How Many Times Can You Alter a Piece of Metal?

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It's no secret that I love altering metals...well, actually I love altering most anything and metals are high on my favorites list.  I'm hosting this fortnight over at Frilly and Funkie and my challenge is to use metals, but the catch is they must be ALTERED.  So I set out to do some altering.  For my first piece, I chose a Tim Holtz Ornate Plate that initially was bronze and painted on Snow Cap alcohol ink mixative.  When dry, I sanded it with the Vintaj reliefing block to give it a worn look.  For my second foray into metal alteration, I cut a Pepsi can (careful of the sharp edges!) with the TH Mini Flourish Movers and Shapers die and then ran it through the Regal Flourishes texture fade.  Okay, here's where my question comes in - how many times can you alter a piece of metal?  For this one, I really didn't know when to quit.  I couldn't get it to look right with the pale vintage palette.  First I broke open a pack of the Vintaj Weathered Copper patinas and painted on all three colors. I thought the greens would give it a greenery feel behind the flowers.  Way too bright, it looked terrific, but just didn't go with this piece.  In an effort to tone it down and make it more vintage looking, I dripped on some Ginger alcohol ink.  Again it looked great, but was still way too bright.  So what do you do when something is too bright?  Paint it with gesso, right?  Out came the gesso and I brushed it on.  Well, it did tone it down but it still didn't please me.  Okay, one last try before I chuck these things in the trash, I thought.  This time I embossed it with the Enamelware EP that I love so much and well, I'd like to say that the third time's a charm, but actually that was the fourth time.  And it was a charm.  That did it for me.  I like the variegated look the Enamelware EP gave it and the colors are muted enough to compliment this theme and the palette of the piece.  So there you have it - the flourishes are a little green, a little brown, a little white and spotty and dotty :)

And just a few deets on the rest of this card.  I selected a beautiful piece of designer paper from the Pion Fairy Tale of Spring set (now sold out in the boutique), then of course I covered the entire piece up.  The vintage floral card is from The Graphics Fairy and both the Thinking of You and the My Friend stamps are done in Coffee Archival ink using the Crafty Secrets Sweet Kids set.  And the two sweet flowers were hand stamped with SU Baja Breeze ink and die cut using the Tattered Pinecones die.  Love the way they came out.  The doily is also from my boutique and I sponged it a bit with Vintage Photo DI to age it a tad.

That's about it.  Thank you so much for stopping by today!  Hope you will be joining us over at Frilly and Funkie this week.  Be sure to stop by to see what the other designers have to get your metal mojo moving.

POST UPDATE:  I'VE HAD A COUPLE OF REQUESTS FOR THE FLORAL EPHEMERA FROM THE GRAPHIC FAIRY.  I'VE NOW PROVIDED A LINK ABOVE FOR YOU TO FIND IT ON HER SITE.

These items used to create this card can be purchased at The Funkie Junkie Boutique:

Coffee Archival Ink	Alterations Tattered Pine Cone Die	Paper Lace Doily	Holtz Movers & Shapers Mini Flourish
Damask and Regal Flourishes Texture Fades	Ranger Enamelware Embossing Powder	Alcohol Ink - Ginger	Claudine Hellmuth Gesso
Vintaj Patina Kit %u2013 Weathered Copper	Idea-ology Ornate Plates	Ranger Adirondack Alcohol Ink - Snow Cap Mixative	Vintage Photo Distress Ink

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