S U P P L I E S

ArtEmboss metal sheets  **  Ten Second Studio colored metal sheets  **  Ten Second Studio Basic Tool Set (has the tool with the tiny ball & the refiner)  **  Ten Second Studio Ball & Cup Set (has various sizes of ball and cup tools used when embossing)  **  Ten Second Studio Humungo Mat Set (has the soft mat you need for embossing)  **  Large paper stump  **  Regular paper stump  **  Mona Lisa Leafing supplies  **  Unfinished wood frames  **  My favorite set of 3 brushes (used for painting the unfinished wood frames)  **  Paint for the frames - I used Golden's Titan Buff Fluid Acrylic mixed with Lumiere Pearl white  ** 

I had a lot of fun experimenting with the metal embossing and was amazed at how easy to learn it was.  I had never tried this before and found that the learning curve was not steep.  Decide on a design, trace it onto the metal sheet using the refiner and the tiny ball stylus and then emboss from the back and deboss from the front.  Those are the steps in a nutshell - it really is that simple.  Granted it took a little time to figure out the best way to emboss and deboss from either side, but still and all it was not difficult.

Those two arrows are pointing to flower centers where I used one of the ball ends from a ball and cup tool.  Using them for the round areas made nice flower centers super simple!  Just place and press.  If the area is more of an oval, press a little using a side-to-side motion and you'll get that oval shape.

Nearly finished.... just that little section in the top, right corner to go.

Same thing, just a different view so you can see how high the relief actually is.  You can work the metal from both sides to really raise the elements of the design.

This is a piece I made prior to the brass one in the video.  Different design, but the concept is the same and is just as easy!

I made 3 frames as I was messing with metal leaf for this video.  The one in the center is the one you see me working on in the video.  The one on the left, with the photo of Andy, was the very first one I leafed.  I like it, but was looking for more of the leaf and less of the painted background.  The one with Jess & Todd's wedding photo was the last one, made after we filmed the video.  It's just about the look I was aiming for.  I like the background color showing through a little, with the leaf being more dominant.   Close up photos of each frame below so you can see the details of how the leaf looks on the painted frames...

Andy!

Max - Easter 2010!

Jess & Todd

You can leaf a premade frame too.  This is an inexpensive plastic frame with a photo from my garden before leafing...

And here it is post leafing.  Ignore the bits of leaf on the glass... I was rushing to get this finished!

Messin' with metal is easy.  You can get two entirely different looks depending on whether you use metal in sheet form or add leafing to a piece.  You could combine the two by creating a photo mat from the metal sheet, embossed with your choice of pattern.  Then leaf a frame with a complimentary color, slide the sheet metal mat in the frame, add the photo, and you have a wonderful piece!