Frankenstein's Laboratory 3 - The Generator

  

Alright, we've come to the last part of Frankenstein's Laboratory made with Tim Holtz Idea-ology, and that is the light-up generator.  This isn't tough but there are multiple steps and some that I didn't photograph, so I will just tell you what I did in that section.

For the light up part of this I used two of the largest bottles from the Corked Vials package, and both the orange and purple Halloween Tiny Light. This was me testing it out to see if it would work.

The generator needed a cabinet to sit on so I took a small Vignette Box and covered it with a piece of Departed paper. Then I covered it with Vintage Collage Medium, and distressed it with Walnut Stain and Rusty Hinge Distress Crayons.

The generator needed some metal washers to attach the Vials and wires and things so I grabbed some of Sprocket Gears and Mini Gears. for the top of the Vignette Box, I used the gear at the top. I show the back and front so you can see what I did to them. The bottom gears I stacked and adhered together with Collage Medium. Then I covered them with some Transparent Grit Paste, Brushed Pewter (or another metallic paint) and then distressed with Black and Walnut Stain Distress Crayon or paint.

I think I slathered everything in Transluscent Grit Paste! LOL! Add some to these Hex Fasteners. Then Distress with Paint and Crayons to make them look old and rusty.

The cabinet needed a gauge, so these two pieces and the indicator are part of the Tim Holtz Sizzix Voltage Bigx die. I cut them both out of chipboard. The gauge is a stamp made to fit this die from The Professor CMS373 stamp set.

Then I painted the large piece with Brushed Pewter, sanded it and rubbed Distress Crayon in Rusty Hinge and Walnut Stain to make it look old and rusty.

On the top of the Vignette Box I aded four Hitch Fasteners and the two gears I mentioned earlier. As with everything else, I put Translucent Grit Paste on the Hitch Fasteners and then distressed with Rusty Hinge and Walnut Stain.

On the Voltage Bigx die is also this needle and the hex bolt looking pieces. I cout for of the hex bolt things, painted, grit pasted and Distress Crayoned. The needle I cut one but I cut three of the circle that goes under it. I adhered them together and then painted Barn Door red and added a little rusty gold with Walnut Stain Distress Crayon.

I covered the inside of Vignette Divided Box with paper from Departed. I painted the back corners so they don't show through, and I pre-drilled some holes for were the Halloween Tiny Lights will go through.

I have a stash of Woodgrain Cardstock and 3D Lumber pieces that are already colored and ready to use, so I pulled a small piece out and cut it into 1/2" strips and made a faux wood floor.

Once the back and sides of the section were covered with Departed paper, I used some Halloween Ephemera and Halloween Layers to make a few things that would adorn the back of the bottom section. One was this Fragile sign. I really didn't want the Do No Drop part so I crinkled it and inked it and sanded it to make it seem like it was just a warning sign on a wall.

Under the Knife Switch I took this chipboard Layer and cut bits off and sanded it as well and then colored it with some Distress Stain.

I added more color with some Walnut Stain.

One other bit that I did before I attached everything on the generator is that I wanted to frost the bottles so they glowed more and so you didn't see the wires and lights so clearly. I brushed some Distress Collage Medium on the large Corked Vials to give them some tooth. Then I brushed then with Distress Rock Candy Crackle Paint. Once it was dry I brushed some Distress Walnut Stain Distress Crayon over it so that it would go down into the cracks and highlight them.

To assemble, thread the Halloween lights through the holes from the back of the Divided Box, leaving the battery packs on the back of the box.

One last thing I did to the vials was to wrap the end of the bottles with a bunch of wire. Then I painted the wire and the end of the bottle with some Tarnished Brass Distress Paint and then aged it with Walnut Stain Distress Crayon. Thread the lights through the top of the Vignette Box and then push them all into the bottles. One color in each bottle.

Here you can see that I have threaded all of the lights into the bottles and glued the plastic end of the lights into the holes in the top of the Vignette Box. I left this to dry before I did the next step.

Once the bottom of the lights were secured in place, I adhered the bottles by putting Collage Medium around the rim of the bottles and then setting them evenly into the center of the gears. I left this to dry over night.

Here you can see how they fit nicely right into the middle of these gears.

Once it is dry, this is what it will look like.

Now we want to add some crazy wiring to make it look like the generator is connected to things. I used this large floral wire that I got from the Dollar Tree. It is soft and really easy to bend. I know it's purple, but I painted it, grit pasted it, and Distress Crayoned it so that it looked like crusty old wiring.

For the top of the bottles I coiled the wiring around a paint brush handle. Then I did all the painting and distressing mentioned above.

Adhere the stacked gears I showed you at the very beginning of this post and then insert the wire coil into the hole in the center of each of the top gears.

Now you can see that it looks like the bottles are connected by wiring.

I used some pliers to bend two more pieces of the large floral wire into shapes like this for the sides of the generator. 

I drilled holes in both sides of the Vignette box here so that the wire could go through it. You can also see more gears with grit paste on them, those will find their home in the corner opposite the generator cabinet.

Here are the gears in place in the bottom right corner. I also used some tiny gears on the bottom on both sides of the box to attach the wire into so it looks like it is coming out of the side and down into the ground (or vice versa.)

From this vantage point you can see the wire going into the side of the box.

Here you can see the wires on both sides of the box. And note the Fragile sign in the background. 

I often decorate the backs of my projects just for myself. This one has some items from the Halloween Baseboards and Layers. I wanted to put some charts and things that I thought Dr Frankenstein would use for reference. I also have the little paper holders for the light battery packs.

Here it is all in place and lit up! I can almost hear Dr Frankenstein yelling "It's a liiiiiiiiiive!" 

And that is it my friends. I hope it's enough detail to inspire you to try building some of your own laboratory elements.

In case you missed them, here are the links to 

Frankenstein's Laboratory Part 1 - Knife Switch

Frankenstein's Laboratory Part 2 - Books and Seal

Thank you for stopping by!

Tami

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