Faux Metal Ceiling Tile Album Cover

Hi everyone!!! It has been such a very long time since my last post.  Many of you know I had pretty serious neurosurgery in New York back in May.  I am back home now and slowly but surely healing (I just got my stitches out.  I can't believe how long the scar is!  Thank goodness for long hair :) ).  I will be wearing a neck brace for the next couple of months and I can't lift anything over 3 pounds to keep pressure off of mending bones.  This kind of limits what I can do.  I've gotta say ... try crafting (as well as eating and putting on your shoes and so many other things) without being able to look down :)  It's seriously a bit of a challenge!!   However, I've managed to overcome the hurdles this week to do a project as a Guest Creative Guide over at a Vintage Journey.

Before I introduce my latest project, I would like to give a heartfelt thanks to Anne and all of the talented creative guides over at A Vintage Journey for choosing my tag as their "It's All About Him" Challenge winner.  That was such a special project to honor my dad and remember those who have sacrificed their lives in military service.  I loved that tag and was so glad to have a chance to share a little bit about my dad with you.  It brought tears to my eyes when I saw that you all liked it too!

Ok ... now on to my latest project.  While I have been laid up in bed recovering from surgery, I've spent a lot of time watching home and garden television programs.  I love shows that repurpose vintage items and use them in home decor.  One of my favorite decoration ideas was using old metal (usually tin or copper) ceiling tiles for wall art.  The embossed metal tiles have intricate designs and often are painted.   If these tiles have been laying around for awhile, you can see the the metal peaking through where the paint has worn off.  Sometime they are pretty distressed and have accompanying rust or corrosion.

I wanted to create a scrapbook album cover that looks like one of these vintage ceiling tiles.  It was the perfect project for Nikki's "Use Every Stamp in a Set" Challenge over at A Vintage Journey.  One of the first Tim Holtz stamp sets that I bought (and still one of my favorites) was the Floral Tattoo Stamp Set.  Although I  have used individual stamps from this set at various times, I had never used them all on a single project.  These stamps create images that already seem to have such texture to them.  I was really excited about playing with them and seeing what kind of arrangements I could make for my faux embossed metal tile.

 I had a 12 x 12 chipboard album in my craft stash.  I started by giving the front cover a good coat of gesso.  After that dried, I painted it with copper acrylic paint.  Then came a coat of Antique Linen Distress Paint.  Now here is the fun part. I started designing my cover by using my Tim Holtz Floral Tattoo stamps.  I used some 12 x 12 white paper and stamped various designs on it with black ink until I had a design I liked.  I then recreated that design on the cover with Pirate Gold embossing powder (alas ... no copper embossing powder!).  I used Distress Embossing Ink for the stamping.  After the entire cover design was stamped and embossed, I painted the cover with another coat of Antique Linen Distress Paint. 

After everything dried, I pulled out the sand paper.  I sanded the embossed areas to uncover those wonderful floral tattoo stamped images.  I really distressed the album cover edges and even distressed all the way down through the top layer of the chipboard to create the “rusted holes” (actually ... copper doesn't really rust ... it "corrodes") in my faux ceiling tile.   Next I took some Walnut Stain Distress Ink to rub into the distressed areas. I grabbed some Martha Stewart verdigris jewelry enamel glaze and wiped over some areas of the cover to give it that patina-like finish in places.  Finally to bring out the stamped design a little more, I rubbed Walnut Stain Distress Paint into the nooks and crannies of the embossed images.   Here are a few close-up pics:

I have just about used all of my energy for the afternoon.  Thanks for dropping by.  I hope to visit your blogs soon and catch up on all of your creative endeavors.  Wishing you all happy crafting!!  -- Mary Elizabeth