When I visited Nancy (stiz2003) last summer, I was intrigued by a gorgeous altered box she had made. When she visited me last month, she brought all the supplies for us to do boxes while she was here. The wooden boxes are made by her DH John.
The letters were adhered to the top of the box. For my box, I made the (unwise) decision to crumple the aluminum before embossing it. This was not a chore for sissies! It required heavy duty gloves and quite a bit of strength. We even tried stepping on it, but it was really difficult to flatten back out!
After the metal was crumpled and flattened, I used different embossing folders for the front, sides and top. The front and top are docraft Xcut A5 folders Cherry Blossom Stripe and Honeycomb, respectively. The side is Darice 5x7 Stripes. I had to piece the top to completely cover it.
After embossing, I used alcohol inks to color the aluminum and applied black acrylic paint, wiping most of it away to bring out more of the detail. The aluminum panels were backed with wide Sookwang tape and adhered to the box, using a stylus around the letters to bring out the detail.
I took the easy way out and used aluminum tape for the edges, corners, and trim.It was embossed with a Sizzix ef; I don't know the name of it.
At this point, the hardware was added and the studs attached with Art Glitter adhesive. I used alcohol and a Q-tip to remove most of the color from the letters, and added the butterflies (the die cut butterflies are backed with heavy weight cs for added stability). The butterfly trail is made up of small nailheads. I adhered studs to the butterfly bodies to tie them in with the box design.
This was a fun project, I learned how to do something new, and I love how it turned out. I'm sure I'll do another in the future - but I definitely won't crumple the aluminum!
As always, thanks for looking!
Date: Wednesday, March 23, 2016 GMT Views: 712
Favorited:2
Registered: December 3, 2009 Location: Central PA Posts: 58060
Wed, Mar 23, 2016 @ 12:28 PM
Jody, this turned out gorgeous! Well worth all that time and trouble! Im going to look and see if Nancy posted hers. I believe I have seen hers too and thought how wonderful it was! Great job!
ETA...just found Nancy's too! You ladies sure do great work!
Registered: March 31, 2008 Location: Eastlake, OH Posts: 22598
Wed, Mar 23, 2016 @ 2:44 PM
It's SO beautiful and I STILL can't believe you wrinkled that stuff with your hands! OUCH! Love the colors and I do see a box based on yours in my future! Love the originality of your!
Registered: September 21, 2006 Location: In the beautiful Sequatchie Valley, Home of the Paper Clip Project - The National Cornbread Festival Posts: 26563
Registered: October 25, 2010 Location: New England Posts: 12699
Tue, Mar 29, 2016 @ 11:06 AM
Jody, you are an incredibly talented metal ARTIST! Reading how you achieved it all wiped me out. This box is exceptionally GORGEOUS! Thank you for sharing your photos and journey.
Registered: June 4, 2009 Location: Deatsville, Alabama Posts: 83088
Wed, Mar 30, 2016 @ 2:56 AM
Wow! This is awesome! I love this box - so pretty and so unique. It is even more special knowing that you had an adventure with it - one you shared with Nancy S. To top it all off - her husband made the underlying box which is even cooler. This is amazing. I can see you two stepping on the metal - how fun that must have been! Hugz
------------------------------ Nancy Williams - Hope your day is Spirit-filled and ink-filled (in that order)!DRS Designs-DT, Punchkateerforever, Dirty Dozen Alumni