Steampunk Sunday!

I decided I was going to start doing more steampunk stuff and I think I will start posting them on Sundays...why?  Because I think it rhymes...sort of.

I had never heard of steampunk until about 3 years ago when a student in a card class asked me if I ever made steampunk cards.  No I hadn't but I have been ever since.  I don't know what about it appeals to me so much but tugs at my heart and I love steampunk!  Urban Dictionary defines steampunk as:

a subgenre of speculative fiction, usually set in an anachronistic Victorian or quasi-Victorian alternate history setting. It could be described by the slogan "What the past would look like if the future had happened sooner." It includes fiction with science fiction, fantasy or horror themes.
Medieval Steampunk: Speculative fiction set during the Middle Ages.
Victorian Steampunk: A modern Science Fiction work (post-1930s) that is set in the early parts of the industrial revolution.
Western Steampunk: Science fiction set in the American Old West.
Industrial/Modern Steampunk: Science fiction taking place in the late industrial age, early modern age; i.e. World War 1, World War 2 

Examples of steampunk:
Wild Wild West
Final Fantasy 7
Van Helsing
The Time Machine
Hellboy
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow 

I have to say I love the Industrial and Victorian Steampunk most of all.  I didn't realize that there was such a thing as Western or Medieval Steampunk and will have to look into it!  

Here is my Victorian Steampunk tag for today.  I tried something a little different that an artist on another blog suggested...I cut 3/4" off the bottom of this tag to try her size tag.  The artist says she loves this shorter length but I am not so for sure about it yet.

The shortened tag makes everything look closer together and gives less play room. 

Victorian elements:  flowers, balloon, top hat, lock and key, Victorian gentleman, feather...btw that feather is one of my grand bird Nyasa's feathers!

Industrial elements: gears, clock, pen nib, film strip

I love playing with these tags!  I used Tim Holtz Tiny Things stamp set, Ideology film ribbon strip, paper tape, Pen nibs, gears and clock are from Michael's jewelry findings, black bubble bling.  I first covered the tag with silver metallic Distress Stain dried it with a heat tool, stamped the gear stamp several times on it in Archival black ink, then ran it through the Vagabond in a Sizzix gears folder.  I love the layers and depth!  Cool huh!  

Give Steampunk a chance it isn't all doom and gloom...  Here are some elements of Steampunk clockworks like gears, cogs and wheels that make up mechanical motion.  Steampunk doesn't mean steam has to power it and it can be run by wind or sun so small windmill like blades, balloons or dirigibles.  Weather vanes, compasses, goggles, and tools and weapons of the Victorian era.  Clothing of the Victorian era like top hats, feather hair pieces, and corsets...anything goes.  Try it and have fun!