Tutorial: Hand Stamped Tin Embellishments

I'm all about embellishing to add that extra special "wow" to my mixed media works. To do that I turn to metal and, of course, fabric.

Today's embellishment idea is to reuse metal sheeting or tin to create easy, but sensational, additions to your collages or assemblages. When I say simple and easy I mean simple and e-a-s-y. Seriously. :)

So give it a look and then give it a try!
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Tutorial: Hand Stamped Tin Embellishments

Materials and Tools
Tin or Sheet Metal
Steel Block (not pictured)
Hammer
Metal Letter Stamp Set
Tonic Scissors, or Tin Snips
Wet Dry Sandpaper or Metal File
Crop-a-dile (optional)
Embroidery needle and floss (optional)

Step One: Cut out your shape with the Tonic Scissors or tin snips. If the metal is soft enough you can use an old scissors. Be sure to either file or sand your sharp edges smooth. Gently round off any sharp corners.

Step Two: Put your steel block on the floor or other hard surface. Then select your letter and make sure that it is facing the correct direction, then place it where you want and holding it firmly in place, strike straight down on it with your hammer. The hammer in my photo is facing the wrong direction because my five year old is actually manning the hammer while I hold the letter stamp. Continue with each letter of your word.


Step Three: You may wish to glue your embellishment to your piece but we decided to stitch ours on. To add holes in the tin I reached for my handy dandy crop-a-dile. In fact, I held the tin heart over the leather I was going to back the piece with and cut a hole through them both simultaneously. The leather scrap was actually a swatch from IKEA of the fabric of the leather sectional I'd like for our downstairs. Easy and quick!!!

Step Four: Then using embroidery floss and a needle, we stitched the leather and tin heart to our canvas. Done!