Gothic Arch #10 Steampunk

Edited (again) to add: A very kind blogger, Vicky, left me a comment to say that is a real building in Melbourne, and here is a link to find out more about it. She has some gorgeous Gothic arches on her blog, and lots of other lovely goodies too. One further correction (egad!): the lamppost stamp is Darkroom Door from one of the Prague sets.

Edited to add:
I did a bit of belated Googling and the World Expo of 1888 was in Melbourne Australia. This lovely building is not, as I mistakenly thought, the Crystal Palace, but possibly the Royal Exhibition Building. It might also be some artist's fancy. Still, thought I shouldn't like to appear, however, unintentionally, anti-antipodean.

The 10th Gothic Arch challenge by Inkurable Stampers is Steampunk. Steampunk is a genre of art, literature, etc. that is sort of a combination of steam power meets science fiction meets fantasy. There is a good description on the challenge page, also wikipedia, and other places. It's kind of neat. The inspiration I took was sort of brass and leather and cogged wheels and mechanical

workings.

To make this arch, I cut the shape from a piece of Buckaroo Blue cardstock and stamped the dial image (Tim Hotlz, Stampers Anonymous) in walnut stain (Distress), smudging after a bit so not so harsh. Then I rootled in my drawer of special paper and found this beautiful piece of handmade paper. I got it from Stamp and Scrap Canada and it's the Embossed Bamboo in Copper and it's gorgeous! (You can see a bit of the colour and texture on the close up.) It's sort of leathery and beautiful and I used the deckle edge, which peeks out a bit (but I know that lovely deckle edge is under there!).

I also used some collage art, also from Stamp and Scrap Canada, which shows an exhibition building and says "The World Industrial Exhibition of 1888", and I echoed the year in typewriter key stickers. I also spritzed the bamboo paper using some perfect pearl mixture and a cogged wheel stencil, but it doesn't really show, but once again, I know it's there. I stamped a Victorian lantern on the expo piece too (also Stampers Anonymous). A pocket watch sticker, vintage ferris wheel brad, and an antiqued brass library clip complete the arch. Yay Steampunk!