Embossed metal frame

Time does fly... holidays over, back to school is upon us and of course a new challenge at Country View! This month Miriam has chosen Metal as the theme, the perfect opportunity to use some of my favourite techniques with the shiny stuff!

But first, if you haven't been checking out the new stash at Country View Crafts, let me share my excitement upon the introduction of the Rubber Dance stamps... I'm especially thankful for Susan stocking them as, with the sterling falling, it's a lot easier buying from UK stockists!

My favourite images are Vintage, photo realistic, nature inspired and, as luck would have it, those are the ones first available at Country View Crafts here. (I'm hoping for more in the future...)

This is what I made:

At this stage I don't know if I am going to keep it as is and display as a photo frame or if I'll stick it on a card blank.

To make my frame I used a piece of aluminium saved from a ready meal (some survive the cooking unscathed and can be cleaned up well).

I die cut a rectangle from the middle, handy as I had the "Alu" brand embossed right in the middle... But I may still use the piece if I can hide it!

I then embossed the frame with a Cuttlebug folder which name I sadly didn't write down and has been lost to the mists of time...

If you recognise it, please let me know!

Next the fun bit... wet embossing and playing with powders.

I used Versamark all over the metal and started by sprinkling some of my mysterious mixes of EP.

I say mysterious because I made them a long time ago and can't really tell what exact colours are in them.


Before melting I covered the whole frame with a tarnished gold EP. The overall look is of distressed and aged bronze, but, in the next step I will bring back some gold.

I used Versamark again on the frame, but this time I try and ink just the raised parts and then apply mica powders in copper and gold to highlight the embossing further.

The focal image, Dancing woman from Rubber Dance has been stamped with Versafine black.
I added D. Oxides in Antique Linen and Walnut stain and spritzed a bit of water to age the piece. I created a brown frame to mat the image (just like a painting).

To finish I embossed another piece of recycled metal, ivory coloured, with the word "Authentic", and decided to add the die-cut word on top, coloured in black with an alcohol marker. Beware the paint has a tendency to rub off, so if you find black metal use that instead! A bit of copper wire threaded through holes and voila!

Here's the shine shot:

I hope I have inspired you to work with metal and that you'll enter our Country View challenge, nothing to lose and a £ 20 voucher to spend on some lovely supplies if you do...

For more inspiration check out what my teamies made here and come back on the 15th, when I'll post my second metallic project,

Thanks for coming by,

Also entering the Rubber Dance Forever, Craft Stamper TIMI and SSS Wednesday challenges.