The Joggles Design Team was delighted to learn that Joggles would be carrying some of the fabulous metal pieces produced by U-Paint Metal Craft, a division of The Frank Morrow Company based in Providence Rhode Island. These metal pieces are detailed and light weight providing wonderful focals and embellishments for mixed media projects, home décor items, and altered books. As a matter of fact, each team member couldn’t wait to create an inspirational project to show you some of the possibilities.

First up is a beautiful Horticultural Journal by Leigh where the metal pieces become the gorgeous focals of the front and back covers.

Leigh says: Remember the other half of the 6 x 6 inch Accordion book I had left over from my Broken Hearts Accordion book project? Well, this is it, I used it to make this 2.75″ x 6″ Horticultural Journal featuring the Frank Morrow metal topiaries. The metal pieces are coloured with various Copic markers. To create highlights on the designs, I used rubbing alcohol & Q-tips to remove the ink on some of the high areas to reveal the silver metal. The book pages are coloured with Distress Oxides & decorated with a dots pattern using the Joggles Punchinella Trio 1 stencil. I drew a border around the edges with black Dylusions paint pen and embellished with Joggles Ladybug Collage images. I completed my journal with Tim Holtz Idea-ology paper tape & gold organza ribbon.

For her DT project, Teresa created an awesome home décor piece featuring one of the U-Paint Metal shapes.

Teresa says: I was fascinated to learn about the long history of pressed metalware in the Rhode Island area and that sparked the idea to create something in the style of traditional American folk art. When I was sent my selection of decorative metal items, this chicken really caught my eye and I decided to turn a plain pine chopping board into a fun piece of kitchen decor.

Our third inspiring DT project came from the imagination of Diana who created a fantastic “creepy” canvas.

Diana says: Come into my parlor said the spider to the fly … . These Frank Morrow metal pieces are beautifully detailed and I chose the spider because it gave me the creeps. Using a 4” square canvas, I painted it with Golden’s Nickel Azo Gold paint. I completed the background using paint pens to letter the (edited) poem “The Spider and the Fly.” I created a loom using carpet tacks around three (plus a few) sides of the canvas and wove DMC silver thread around the loom, leaving an area for the defenseless origami fly to take cover. Tiny glue dots hold the thread in place and I wrapped the two ends around to the back of the canvas and secured with more glue dots and tape. Alcohol ink pens are perfect for painting the spider . It’s even creepier now! I used a 3” square of iridescent paper to create the little fly.

DT member Bonnie created the fourth U-Paint Metal Craft inspired project, a fun under-the-sea themed canvas.

Bonnie says: The minute I clapped eyes on the detailed scales on this amazing fish and the cluster of shells, coral, and plants, I knew I wanted to create an under-the-sea themed 8 x 10 inch canvas. The long ridged curved pieces became larger plants for the little fish to swim through. To add colour to the metal shapes, I used Copic markers, alcohol inks, and Art Alchemy Sparks paint which have a wonderful shimmer. The background was created with several Lindy’s Stamp Gang Starburst sprays as well as a little Joggles Bubble Blast stencilling on the water and some Background Noise – Sparks stamping on the sand. Shells, cheesecloth, and a few clear acrylic domes finished off the piece.

Our fifth DT project was created by the talented hands of DT member, Kim, who also featured the fabulous chicken on her whimsical home décor project.

Kim says: Hello my crafty friends! Kim here with you today to share a super fun project I created with the brand new Frank Morrow metal embellishments. I am so excited about these new pieces, which are perfect for use in home décor projects. (They would work well in art journals or on cards too!)

When I received my supply of product I was thrilled to see a chicken among the mix of goodies included in my design team box. I puffy heart chickens! As a former (and hopefully future) chicken owner, I can testify to the wonderful ways of chickens. They have the silliest personalities, are super friendly (when hand raised), are terrified of new objects (there’s nothing funnier than watching 10 hens huddled close to one another, afraid to walk past a new seed ball placed in their pen), and produce delicious eggs each day. What’s not to love! I knew that my chicken was going to be front and center on whatever project I created.

For inspiration, I hopped onto Pinterest (don’t even get me started on the joys of Pinterest!) and found some fun folk art paintings, including some that were painted onto a wooden board. I loved the idea of painting on wood so I hopped in the car and sped off to my local craft store where I picked up an inexpensive piece of pine to use as the base of my piece.

The wood was light in color so I used Distress Paint to darken up the surface and bring out the grain of the wood. Then I added paint, stamping, and clouds to the background…all very quick and easy, without worrying about perfection. Folk art pieces are full of whimsy!

My metal pieces got a coat of gesso so that the paint would easily adhere, and that trick worked perfectly! Since these pieces are metal, you can scratch off the paint, but it would take some effort and is not a concern with a piece hanging on a wall. The white accents on the metal pieces were added using a white gel pen. I attached the metal pieces using gel medium and added a few words from the Tim Holtz Quote Chips collection.

I filmed a video which takes you through my creative process. I hope you enjoy and be sure to check out the entire Frank Morrow collection!

Thanks for stopping by to check out the DT projects designed to introduce you to these wonderful U-Paint Metal Crafts shapes. We hope you are as excited about them as we are…so many possibilities. We can’t wait to see what you create with them.