AGNES THE RED ART and CRAFT TUTORIALS

I love the look of metal, love making things with it, but often find it restrictive - like with ATCs, yes little pre made metal embellishments are fine, but sometimes costly. Using sheet metal for backgrounds etc is fine when making a personal project to keep, but  when it's to post out, then weight can become an issue as postage costs continually rise. So I'm always on the hunt for different 'metal alternatives' that are lightweight, easy to achieve yet do not compromise on the metallic look.

This page shows some some of things I've come across and examples of how they've been used in art.

Rolls of thin aluminium self adhesive tape used for ducting and one of my all time favourite 'toys'. I'm so glad I discovered this!. I first saw it used in an american atc book and knew instantly this was perfect sheet metal substitute (actualy it's no substitute - because it IS metal) it's flexible with self adhesive backing and it has endless uses - I could easily devote a whole web page to this product for use in art. I've used thin metal sheets made for embossing crafts etc, but it's expensive and I then had the dilemas of what glues to use, ADT however cuts all that out. I first sourced ADT in a local big name DIY store, but have now found the same stuff at half the price in a Cash and Carry type warehouse store that I use - so I'm a happy bunny!

Distressing ADT - I like ageing shiny metals and the following ATC uses ADT and distressing/aging techniques. I tend to use Stazon ink for stamping on acetate and metals as it is a permanent ink that dries fairly quickly - remember to work in a well ventilated room and use a proper cleaner for your stamps. This ATC tutorial also covers masking out parts of a large stamp image.

   1. TOOLS - ADT, ATC card, stamps, papers, inks           2. Plus stazon ink, brush and cleaner, copper edging tape             3. I first worked out how much of the

   and acetete.                                                            scissors, and permanent marker pens.                                       stamp image I required to mask out.        

  4. Stamp out the whole image on a scrap piece of paper.        5. I then marked and cut out the part not                    6. This is the area of the stamp I want

      Perfection not necessary - just the rough image!                                         required.                                        then I remove mask and ink up the stamp

 7. Once inked I replaced the paper 'mask' to            8. I stamped out on acetete - the ANGEL word              9. This is the reverse side of the acetate so I then

 the stamp. I touched it with a tiny bit of glue           will be cut off later.                                                        used a Krylon copper pen to colour over the  

     stick to keep it in place whilst stamping.                                                                                                           wings and left it aside to dry.    

 10. Now for the ATC card - I measured out a 1cm                  11. The frame now cut out and ready to glue              12. The ADT can now be stuck down over

          thick frame out of some thinish card.                                           onto an ATC base.                                    the ATC base - Just cut a strip and peel off

                                                                                                                                                                                            the backing.

      13. I trimmed the excess ADT and burnished it                14. the front is roughly burnished down and a          15. As you can see in No14, the ADT strip isn't

      over the edges using a bone creasing tool.                     ball tool used to ease the ADT into the crevises.        wide enough to fit completely over an ATC, but

                                                                                      I wasn't worried about a perfect finish as it will          this didn't matter as I wanted to cover part of

                                                                                                       distressed later on.                                            the card with script paper.

      16. The paper and ADT covered ATC ready for                   17. I first scratched up the ADT surface then            18. A fine ball tool was used to impress in the

                              distressing.                                             used a closed pen end to impress 'rivet marks'.                circles to complete the 'rivet' effect.

     19. Using a coarse bristled brush to pick up stazon                20. then very quickly wiped off excess and                 21. I also rubbed a little copper ink over the

     ink off the pad I worked it into the corners etc...                            buffed up with a soft cloth.                            paper section and added some tiny brads.

 22. I touched the edges of the card with a few drops           23. I then started applying a thin copper edging             24. Make sure the card edge is in the

   of clear glue to hold the acetete printed image in                             tape all around the card.                                 middle of the tape so that it covers

      place, then left to dry before trimming to fit.                                                                                                       both sides equally and neatly.

      25. Burnish down the edges, neatly working around the corners                                               26. The finished ATC - Copper Winged Angel.

I didn't ink up the stamp completely as I wanted quite a distressed image/effect and for as much of the ADT to show through as possible - I like how the skirt part is patchy rather than a solid block of colour but I did loose too much wing detail and I think I used the Copper pen too soon - the Stazon ink needed to have dried a little bit longer as the pen ink also dissolved abit of the black ink. I experimented on another piece afterwards and found the stamp image unaffected when left to set more. You'll also notice that I reversed the image which has left the script 'back to front'. This wasn't such a problem on this particular ATC as the script is minimal and your eye is drawn away from it to the paper script instead - but for future reference I would mask out all the script and stamp it directly behind, onto the ADT instead.

The stamp image is from CRAFTY INDIVIDUALS- I'm a big fan of their unmounted stamps and images!

                                   The redesigned ATC minus script                                                       ATC 'Copper Wing Zetti' using German Scrap gold wings

                                                                                                                                          Stamp image by Teesha Moore(click for webpage)