Compass Rose

When I was teaching 2nd grade I had to teach them different terms for Geography because we were doing a unit on where do we live.  One of the things I did was have a big world map and on the map I had their names connected to a string to where their family was from.  Some were local, some from other states and some from out of the country.  When I did mine, I put Mrs. Devinney and a line going to Sweden which is where my parents are from.  They loved it! Through out the year we talked about neighborhoods and they learned about directions.  One important term they learned was the compass rose, which is a compass

April ATC Swap

A few weeks ago I did a post on Steampunk and said I was going to make an ATC (Altered Trading Card).  The first ATC I made was out of this image that I got from The Graphic Fairy.

I uploaded the image to Picnik added  frames and other details.  I thought it was a cute try.

My daughter Natalie, who's 13, felt that it needed a different kind of picture so she drew this man.

Steampunk ATC

I printed him to fit a 3x5 card and then glued him on silver on silver harlequin paper.  Then I added some steampunk charms.  Now I'm going to mail it to my Steampunk partner, Karla.  Karla sent me a beautiful ATC Steampunk Card.  Thanks, Karla

You can learn about the ATC Swap at:

What is Steampunk?

I've joined an ATC (Altered Art Trading Card) Swap @

For the month of april we are suppose to use steampunk. I was thinking ok..what is steampunk, so I googled it.

"Steampunk is a sub-genre of fantasy and speculative fiction that came into prominence in the 1980s and early 1990s. The term denotes works set in an era or world where steam power is still widely used. Usually the 19th century, and often Victorian era England, but with prominent elements of either science fiction or fantasy." - steampunkculture.com

Steam Punk is often shown in movies too with out you knowing it. Some famous movies, made from Jules Vern books show the steam-punk imagery.  Journey to the Center of the Earth (2008), Around the World in 80 Days (1956) and (2004), 20000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954) are some of Jules Vern Movies.

Last Thursday, Natalie and I went to see Rango, voice by Johnny Depp and I saw all sorts of steam punk images in the movie. Here are two good examples:

I created, what I thought was a steampunk ATC but Natalie said that she would draw me a picture.

This is my example:

Here is Natatlie's Picture, which I'm going to use for my Steam Punk ATC:

I will show my ATC when I'm done with it.

Natalie said this video shows Steampunk Culture and Clothes:






If you want to see more about Steam Punk go to these sites:

http://blissfullatcswap.blogspot.com/2011/03/aprils-theme-steampunk-what-is-it.html


http://steampunkculture.com/