Metal art...or just more stuff

Not sure what the answer is. Except that playing with metal sheets is so much fun. I can see this translating well into the home dec area of my life.

I took a class last Friday night from a very lovely and talented lady named Christy Gilbreath, who is a sales rep for both Bo Bunny and Ten Seconds Studios. So guess what was in the class kit? Bo Bunny paper and Ten Seconds Studios metals... It was really fun and a great learning experience. I've changed up the class pages a bit and then actually accomplished that which I set out to accomplish... I made a metal covered cross. It's not perfect, but it's done and it's ok.

So let me explain a bit about the metal. You should venture onto Ten Seconds Studio (click here) to see all their beautiful samples and see their product. So as not overwhelm you with details, I'll just give a brief snynopsis of what I did. First off, the brown polka dot flower, the green "mats" and the brown scroll strip are all metal art. The metal comes coated with a color on one side. This can be your front side should you want a predominate color. So you would cut your piece to size and then lay the cut metal on top of an embossing plate. You can use your QuicKutz, Cuttlebug, and Fiskars (did I leave any out?) embossing dies or folders for this too. Then you use a special pointed tool and rub all around the raised elements of that which you are using to emboss. Once the piece is embossed, then you use a soft sanding block to sand off the color on the raised areas. Of course the metal can be "smushed" so it's not meant for heavy wear and tear. If you are using your metal art for an item that will be handled a lot, then Christy recommends you fill the back side with some really runny spackling and let that set. You want to be sure to only keep the spacking in the design so that any overflow doesn't show on the back side of your art piece. For your scrapbooking and card making pieces, use it as is. It's going to be just beautiful.

For the cross, the technique is basically the same, except I had to trace the cross onto the metal first. I purchased my wooden cross at one of the larger craft stores for next to nothing. I decided to use the silver side of the metal sheet so that I could then wash the entire piece with black paint and wipe off the excess to give it that Santa Fe look.

Place the metal wrong side up on a foam mat. Place your cross on top and lightly trace around the cross using a stylus with a rounded end. You don't want anything too sharp so as not to puncture the metal. Then I embossed what was going to be the right side of the metal with very many different embossing mats. I then measured how much metal should be left around the embossed design because I wanted to wrap the metal to the back of the cross. Measure twice, cut once... I used E600 to attach the metal to the cross. Once it was securely adhered, I wiped the piece with some black craft ink on a paper towel. Basically, that's it. But as always, there is a bit of fiddling to make sure everything got covered. I've got some more ideas in mind and will share them with you as I get them finished.

Sorry for the delay in posting, but we had life happening this week. Granddaughter #1 tried out for the mutton busting in the rodeo and placed, then we went to the rodeo, had work stuff, hung curtains, bought groceries and before I new it, another week had spun by.

Be Creative!