Today we welcome Karen from Teen Librarian Toolbox — it’s time to get crafty! You don’t have to be an artisan to make Steampunk crafts. Here’s some ideas for kids and adults alike.
Steampunk Crafts
By Karen from Teen Librarian Toolbox
As part of Steampunkpalooza with author Suzanne Lazear, we are bringing you today some excellent Steampunk Crafts.
Steampunk USB Drive (using Polymer clay)
Ehow takes you through the 7 easy steps to make a fantastic Steampunk USB Drive. If you search on Etsy and Deviant Art you will see that people are making and selling all kinds of Steampunk USB drives for quite a chunk of change.
Steampunk Jewelry
There are a variety of books out there that discuss making jewelry out of everyday things found in your toolbox. These are all easily adaptable to make some amazing Steampunk inspired jewelry.
You can also use Pull Tabs, Beading Wire and Small Beads to make jewelry, like these ear rings found on Flickr. There are also step by step instructions over at Wiki How on how to make a pull tab bracelet.
Steampunk Shadow Art Coffin from Blue Butterfly Creations
http://blubutterflycreations.blogspot.com/2012/08/steampunk-alterned-art-shadow-coffin.html
Make this super fab Victorian Style hat over at Better Homes and Gardens
http://www.bhg.com/halloween/crafts/wacky-white-rabbits-hat/
Marble and Bottle Cap Magnets
You can use discarded magazines and newspapers to create Steampunk looking magnets. The bottle cap variety takes the steampunk look a step further. Bottle caps can also be used to make jewelry, keychains, etc. Use a fine tip black marker around the edges to give your images that dirty, torn look.
Not Martha: Marble Magnet instructons
Squidoo: Bottle Cap Craft Magnet instructions
Altered Altoid Tin
You can use THESE plans for altering Altoid tins and some Steampunk looking paper and embellishments to create a Steampunk tin for storing business cards, small jewelry, etc.
Dirigibles
This great blog post on re purposing and upcycling shows an example of how you can use light bulbs to create Hot Air Balloons/Dirigibles
Steampunk Scrapbooks and Journals (Papercrafts)
Keep in mind you can make amazing photo frames, scrapbook pages and more by simply choosing the right color papers (rusts, silvers, tarnished gold, etc.), cutting out gear shapes, etc. There is an entire Pinterest page dedicated to Steampunk Scrapbooking. Check here for some great tips, tricks and design layouts.
You can use these same design and layout ideas to decorate a blank journal and create a Steampunk Journal.
And finally, you can Mod Podge your pages onto canvas to make one of a kind Steampunk looking art. I look to this Etsy project for inspiration.
There are TONS of tutorials and inspiration on things like Pinterest, Etsy and the Web in general. Just do a search for “Steampunk Crafts”.
