Center of Attention Product Spotlight - Metal Squares

It's time for this month's product focus from Taylored Expressions. Today some of the Baker's Dozen will be sharing projects created using metal squares in copper and/or aluminum. I decided to work with the copper squares and wanted to give it a verdigris-ish look but I don't have any alcohol inks...hmmmm. Oh  wait...I have Copic markers which are alcohol based...and I have colourless blending solution (the 0 blending marker by Copic) so I decided to play.

This card is the end result of my aged copper look and I love how it turned out. I took step-by-step photos along the way and I'll share a mini tutorial with you later in this post. I wanted to keep the focus on the metal so I used Mercy's Tuesday Sketch, MTSC66, a nice clean layout and paired it with one of the lovely crosses from Easter Blessings. By not adding a sentiment this card can be used for a baptism or first communion instead of just for Easter.

These metal squares are super fun to work with and would be perfect for guy cards too. They're the thickness of heavy cardstock which makes them easy to cut with scissors or Spellbinders Nestabilities, and they emboss beautifully, as you can see from my card. I used my altered copper square as a layer on my card and backed it with some suede brown dark that I cut out with my Big Scallop Squares, but you could also use it with shaped dies to create gorgeous embellishments like butterflies and flowers. I used my corner chomper to round the corners of the copper square and soften the lines just a little. The shine is what really sets the metal squares apart, in my opinion, and you can see the shine even shows through the altering I did on my copper square. The metal pieces are 4" square so after a little trimming it fit perfectly on my 4.25" square Choice Buttercream card base.

Here's how I achieved the verdigris-ish look. I chose four shades of green copic markers ranging from light to dark in both the Green colour family and the Yellow Green colour family.

Using the wide end of the marker and starting with the lightest colour, scribble YG25 all over the copper square.

Next scribble YG67. With each colour I added to the copper square I covered less and less of the surface.

Next scribble G28. And yes, as you can see, I do mean scribble. This entire process shouldn't take more than a minute...seriously...it's that quick!

Finally scribble G99.

Next I filled a Mini Mister bottle with Copic colourless blender from the refill bottle for my marker.

Then mist the copper square with the blending solution and you'll immediately see the greens start to move around and mingle. And look, all those scribble lines are gone!

Finally I blotted the surface with a clean, dry cotton ball just to help blend the colours a little. I don't like to get my fingers inky so I hold the cotton ball with a clothes peg.  :)

Voila...the finished copper verdigris-ish square just waiting to be cut out and embossed!!!

Metal squares are on sale at Taylored Expressions for 15% off until March 28th so I hope you'll give them a try. They're available in packs of aluminum, copper, and a combo pack of both.

Now let's go see what the other gals have come up with using Metal Squares.
Alex Maldonado
Carolina Butching
Jackie Pedro
Jeanie Witmer
Sankari Wegman
and Taylor VanBruggen

Thanks for stopping by!
Karen