My Art - Embossed metal ATCs

Artist Trading Cards using embossed metal!! Several different techniques in this set.
Row 1 - two on the left: I decorated lengths of metal duct tape using ink and alcohol sealed with an acrylic finish. These were glued to cardstock before they were embossed. These have to be left at least over night or more to be completely dry before you put them through your Cuttlebug embossing folders to add texture. In the end, the finish washed out of the embossing folders with soap and water with a tooth brush but it was a bit time consuming. The quotes were printed on transparency, mounted below the bookplates and trimmed. The bookplates were attached to the ATC with brads. I did add a layer of vellum between the two to make the quote more legible. Really like the look of this embossed metal!!
Row 1 - one on the right: This one used the same tape as above but instead it was applied over elements that were glued to the blank ATC. In this case, from bottom up - a strip of fiberglass screening, a scalloped circle, a circle punchie with a snow flake punched out of the middle. I glued the tape down the center of the ATC over all the layers and applied pressure with my finger to bring out the texture of the layers below. Rubbing with anything other than a finger removed the finish and gave a bit of a distressed look to the metal which was cool. To distress the snowflake even more I laid a piece of wax paper over it and traced with with a pencil. I found the wax paper nicely pick up the finish and left no residue of finish on the piece. Neat little trick that I discovered by accident.
Row 2: I used a red aluminum (Christmas baking arrived in this one) container which was straightened with pressure and a wooden spatula handle (wood works the best for not marring the surface and giving a smooth finish). Once it was reasonably flat I cut out the smoothest areas and cut hearts using a Sixxiz die and my Cuttlebug. These were provided to the students along with pencils and a little pad of newspaper. The front was embossed with any markings made on the back with the pencil. The pad of newspaper had just enough give to get some decent embossing. The more pressure applied when making the markings the deeper the embossing. So everyone made their own markings and attached their hearts to the layered ATCs with 3D foam tape. Added words or quotes which were printed on labels to make them like stickers using fonts from the internet or their own hand writing. For very affordable aluminum for embossing consider buying an aluminum pizza or cookie sheet from the $$ store. I expect you could add colour with alcohol inks or inks, alcohol and acrylic sealer like I did with the duct tape above.
Row 3: These two were embossed with the same technique as Row 2 using stamped images on the one side instead of free hand markings. It does give you much more options for creating images which you cannot draw yourself. You could, of course, draw your own images with a Sharpie marker and emboss them. Just remember that all the images are reversed on the front side so words need to be written backwards. I added a bit of colour with Sharpies to the embossed metal on these two.
The students enjoyed embossing their metal hearts and choosing words to go with them. They fit perfectly in their Chunky ATC boxes though I expect the boxes maybe be used for several other purposes - apparently just the right size for small electronics like I PODS and cellphones!!
I will use this technique again for creating fun elements for my cardmaking!! Experiment and try something new!!

Therese