The metallic “tiles” you have made do not need to be sealed and should be dry within minutes, so you can do things with them. I like to mount them on layers of other things which you will see below, and sometimes, I put them into actual pieces for the wall (as with Dead Poets’ Society #1). A couple of materials I use a lot with the tiles are black corrugated cover stock and “Take It for Granite”. When lightly rubbed with the Autumn Gold Rub&Buff, black corrugated looks like a piece of corrugated metal and goes well with the tiles. “Take It for Granite” is a specialty paper that we make here in the studio - mostly, to go with our faux copper. I also incorporate real copper on occasion.
Healing Hands Wall Tile
The Hands tile (2"x2") that we made on the last page is mounted on the following materials (given in order with sizes, source, and which adhesive was used to attach them):

Black cover stock cut 2.25"square (attached with Glue Stick)

“Take It for Granite” paper square from Cre8it (attached with hot glue)

Another piece of black cover - 3.5" square. We edged it with a Krylon Copper Leaf Marker (attached with hot glue)

A 4" hand-torn square of Natural Moonrock Paper (Cre8it) (hot glue)

A 5" square of Black Core Mat Board (Cre8it) (attached with hot glue) Black core mat board is black all the way through. There are no white cut edges to look unfinished.

Add a hanger to the back and it’s ready to hang.

I don't even want to think about how many of these wall tiles I have made over the years. We sold them in the gallery and wholesaled to other galleries too, so there were lots! I did them with all twenty of my petroglyph stamps and people would buy sets to hang together vertically or in squared groupings. They look pretty good that way, but a single tile as an accent piece does the job too.
Dancing Family Card
This card is like the tile above in the first three steps. The “Take It for Granite” square is trimmed more closely and the second piece of black cover is cut to 3"x4" and is mounted with hot glue to a 4"x5" piece of corrugated paper. The whole assembly is then attached to a 5"x7" card made of Terra Cotta cardstock.

These are “art cards” intended to be framed. They look really wonderful in an oak frame (standard size 5"x7") with the glass removed.

This is the kind of card that makes a great gift because it can be kept as a cherished piece of art - especially if you have written some personal feelings inside.

Stamp: Dancing Family (Cre8it)
Mother To Be Baby Book
This time we attached our copper piece to a square of off-white speckled cover stock (2.25") with Glue Stick.

Then that was attached with hot glue to a slightly larger piece of black corrugated cover stock which had been lightly rubbed with Autumn Gold Rub&Buff.

The whole unit was then mounted on the front of a black blank journal using glue stick.

In case you are wondering why the flipping back and forth between adhesives, it has to do with the thickness and texture of the pieces being attached. Hot glue is too lumpy for attaching cover stock to cover stock, but it’s just perfect for gluing textured pieces like the “granite” moonrock and the corrugated.

Stamp: Mother To Be (Cre8it)
“Growth”

In this piece, the faux copper is the panel that says GROWTH. It is hard to see in the photograph, but there are many decorative elements surrounding the word.

The panel is mounted on black corrugated (rubbed with Autumn Gold), then on a wood panel faux painted in a “Tortoise Shell” technique. The frame was painted the same way.

This whole unit was then mounted on a panel of Black Core Matboard cut slightly bigger. This panel is meant to represent a “planter” of sorts.

The background is a sheet of black core mat board with a textured sheet of handmade paper mounted on it (3M Spray Adhesive).

Then, the challenge was to figure out what I wanted to be “growing” out of the planter. I bound Salt Cedar bunches together with copper wire and mounted them like plants. I then made leaves from copper sheeting, tooled the veins into them and treated them with a Patina Solution from Modern Options. The cedar bunches and leaves are attached with E6000 adhesive because when a piece is “for sale”, I want to make sure it stays together. Some design counterpoint was still needed, so I wrapped a couple of black polished Japanese river stones with copper wire and mounted them with E6000 as well. This piece did sell, and now resides in a private collection.

We would love to see what you do with this technique, and will feature a special “gallery” page if we get some submissions. Send a .jpg file to galleryDSF@aol.com
Turn Page