Metal Molding and Scratching

I purchased these molds from Dick Blick's online store and wanted to see what I could do with them. Some are easier to work with than others, but it was so much fun. For all of the pieces, you take your piece of metal and cut it to one inch bigger than the mold on all sides. Cut the corners of the metal off and then bend the metal around the mold. Using different tools, I started by first molding the metal to mold. You have to use several different tools, preferably plastic or something that will not scratch the metal. You need different sizes of tips to get into all the crevices and make sure you uncover every detail of the mold. After you're satisfied with the molding, each piece can then be detailed according to what you want it to look like.  I will show the picture and explain what was done to each one.

Leo the Lion:

 

This was created with brown metal with a silver core. After molding, I used a sanding block to remove the brown metal. I then used green rubbing cream on the grass and gold rubbing cream on the lion. Because the rubbing cream will never dry on the metal, I set it using a matte setting spray. The metal will usually have rough edges, so to hide them, I created a frame with the brushed gold card stock. Layered that on brushed brown card stock and then brushed green card stock. The card is a 5.5" x 5.5" square.

Silver Elephant:

This one took a while because he went through several changes. He was molded the same way with silver metal. One thing to remember is silver is that color all the way through, so you won't see the same details. I sanded the elephant and then used a gunmetal and green rubbing cream and set it with matte spray. I matted the elephant with a brushed gunmetal card stock, then black and then brushed silver. I really wasn't liking the way it looked...so, I then scraped off all the gunmetal rubbing cream to expose the silver again. I sprayed the background with a sparkle spray and then added a metal Happy Birthday charm. I'm still not as happy with it as I could be, but I would definitely use a different color metal next time so there is a better contrast on the background.

Lady Liberty:

This was done using red metal. She also went through a couple of phases. I would not do all the scrapping on the burst around her next time. The mold had burst lines and I added blue Copic marker to that and then started scrapping in between them. I scrapped the stars and then added blue Copic to that. Lady Liberty was scrapped and then sprayed with matte spray to seal it. I added a matte silver card stock as the frame, then red card stock, then matte silver again and then dark blue. You have to be very careful of how you mount the metal to your card stock. As you can see in the upper right corner, the metal is forming around the sticky dot and there's no way for me to get it off now. So, be careful your tape is flat.

Metal Ship:

 

I think this one is my favorite by far. The camera will not capture the teal color of this. It is looking more turquoise, but trust me, it looks amazing in real life. This was done with black metal with a silver core. I tried to sand this one, but found out really quickly that the contours of this would not allow that. So, this ship was entirely scrapped. I used a teal Bic marker on the water and then matched that with card stock for the base of the card. I used the matte silver card stock to frame the ship and then added a shiny black card stock (matte card stock did not look good at all). This card is going to my good friend's son because I thought about him the entire time I made this ship.

Thank you so much for looking!