The Magic Hat

 Hi everyone. It's another middle of  the week again. This week it's cooled off and feels like fall. Last week it had felt like summer again. Now that it's cooled off I'm back outside doing some more fall garden clean up. Last week it was too nice outside to work, and I enjoyed what will probably have been some of my last days in the screen porch for 2023. 

Today I have a silly page to share for Neet's In Gear challenge at Art Journal Journey. 

To  make my page I first covered the journal page with some old fashioned advertisement paper. Then I inked it with brown and black inks. 

Next I die cut the hat as well as the gears and some other bits. The hat was die cut from black paper, and I wanted it to look worn, so I crumpled it up before I glued it down on my page. I also inked it a bit too. I'm very happy with how it came out.

This steampunk and top hat die set  comes with 3 sizes of the hat. I think it is made so you can use the hat as a card and layer it. The hat die I used is actually the smallest sized one, and  as you an see, it's a really nice size image.

I used a silver Sharpie to color in the top and the band of the hat. I also used the silver Sharpie to color in the gears that I cut apart  and put together to make the glasses. In those glasses I added some of those crazy googly eyes.  The other die cut gears I tried painting with silver paint, but my paint was at the bottom of the bottle and  wasn't very good. To give them some depth I used a bit of a bronze Sharpie on them.

I also added a very old keyhole sticker as well as some screw top stickers.. These stickers are both from the same set, and I like how they worked to decorate the hat. The stickers were silver, and I inked them a bit to make them look more rusted. I've had this sticker set for over 20 years, and there aren't many stickers left on the backing sheet. (Oh no!)

Finally I used some other stickers to make my quote, and I also added a sticky cloth applique with those heart sunglasses.

Last week, as I've already mentioned, we had some nice summery days, and one morning I took a trip to my local botanical garden. I decided to go by myself, because what I really wanted to do was take photos without being distracted by conversation.  It's amazing what you can see when no one is talking to you. Grin.

The woman who originally owned the gardens and who still lives on the property is a sculptor. She likes to use all kinds of metal bits and pieces to create her art, and that art is all over the gardens. I've shown you some before, but to refresh your memory, here's a few  pieces.

This bird was never colored before, but it's been recently painted.

And these old saw blades make a cool hanging sculpture.

I'll share more sculptures and plants  in another post, but what I really wanted to share was the boneyard of supplies and parts.  The boneyard pieces are all tucked in a section up near the house the artist and her husband live in. The boneyard makes the divider between the public garden and the owners private space.

These boneyard  photos are perfect for Neet's theme at AJJ.

I love the natural lighting on this next photo.

And I wonder what these newer additions will be used for. They are definitely newer since they weren't covered with natural growth and  leaves.

Perhaps when the gardens are closed the artist and her doctor husband shoot a few rounds of golf around all the planting areas in the gardens. 😀 I will say this boneyard collection makes me feel better about all the paper ephemera I have piled all over my happy space. 😏

That's all for me today.  Have a great day.