Steampunk clock decorations

These clocks were done at the prompting of a friend who needed decorations for a party. Images and tutorial here.
 

Steampunk hats

I had a Mad Hatter's inspired party that required an outlet for all the creative impulses I wasn't able to indulge after breaking my arm, which is where the hats come in. Inspiration came from a number of tutorials, including here and here.

Craft glue butterflies and dragonflies

My aunt bought me some rather pretty butterflies for christmas a few years back and I've been trying to work out how they were made, but it remained a mystery until I ran across this tutorial, which gave me a good place to start. All you need is some cling wrap, wire, craft glue (or any glue that dries clear, I imagine), glitter pens and food colouring.

I bent some metal frames in butterfly and dragonfly shapes. Mixed some glue, glitter and food colouring until I got the mix I wanted. (It was all very much guess work.) I pressed the butterflies as flat as possible, then filled in the wire frames with the glue mixture using a toothpick and left it to dry. Once dry, they peeled off the plastic quite easily.

In the process of drying out on cling film.

The final versions in several colours.

Steampunk necklaces

Between there not being many steampunk related items in South Africa and the price of importing, I tend to make my own steampunk items. Here's how I make cheap steampunk necklaces.

Here are the supplies I use:

From top left: an old watch, rhinestones, butterfly sequins, and assorted beads

Measure the size of the watch you want to use and find a picture that fits, or that you can resize. Print out three or four copies and cut out the levels of the image and stick them together using thick double-sided tape to give them some depth, then decorate as you like.

 

I attached some wire to create a loop to attach a chain. You can add whatever you like here. In the previous necklace I used keyrings because it was all I had on hand. And you've got a quick, cheap necklace to add to a steampunk outfit.

Butterfly hair pins

Here's a combination, at a friend's suggestion, of the beaded hair pins with the transparency butterflies.

Obviously, lighter colours show up better in darker hair.

Shrink plastic for South Africans

After looking at some amazing images of shrink plastic projects and the option of using number 6 plastic (which was no where to be found), I decided to do some investigating. So, for those of us South Africans struggling to track down shrink plastic or shrinky dinks for all those fun online tutorials (like here or here or here or here), there are a few places I've managed to track down that sell it.

Cape Town:
The Scrapbook Factory Shop
Simply Creative


Pretoria:
ABC Crafts
Who also sell on bidorbuy

Stellenbosch:
Pen and Art

Online:
Takealot

Scrapbookers probably knew about this all along, since the majority of the links I found led to scrapbooking stores, but I hope this is useful to the rest of us.

Transparency butterflies

I'm a little obsessed with butterflies. It might be the acceptable adult version of my childhood obsession with fairies. I found this tutorial detailing how to create absolutely amazing butterflies with stamps and alcohol ink, neither of which I have, so I improvised. I found images of butterflies online and printed them directly onto the transparencies, then filled them in with kids' glass deco pens by Bostik. It worked quite well and I'm very impressed with the result.

The butterflies can take a little while to cut out neatly, although that time should be cut down with a good craft knife. Those with a little more detail obviously take longer to outline and you do have to wait for each colour to dry before adding more, but generally you can produce a good sized batch in an afternoon.

The four small ones in the top left are glued to little pegs so that they can be clipped onto things. Currently, I have them on my curtains. The two below that are glued onto kebab sticks so I can arrange them in my plants (all succulents because I have a tendency to kill plants with ease). The two large ones are glued to magnets and are on my fridge, as you can see below.

Wire rings

I adore rings. I don't think it's possible for me to walk by a shop or stall with rings without giving a good and thorough look. Unfortunately, they tend to be on the pricier side of things, so I took it upon myself to figure out how to make my own.

 
The ring on my index finger was made when I ran out of pins for the beaded hair pins but was still feeling the creative itch. I had a ring base from a mood ring I got when I was a teenager that fell apart years ago and simply attached some beads using wire.

The ring on my middle finger is a watch face from an old watch that I pulled apart for steampunk jewellery, to which I added a butterfly sequin and some rhinestones.

The other four rings I took from a tutorial I found at PZDesigns which has lots of ideas for interesting and intricate designs.

Steampunk cupcakes

My experiment with steampunk themed baking. It turned out rather well, I think. Especially since I'd never tried working with fondant before.

 
Orange cupcakes with chocolate-orange frosting and chocolate and marshmallow fondant gears. I didn't have gear shaped cutters, so I improvised with round ones and the corner of a star cutter.

Wire dragonflies

A while ago I tried my hand at wire crafts after discovering this tutorial on wire and bead dragonflies. The tutorial is clear and easy to follow and the result pretty enough that even if it doesn't end up quite right, it doesn't really matter.

Each one took me about 20 minutes after a bit of practice. They were a lot of fun to make, although, as with most wire crafts, I'm not sure my nails thank me.

Gathered fabric flowers

In the continuing forays into hair accessories, I tried my hand at fabric roses, based off of the tutorial here. Mine weren't nearly so well put-together, but I think they worked out well.

I added some lace to the purple flowers and sewed a bit of ribbon on the back of each flower so I could attach bobby pins.

The flowers in a Gibson Tuck.

They were exceptionally easy and very quick to make, only five to ten minutes each, so I'll definitely be making more.

Beaded hair pins

The first post detailing my forays into various crafty and baking endeavours. My most recent obsession is hair accessories, so I tried my hand at some hair pins found here.

I apologise for the awful picture quality, but it's all I have on hand.

I didn't have any pearl-like beads, so I used whatever was on hand, pins included. As you can see, some of my pins were rather interesting shades of purple and pink, so I painted them a uniform black with some nail polish.

My hair's a little messy because I tried pin curls last night. (I wouldn't call it a rousing success.)

And in a Gibson Tuck.

All in all, considering it only took a few minutes for each pin, I'm pretty pleased with my results.