Can You Hear Me Now? - Steampunk Style

I've had the same cell phone cover for a lot of months - it's pretty enough - red with a little bling, but I was ready for a change.  I don't have an iPhone (still bitter about all the trouble I had with itunes way back in the day &, yes, I am still carrying a grudge) so my choices are a bit limited, especially since I refuse to have anything to do with flowers, birds, stars, hearts, kittens or pastel colors - just not my style.  Kept looking & searching for the perfect cell phone cover, but no luck.  Then I had an epiphany - I have paint!  I have stencils!  I have glue!  I have gadgets!  Why am I looking for the perfect cell phone cover when I can make one exactly like I want it?

I started with this perfectly clear cell phone cover.  First step was to cover it completely in black gesso since nothing was going to stick to that slick plastic.



Next up was to paint it in, of course, Art Alchemy's Steampunk Copper.  The next layer was a piece of old sheet music that I stamped with more notes, set on fire for the burnt edges & adhered to the case with some soft gel gloss medium to be sure the edges wouldn't fray up.

Not a bad start, but no where near finished.  This is my first pass.  The placement was ok, but it was definitely lacking in color & needed more personality too.  This was definitely something I could fix & fix it I did.

I pulled out the paints, the stencils & the Gorilla Glue & spent the next few hours making the cell phone cover of my dreams - ok, that's an exaggeration, but it is one that suits me a whole lot better than anything else I had seen in my search.  See, no hearts, no stars, no flowers, no kittens & no pastels.

I think this is one of my favorite things to do - take something that's so dull & ordinary & transform it into something uniquely personal.  I'll be doing a lot more of these projects in the future so stayed tuned...  :-)

It's Christmas...In May!!!

Ok, not really, but it felt like it when I got home yesterday & my package had arrived from Scrapbooking Warehouse with the 4 jars of Art Alchemy Metallique acrylic paint, 1 jar of their Opal Magic acrylic paint, 2 jars of Micro Beads & 2 clock face trinkets I had ordered.  Nothing makes me happier than new art supplies...well, maybe a few things..but new art supplies are right up there. See all the pretty?  Aren't they gorgeous?

I already had a few jars of the Art Alchemy paint & absolutely love them.  They have a nice metallic sheen to them that reflects the light nicely, they truly are opaque & they spread easily - the weight & thickness are perfect.  The colors are awesome too.




Here's a chart of the colors I got this time. Ignore the one with the XX through it.  I still had blue paint on my finger so that didn't work.

I can't really decide what color the Blackberry is - a dark chocolately brown or a purple with a brown undertone.  Hard to decide. The Emerald Green looked more teal to me online & its another one that's hard to pin down.  It looks green, but as you can see, it pulls out blue.  I love it though & it's exactly what I wanted.  If I were into mermaids, this is the color I'd be using for sure.  The Brass Hardware is nice & bright & true.  Deep Waters is also true with no undertones that I can detect - very pretty.  The Violet Green Opal Magic paint, I'm on the fence about - on light paper, it barely shows green, but on the dark paper, I love the shimmery purple that shows up.


I tried out the Art Ingredients Micro Beads by running some soft gloss gel through a stencil, then pouring the beads onto it.  The beads are about the size of a poppy seed & very hard to corral.  I was able to get most of the excess back into the jar, but I think next time I'll mix them in with the gel before I use them - I think it'll be a lot easier, a lot less time consuming & less wasteful.

So, what did I do with all this awesomeness?  Take a look.


Keep in mind though that metallic paint is hard to photograph so you aren't getting a true picture of just how amazing these colors are.  I used the black Micro Beads for this, but decided that the painting was looking too dark, so spread some Brass Hardware on them.  The substrate is cardboard with black gesso.

If this has convinced you that you just can't go another minute without having the Art Alchemy paints & Micro Beads, I highly recommend ordering them from Scrapbooking Warehouse - I'm not shilling for them or being paid by them, but they've got great prices.  The paint was $3.88 a jar & Amazon wants $10.79 for most of the colors.  WTH???  If you do get some or, if you've been using them, let me know how you like them.

 And if you can tell me how to get metallic paint to show well in photos, you will be my hero & my new BFF.  :-)