And now for something different

It started with one embossed, painted and distressed square some 2 years ago. I got hooked... so I did another, and another... soon, I had more squares than I could use for cards, and I thought I should keep my creations for future reference of the techniques and designs I could get from my supplies.
The idea was born ! I had an unused board from the back of an old frame that could accomodate 30 squares (9cm each) and every now and then I would add a square to my collection until I got 30. As a whole, it isn't brilliant because apart from laying my "black" squares all on the outside there is a lack of unity in colors but if I need to do something similar next time I will know!

I have used stamps, mainly freebies from Craft Stamper magazine as they are not too detailed, embossing folders, brass stencils, texture plates (Ten Seconds Studio, Fiskars, letterpress), dies and found objects (e.g. paperclip). For black distressing, where starting from uncoloured aluminium, I have used black acrylic paint, black inkpad or black alcohol ink. The colours are either markers or Tim Holtz alcohol inks. And here is a close-up :

I hope you too have go at metal embossing !