Professor Bumbles Magical Travelling Steampunk Suitcase By Carol Fox

Hi, I'm Carol fox, and I am very happy to be your guest on the DT for July. This altered suitcase is the first of three projects that I shall be sharing with you through the month. I really enjoyed making it and I hope you enjoy reading about it.

Professor Bumble is an avid traveller but like most of us he enjoys the arriving, but the journey can be a bit tiresome. So imagine his joy when he stumbled upon this magical travelling suitcase in the back of an old dingy shop. He would now be able to travel around the globe without having to spend to much time away from his beloved Emily.

I used one of these paper mache suitcases as the basis for my project. I started by giving it a couple of coats of Claudine Hellmuth Tan paint, both inside and out, then adding the detailing on the case with the Sable brown. I then randomly stamped the cog images from the Tick Tock Plate over the case using black archival ink. I then edged the case using a Black Acrylic Dabber.

I stamped images from the Labels Plate onto cream paper, inked them and then attached them to the case using multi medium. I stamped and added quotes from the Travelling Words plate in the same way.

I stamped the Slow and Fast image onto coated white card using archival ink, so it was nice and black and stood out well. I attached a game spinner to the centre over the stamped hand for extra detail. I layered this onto the case using sticky fixers.

On the back of the case I used the world image from the Round The World plate, colouring it with blue and brown distress ink.
I made the little wheels using oversized draught pieces from a childrens game, drilling holes in them before glueing Tim Holtz Sprocket gears onto them and adding large oversized brads to their centres.  I cut small round pieces of wooden dowling to act as axels to attach them to the suitcase. The propellor is hand made from metal and layered up with a large spring and a sprocket gear.

I added die cut cogs coloured with inka gold paste to give it a working steampunk appearance. The key is from my personal stash but the Tim Holtz ones in the shop are very similar.
I stamped odd tags and labels from the Ephemera plate and the Labels Plate onto shrink plastic,  colouring them in before shrinking and attaching them to the key and the handle of the suitcase with odd bits of chain and jump rings.

Inside the case attached to the lid for safe keeping is the travelling map by which Professor Bumble chooses his destination. He decided to glue it to the lid for safe keeping, after running into a tornado and nearly getting it ripped from his grasp.

I have used the Map of Europe, stamped using black ink and aged using old paper distress ink, before glueing to the lid.

The most prized possesion that travels with Professor Bumble is his old Phineas Pinchbeck Pocket Watch. He keeps a photo of his beloved Emily tucked into the back of the watch.

I have used the Watches Set stamps and the matching chipboard to make this watch. The white chipboard was too bright so I used Old paper Distress ink to age it before I started. I stamped the main watch image straight onto the chipboard and highlighted the hands and numbers with glossy accents. Then using glossy accents I attached a reclaimed pocket watch glass over the stamped watch face.

I then hinged the two pieces together at the bottom. I cut three pieces of white card to fit the circle area, and ran two through my bigshot with an embossing folder to add texture before colouring them with Inka Gold Paste to give them a lovely metallic finish. I then glued them to the back and the inside of the watch.

Onto the other piece I stamped the larger image from the Gibson Girl sheet and coloured it using distress ink pens on my craft mat picking up the colour with a paintbrush so the shades were faded. I glued this to the inside back of the watch. I coloured the edges with paint from a gold acrylic Dabber. I added a small shrink plastic tag featuring the  Phinease Pinchbeck image.

Professor Bumble never travels without his Moustache oil, carefully packaged into its box for safe keeping. I used the Goose Grease image on my box, masking it off before adding cogs from the Tick Tock Plate as a background. It is coloured with spiced Marmalade, Brick red and Mustard Seed Distress ink.

The small bottle has been covered in Rock candy Distress paint, once this was dry I coloured it using Butterscotch Alcohol ink. The shrink Plastic label was made in the same way as the tags for the suitcase.

Other little bits of ephemera he has collected on his travels include a voucher for 6d of  his favourite trousers, and the advert for them he took from his paper before he left home, along with a tape measure to ensure he gets a good fit and tickets collected on his travels.
These items feature images from the Open Road sheet and the Ephemera sheet, both of which can be found here.

I hope you enjoy my project and I shall be back in a couple of weeks.
Carol x