges.  I cut out the eye sockets of the stamped image (I knew I wanted the background of the tag to show through the eyes) and used a Black Soot Distress Marker to outline the skull and eye sockets to make the image pop a little more.  And this is where I found an eerie way to add my "scared to the bone " sentiment.  I found all of the words using some of Tim's regular and seasonal chit chat stickers!  I aged them a bit with whatever brown was on my brown blending tool at the time and then outlined them with a black archival pen (creating somewhat barbed edges to the outlines).  Now this guy is ready for a spectacularly spooky background.

Ok ... how do I create a suitably scary background for this amazing guy?  While playing around with my Distress Stains at the beach a couple of days before, I found out that I really like the striated effect the stains give you when you apply them directly to the tag in vertical lines.  I enjoyed layering these colors on top of each other in this striated pattern.  So, for this tag, I started out with a Size 10 Ranger manilla tag (perfect for some of your larger stamps), and covered the entire tag in Ripe Persimmon Distress Stain in vertical stripes from top to bottom.  Some stripes were more saturated than others.  Cool effect on its own.  However, I decided to continue to layer some colors.  On top of this vibrant orange color, I used a darker color but in the same warm field of tones ... Vintage Photo.   With light pressure, I started from the outside edges of the tag and added some Vintage Photo Distress Stain vertical stripes.  It add a yummy layer of translucent brown color over the orange and deepened it.  Wow!!.  The stripes are perfectly vertical.  This almost gives a sense of movement ... like flames.  I left the plenty of of the orange peeping through in the middle, especially where I wanted the eyes of my skull to be.  Finally I added some dark Walnut Stain Distress Stain around the edges of the tag (again in vertical stripes) to draw your eye to the center of the tag. 

To finish this tag I grabbed a couple of Halloween stamps from a different Recollection stamp sets to add some spooky branches all the way around the edges to give this an almost Haunted forest look.   Loved it!!!!  I grabbed a piece of scrap strip of watercolor paper and unevenly applied some Peeled Paint Distress Paint directly to the paper.  After drying the paint with a heat tool (very impatient crafter), I stamped the word "chilling" on the painted surface in black archival ink.   I gave the letters a florescent orange shadow with a gel pen and gave the letters a coat of Glossy Accents.  After everything dried,  I tore the side edges of the strip of paper and distressed the top and bottom edges with Tim's Paper Distresser tool.  I grabbed my Walnut Stain Distress Marker and added the dark brown ink to all the torn edges.  Since the Distress Paint is water resistant, I could wipe the excess marker ink off the painted surface with a baby wipe to leave some great distressed edges around this sign.  Finally, I added a gear and chain from my stash that I aged with some alcohol ink.  I really looks spooky on this tag because it almost reminds me of a saw blade.  YIKES!  And that's it for this really fun tag.  My mom isn't a big fan of spooky stuff, but even she liked this one.  It's hanging in the living room :)

For those of you who are just interested in the crafting details, thanks for dropping by and sharing in my latest creative journey.  I'll leave you with another view of the completed tag.  For those who might be interested in some of the details of my latest steps in my rather complex health story, keep reading. 

A Chilling Path in my Chiari Story that left me Scared to the Bone!!

Warning ... I do go into some anatomical detail here about my surgery.  If you are squeamish, please feel free to leave and drop by later when I'm not being such a scary being :)

When I went to New York for the first time (November 2011) to meet with Dr Bolognese at The Chiari Institute, I was prepared to hear that I had a Chiari Malformation.  Radiologists had already recognized that on my latest CSPINE or cervical spine MRI.  However, what I was not at all prepared to hear was that I had what Dr Bolognese called a "Complex Chiari".  That means I had secondary issues that complicated my already problematic Chiari symptoms.   The major secondary issue was the retroflexed (or backwards-leaning) odontoid bone.  This bone is the primary support for your skull on your neck.  My bone wobbled due to its supportive connective tissues that were over-stretched like an old rubber bands. The bone at times was compressing my spinal cord and pushing up into my brain stem.  Hearing that news was a blow.  I knew I was having serious problems, but this was explaining a lot of the pain and other weird symptoms that I had all over my body.  The nerves that were responsible for sending messages to all of my systems were being impacted by this wobbly bone. 

Ok ... but that was not the worst part.  The next thing was that Dr Bolognese recommended that I have surgery.  He gave me not one surgical option, but two (always a fun choice to make).  The wobbly bone that supported my skull made my skull unstable.  While trying to correct the Chiari problem, if he did a traditional Chiari surgery (removing a small part of the skull to make room for all my brain), it would require that he cut my neck muscles.  This would significantly weaken a major part of my support system for my skull and I may have not been able raise my head after surgery.  That was when he suggested I have the less-invasive but longer surgery where he would actually remove the part of my brain that was stopping up my cerebral spinal fluid.  That was pretty scary ... but the second surgical option sincerely scared me to the bone. 

The second surgical option was where he would take care of the Chiari AND surgically add a titanium support structure to my spine and skull (also know as craniocervical fusion CCF or cranial spinal fusion -- CSF).  To keep my skull from wobbling and sinking down because of the lack of support, Dr Bolognese was going to screw titanium rods, one on each side of my spine, to the back of my skull.  The top of each rod would be screwed to the skull using four screws.  The bottom of the rod would be screwed to C1 and C2 vertebrae (and perhaps on down to other vertebrae if needed). From friends who have had this surgery, the weirdest part for them was trying to get used to feeling the screws and rods under the skin of that covers the skull.  For me, it was the fact that the rods would be supported by ... here is the truly horrific part ... cadaver bones.  Yep ... and now you understand why I was literally "scared to the bone" of this surgery.

I just couldn't make the decision between the two surgeries.  At that same time, my father had given days to live due to epilepsy brought on by Alzheimers.  He died right before Thanksgiving at the time I was trying to process my diagnosis and surgical options.   I gave the decision back to Dr Bolognese and he decided to see if we could get by without the fusion surgery.  I admit the Chiari surgery was awesome.  No migraines since he performed that surgery in January 2012.  Amazing!  However, as you saw in my previous post, I have since had some very serious nervous system problems and needed the fusion surgery.

This is where there is hope ... in the last two years, Dr Bolognese has augmented and perfected a surgical strategy that until recently was used for people who could not have that the rods fasten to the exterior of the back of the skull (for example, for people who had been in major accidents resulting in skull trauma).  The new fusion surgery attaches the rods to the base of your skull where is thickest on the bottom of the skull called the "condyls" (just to the right and left of the opening at the base of the skull).  The the vertical rods are attached at the top with screws through the skull's condyls.  Then each rod is screwed to C1 an C2 (one vertical rod on the left of the spine and one on the right).  A horizontal bar is attached between the C1 screws.  Another horizontal bar is attached to the C2 screws.  If you are really interested in medical stuff, or you are considering fusion surgery yourself, here is a link to Dr Bolognese's talk (last fall) about this new fusion surgical procedure.  Another warning ... his includes actually surgical pictures.  Not great for dinner time viewing :)

Because the rods are not attached to the outside of the skull, you don't feel the weird hardware at all externally!!!  Oh, I am aware of them internally.  It's not bad though.  I'm getting used to the feel of it.  The other fabulous this that it does not require supporting cadaver bones!!!!!!!! 

After surgery, I was required to wear a cervical collar for three months.  At the beginning of September, I was able to start weaning myself off of it. That is why I went to the beach.  I went to a place where I could relax and look at beautiful things.  It helped me find a place away from the computer and email and stress to test how much mobility I would have and a warm place for my neck muscles to stretch and relax.  Many thanks to my extended family, cousins Carol and Carroll, who graciously allowed my mom and me to stay in their beach house for a few weeks.  They came down at the end our time at North Myrtle Beach, SC and we had such a marvelous time together.

I seriously have never felt better.  I honestly feel like me again.  I still have permanent nerve damage and I will be starting physical therapy to deal with things at the beginning of October.  I am finally back on my own in North Carolina.  My mom ended up with bronchitis after we returned from the beach and I got to take care of her last week (it felt good to help her for a change) before heading back to my own home.  It is great to be home and taking my first steps back to my own life and creating a new "normal" journey for myself.  I am grateful to God for walking with me each step until now and know He continues to walk with me each step into the future.

Well, that's about it for now.  Thanks for letting me share this with you.  God bless you all -- Mary Elizabeth

Chiari Awareness Month: Steampunk Butterfly -- A New Chapter in My Chiari Story

Hi All!  Thanks for dropping by.  I'm a Guest Designer today over at SanDee & Amelie's Steampunk Challenge.  This month's theme is Steampunk Stories.  I hope you can play along this month!  My guest designer piece this month is a Steampunk Butterfly.  Butterflies are often associated with “new beginnings”, so I chose a steampunk butterfly (with his cute little goggles) to represent the new chapter in my own Chiari story.  Some of you know that I have been struggling with some pretty serious health issues over the last few years.  In fact, when my dear friend Claudia asked me to be a guest designer for this challenge at the beginning of the year, I had just learned that I was going to need another rather major neurosurgery.  I asked if I could create a piece for September, the month designated to raise awareness for my condition — Chiari Malformation.

Chiari (kee-AR-ee) malformation includes a complex group of disorders characterized by herniation of the cerebellum through the large opening in the base of the skull into the spinal canal. The herniated tissue blocks the circulation of cerebrospinal fluid in the brain.  In my case, this condition came about as a result of a congenital defect where the base of my skull was a little smaller than normal.  It can also be caused by an accident.  According to The Chiari Institute,

    Patients with CM1 (Chiari Malformation Type I) may experience no symptoms. When symptoms are present, they usually do not appear until adolescence or early adulthood, but can occasionally be seen in young children. The majority of patients complain of severe headache and neck pain. Other common symptoms are dizziness, vertigo, disequilibrium, visual disturbances, ringing in the ears, difficulty swallowing, palpitations, sleep apnea, muscle weakness, impaired fine motor skills, chronic fatigue and painful tingling of the hands and feet. Because of this complex symptomatology, patients with CM1 are frequently misdiagnosed.

I was misdiagnosed for 15 years.  After getting conflicting diagnoses by neurosurgeons and neurologists in North Carolina, I was urged by my friends to find the best Chiari expert in the country.  That's when I met Dr Paolo Bolognese, formerly of The Chiari Institute (He now has his own practice called the Chiari Neurosurgical Center at NSPC   It just opened on August 31, 2014 so the website is still a little sparse)   Check out this post from last year on this part of my story.

Dr Bolognese officially diagnosed me with Chiari Malformation in November 2011.  I had brain surgery 2 months later in January 2012 which amputated the cerebellum tonsils that blocked my spinal fluid flow.  No more "migraines" after that surgery!  However, Dr Bolognese also diagnosed me with a secondary condition known as a Retroflexed Odontoid. The Odontoid is a bone on your vertebrae that supports the skull on your neck.  Mine was leaning backwards into my spinal cord.  It caused my skull to sink down toward my shoulders, thus compressing my brain and nerves.  Things really spiraled downhill in the spring.  My brain was unable to send nerve impulses to my left leg and I started having difficulties walking.  My optic nerves were compressed in both eyes and I even lost some of my sight in my left eye.

But I’m thrilled to tell you that my latest surgery (May 20, 2014) has corrected this complication and I feel like I have a new lease on life. So here is my Steampunk butterfly to celebrate this new chapter in my life.




The Steampunk Butterfly Details:

I was inspired by this awesome Chiari artwork that I found on Pinterest.  I love the purple ... purple is the Chiari Awareness color.  And the flourishes on the wings are incredible.

To create one of the wings, I used two different  grungeboard flourishes from one of Tim Holtz's Ideology grungeboard diecut packs.   I used some Glossy Accents to glue them together and then added three screw-head brads to make sure they stayed together..  The tops of the brads were painted with Black Soot Distress Paint (the excess wiped off to leave the paint in the screw crevices).

I wish you could see these wings in real life.  The grungeboard flouishes turned out fantastic.  They really have a dimensional jewel-like quality.  I began by giving the grungeboard flourshes  a base coat of Seedless Preserves Distress Paint.  I gave them a light sanding and the added some Brushed Pewter Distress Paint around the edges and on the sanded places.  After that dried.  I mixed some Glossy Multimedium with Seedless Preserves Distress Stain and gave the flourishes two coats of that mixture and let them naturally.  I then came back and gave the flourshes a fairly thick coat of Rangers Inkssentials Crackle Accents.   I seriously love this finish.  It's my favorite craft experiment that that I have done so far.

I wanted something translucent for the interior of the wings, so I grabbed some of Wendy Vecchi's Clearly for Art Modeling Film.  This product holds up well to heat tools and you can shape and reshape it by applying heat.  I tried various products (like archival ink, alcohol ink, alcohol markers, etc) to color the modeling film.  I finally ended up stamping Tim's blueprint gears stamp and the gears from Tim's Time Travel stamps with Distress Embossing Ink and some Aqua clear embossing powder.   This actually worked pretty well on the modeling film.  The one helpful hint I will give you is try not to do this on a humid day.  The embossing powder stuck to the film in places it wasn't supposed to because of the humid conditions.  I colored in the blue print stamp with a mixture of Glossy Accents, Seedless Preserves Distress Stain, and Worn Lipstick Distress Stain. After all that was done, I adhered a variety of gears and other metal bits from my stash to the wings. 

My butterfly's body was created with with some amazing pieces from Susan Lenart Kazmer's Industrial Chic jewelry line.  There main part is array of four light bulbs in an metal rectangular box.  I added a small rusty propeller at the bottom and a metal ring piece around the last light bulb.  I also covered the metal box with some of Tim's star Industrious Stickers.  The eyes and "feelers' were another industrial piece from Industrial Chic.  I added the alcohol ink colored pearls for the irises. 

The hinges are by Explorers at Hobby Lobby.  I gave them a coat of Silver Alcohol Ink Mixative and some Black Soot Distress Paint to grunge them up.  I glued them to the grungeboard flourish wings and added some of Tim's tiny screw-head brads.  I finally gave my butterfly some adorable steampunk goggles from Prima Marketing Junkyard Metal Embellishment Findings -- Steampunk Air Collection.  Love these!!!

I used a strip of scrap aluminum metal under both hinges and wings to bend the wings up off the surface.

Here are a few more detail pics: 

And there you have it.  Thanks for taking the time to check in on my SanDee & Amelie's Steampunk Challenge Guest Designer project.  I hope you have time to enter this month.  Also, thanks for allowing me to share with you a little more about Chiari Malformation and its related conditions.  So many people are needlessly suffering from this condition because it is so often misdiagnosed. 

I hope you all have a very blessed week.  -- Mary Elizabeth