Day 3 Heavy Metal Play Day

The saturday metal class was fantastic! Walnut Hollow recently changed the size of their metal squares from 4" x 4" to 5"x 5 3/4", and this larger size really opened up the creative potential for embossing. 

My students had so much fun, creating fantastic designs, check out all their beautiful work (click on the photos for big images)

The texture and depth that can be achieved with the copper is amazing.

One student found this great little embossed aluminum metal box in the Artistic Artifacts booth at lunch and colored it with alcohol inks.

 another beautiful bee

It was such a wonderful surprise to have my friend Holly Holloway and her mom in my class too.

For anyone wanting to take this class, I'll be teaching it in Houston at International Quilt Festival on Saturday November 3 and this weekend in Mineral Point, WI at Shake Rag Alley.

Fun Metal Workshop and a Rough Drive Home

On thursday, I drove 85 miles to Rockford, IL to give two lectures and teach Heavy Metal Play Day. I don't teach locally very often so it was really nice to drive instead of dealing with the hassles of flying. There was lots of fun experimenting with different embossing techniques on silver and colored aluminum, and heavier weight copper, as well as playing with various ways for adding color with alcohol inks and markers.

Great work, huh?

We wrapped the class up a little early since a storm was coming. What a shock to walk outside and see close to 4 inches of heavy wet snow already on my car and strong winds blowing huge fluffy snow flakes.

I was anxious to get back to Chicago to meet a friend who was back for a few days from England for dinner. The roads were AWFUL! The 6 miles to the freeway may have been the worst, being very slippery, neither plowed or salted and the wind caked the snow on my rear and side windows so thick I couldn't see well enough to change lanes. I had been hoping to get gas before leaving since it was 40 cents cheaper a gallon than in the city, but I didn't want to even try.

The freeway was treacherously slick, I passed 4 accidents within 5 miles, including this jack knived truck that was lucky enough to stop before hitting head on traffic across the divide. I called home a few times to check on the weather in Chicago, where it was still warm enough to have rain instead of snow. I was never so happy to make it to the rainy outskirts of Chicago's bumper to bumper evening traffic. It took almost 3 hours to go 85 stressful miles!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Embossed aluminum colored with markers.

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Folk Art Inspired Ornament

What you're going to need

4" square Walnut Hollow aluminum and cardboard from package
embossing tool
ribbon for hanging
red paint
paint brush
decorative craft scissors
paper scissors
hole punch
E-6000 glue or similar adhesive
Adirondack alcohol inks and blending solution (optional)

Click on the heart image to open a full size jpg on another web page. Drag image onto your desktop and print heart design so that it fits on a  4" square (on point, measure on the diagonal).  Trace outline onto the 4" cardboard square that came in the aluminum package. Cut it out and paint it red on both sides. Punch a small hole for the hanging ribbon in the top.

Center line drawing over the 4" metal square and trace the small heart, this will lightly emboss the heart on the metal.

Using decorative edge craft scissors cut just outside the embossed line.

Glue metal heart to cardboard with E-6000 or similar strong multipurpose adhesive, it may need 24 hours to dry completely. Then emboss decorative designs on the metal, I prefer using a nylon tipped tool for this.

Draw the design of your choice on the paper heart, place over the metal and trace the design so that it transfers to the metal.

Go over the lines with the embossing tool to add more depth to the design and add more decorative details.

You could stop here with a silver embossed design or add color with Adirondack Alcohol inks.

Use Alcohol blending solution instead of water to lighten colors, rehydrate the inks on your palette (because they dry very quickly) and clean your brush between colors.

Thread ribbon through the hole and tie it for hanging.

Tomorrow be sure to see Kelli Nina Perkins Whimsical Spool Garland, you know it's going to be fun and colorful!

Check out all these other great tutorials:

November 9:^: Jane LaFazio Sketch & Stitch Gift Bags   

November 10: Lyric Kinard Glitter, Glisten, Glimmer: Beaded Snowflake Ornament

November 11: Tracie Lyn Huskamp Christmas Cardinal Ornament

November 13: Traci Bunkers Moldable Foam Stamps 
November 14: Melanie Testa Zipper Pouch

November 15: Judy Coates Perez Folk Art Inspired Ornament 

November 16: Kelli Nina Perkins Whimsical Spool Garland  

November. 17: Lisa Engelbrecht Experimental Lettering

November 18: Jill Berry Geo Papers and Projects

November 19: Gloria Hansen Resizing a Digital Image the Easy Way

November 20: Diana Trout Japanese-Style Fabric Wrap (Furoshiko)

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