Steampunk Garden Journal

I'm in Steampunk Journal Round Robin over at Amusing Muses. There are 8 mixed media artists who will each create a journal and every 3 weeks their journal will get shipped to the next artist who will create a 2 page collage and then send it to the next artist on the list. It's going to be a lot of fun and should take about 8 months to complete.
The exciting part is seeing what spin other artists will take on the "Steampunk" theme. Because I'm an avid gardener (veggie and flowers) I'm created a Steampunk Garden Journal. Can you image the crazy things a Steampunker would have in their garden?

This is the cover of my journal. It hasn't been bound yet which I'll do with wire binding. The cover has two parts, the bottom part flips open to reveal a suprise on the lower half of the blue cover. The key is part of a mechanism to keep the journal closed.

I tried to make the flower name placards look rusted. First I cut small rectangles of foam core board, painted it with copper Pearl Ex paint. After the paint dried I gobbed gel medium on the edges of the rectangle and then sprinkled it with fine craft sand. When the glue with the sand was dried I mixed small amounts of blue, copper and green Pearl Ex powder with a little water until it is thick and creamy and daubed it on the sand to create a patina. When it dried, I then sealed it with Ranger Glossy Accents. Antiqued furniture nail heads were cut down and stuck into the foamcore. Lastly I collaged on the blue paper and then the names of the flowers on top of it on the rectangle. I also sprayed stamped and distressed all other papers on the covers. It took me about 6.5 hours to get this much done!

I'll post more of the progress tomorrow!