I love adding metal to cards. It’s an unexpected look and it’s always fun playing with textures that I don’t use in my day to day crafting. Metal is something that’s quite easy to add.
It’s time for yet another Mixed Media challenge over at Happy Little Stampers….first up – I have something totally easy that you can immediately implement in your crafting – tin foil and metallic embossing powders – and be sure to read on – I didn’t add them the traditional way!
When you think of metal, you may go to the chunky pieces that you can add, but I wanted to keep my mixed media piece a little flatter. So to get a natural look, I used two everyday items we all have in our homes – aluminum foil and water.
Simple ways to add Metal to your Projects:
To get a nicely watercolored look in the project on the right, you’ll want to use a stencil with a solid negative space (the space that doesn’t get used). I chose the Mini Specimens stencil by The Crafters Workshop – I LOVE their stencils.
First, stencil through your positive image onto a project. The excess ink will collect on the negative space of the stencil. The watercolored look in our project today comes from the ink that was left over from the project on the left. I added Hickory Smoke and then some Soot Black on top of some embossing paste in this watercolor mixed media piece – there’s a video for that project (link below):
Click Here for the Left Project’s Tutorial & Video
Once you’re done adding color to your positive image (the colorful one on the left), grab a second piece of watercolor paper, spritz your stencil with all the left over ink on it with a mini mister and press into your paper. You’ll then get a watercolored negative space look for your card stock. You basically turned your stencil into a stamp!
Since we’re using the negative of the image – note that when you stamp it – it’s reversed from the positive one (colorful left project above)!
It’s a little hard to see in the photos, but this project has a sparkly sheen to it. To get that look, use pearlized water by adding a little Perfect Pearl (Perfect Pearl shade by Ranger) into my water filled mini mister rather than regular water.
Now that we have our mixed media base – stenciling & watercolor, next up is adding some metallic accents. The coolest part is that for the splotches you don’t even use ink – what? Yup….spritz a little water into to palm of your hand and flick it at your project. Keep this a little at a time so you don’t add huge splotches.
Add embossing powder – I used Pewter Powder and emboss. Pretty cool, huh? That’s how you get that realistic splotch look.
TIP – when you heat your powder, since there’s no ink to really grab onto it – first heat from underneath. That way your powder will start the melting process, finish from above, but keep your heat tool a little further away so you don’t blow all the powder away.
To get that great look to the sides – use water or versamark in a direct to paper manner. Once you have the look you’re going for, grab some heavy duty tin foil. stamp a sentiment in versamark, and emboss in Black. I used a new stamp set Hand painted Thanks by Neat & Tangled.
The black is a nice contrast to the shiny Tin Foil. Tear around it leaving a longer strip to one side to overlap when you attach. Use glue to attach it to your watercolor paper. If you wrinkle it a bit more than you want – just flatten it out with your finger – or leave them in – it’s texture!
I love the shiny mixed with the Pewter – it’s a new/old look. That’s it! Adding a simple metal look to your cards is really that easy! I’m curious…have you ever embossed with water?
So now it’s your turn to add a metal look to your mixed media projects! I can’t wait to see what you come up with, head on over the Mixed Media Challenge and check out everyone’s creations.
Till next time –
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