Fun Steampunk boudoir journal

Once again, I made a boudoir journal using the directions offered by Steffogal1 super cute and  fast journal. Since I'm an avid steampunk participant, working on a steampunk book and having appeared on authors and art panels at Steampunk Cons, I'm always looking for new ways to create using the steampunk/Victorian theme. Since my main character Cecilia is a frisky and curious character - always looking for something to get into, i w3anted to highlight the more flirtatious and playful parts of her personality in this little 71/2 X 31/2 journal.  
This was so much fun to make, touching on both the steampunk and Victorian aspects of my steampunk novel in progress, Orchidelirium.  I often find that producing art is a good way to help flesh out scenes and chapters for my novel.   And since I mentioned before, like the Victorian, I love the idea of recycling advertising illustrations in art so this one has a lot of Trader Joe's illustrations - they are just too cool to leave in the ad flyers or throw in the trash.  I stayed with a muted color scheme in keeping with the Victorian era and of course added a pallet of browns to emphasize the steampunk element.  For the background pages and pockets, I used papers from K& Company's Julianne and Vintage Garden paper stacks, as well as some stock Recollections papers from Michael';s and A.C. Moore.

 In addition I used materials, flowers, ephemera, and techniques from 7 Gypsies, Graphic 45, Tim Holtz, Ranger Inks, Recollections, Prima and K&Company. Once again I've added lots of pockets and tags where I can tuck away notes about Cecila's character development or plot ideas. And there are photo mats where I can add photos of miniatures of some of the sketches I'm doing of my characters.  And of course, had a blast adding feathers and bling to each page.

On the first page, I used a Julianne paper from K&Company then added a corseted steampunk woman  as the main illustration.  I love the steampunk twist the Graphic 45 designers did on the Victorian corseted woman making her appear as if she just left the Upper Air Market, a wheel of streets, something like a steampunk version of Montemarte, which is suspended high above ground where rogues, dealers and thieves meet at the cabarets and in the shops selling rare black market merchandise.
However, Cecilia, as botanist at Kew Gardens, she   is just as much a Victorian lady who has a great deal of fun flirting with the men, although she's committed to Nicholas, a rather unconventional inventor.
The reason I love making these books so much is because they remind me of the Griffin and Sabine series where art and letters tells the mysterious story of the two main characters and actually holding the letters makes the reader feel as if they do are there - in the story living it out.
On the first page, we have the carriage ready to take her off on an adventure and here she has plenty of room to jot down new acquaintances, addresses, titles of musics, names of music she likes and of course any new botanicals she might come across.  And of course, she loves to tuck away invitations to the theater, or those new fangled moving pictures, appointment cards with her designer and that new photographer with his fancy camera, as well as invitations to picnics, teas, dances or tennis.  And lets not forget a gentleman's calling card - there's always a place to slip one in to keep safe.
On the second page, she's recorded illustrations drawn by that wonderful new artist in the area of her rowing on the Thames and enjoying tennis with Nicholas when she can steal him away from his laboratory and workshops.
On the third and fourth page, she loves to recall that wonderful party, where everyone took turns displaying a talent, reading poetry, singing, playing the piano or acting out a hilarious skit - one young man even performed magic tricks!  Cecilia displayed two of the new floral additions to the greenhouse - a rare and potent poppy and a newly discovered rose, discovered growing wild on a side of a hangar just outside of London in Staines where they build airships of all things!  but how she discovered this is a long  and dangerous story, indeed.
And then as we come to the end of the day, Cecilla reflects and unwinds, steps out of her corset into a loose fitting cotton work dress and goes into the greenhouse to choose flowers for the arrangements she'll make for tomorrow's festivities.