Metal Embossing

I am working on a collage for Altered Art Obessions swap. I needed to have a background for my copper head charm. So, I thought another piece of metal behind it would look good - embossed metal. I love the texture of metal embossing. I know that there are a lot of tools out there for it. I prefer the ones from Ten Seconds Studios. She also has a book out and a DVD. I have not seen the DVD but I do have the book. It is really good for telling you which tools and which mat to use for what you want to do. It does make a HUGE difference.

I recently bought some new plates from Ten Seconds Studio at the Quilt Show but have not used them yet. I figured that now would be a good time. I took a piece of thin sheet metal that comes in a roll - almost like foil but a slightly thicker gauge. The stuff I used was from AMACO from a craft store. Ten Seconds Studio also sells it. What I did was just use a paper stump and went over the plates. I used the end of the stump to get in between the designs. One is just a bunch of swirls and the other one is of the alphabet. I just turned the plates and overlapped them a little on the metal sheet. You can see the before pict on top.

After I was done embossing, I used some black paint and used a paintbrush to get it all over the embossed metal sheet. I made sure that I got into the crevices. I let it dry for a couple of minutes. Do not let it dry completely. I used a paper towel and lightly wiped off the excess off the raised areas - keeping the valleys/crevices black. Not waiting until it was dry, I took my universal tool (fingers) and put some Golden's fluid acrylic in interference oxide green (BS) and randomly applied it over the embossed metal sheet. I covered most but not all of the metal sheet. This color does wonderful things over black paint. I discovered it quite by accident one day when I was layering paint. You need to click on the 2nd pict to get more detail. It is absolutely delicious with some gold, black, and verdigris color showing through.

Not waiting until it was dry, I took a sandpaper block and lightly sanded the raised areas. That gave it some wonderul contrast. You can seal it with spray sealer, if you like. I will post the final collage, when done.

Oh yeah, sources:

http://marcopaper.com/tenseconds.htm If you order from Marco Paper, join their email group first. Email members get a discount on orders. This is really a good company. I sometimes get my giganto bottle of Diamond Glaze from them. They are one of the few people who sell it besides Judikins themselves. Marco Paper is closer to me than Judikins in California.

http://tensecondsstudio.com/new.html Link to Ten Seconds Studios. Email me at crazyartgirl@sbcglobal.net if you need help deciding which embossing tools or plates that you really need. I have a lot of them but keep using the same ones all the time.

Comments welcome.