Designer Showcase: Brads, Staples, Metal

Woohoo!  We are cranking up the metal today!  No, I don't mean heavy metal rock music, I mean metal that you can use in your paper crafting. There are lots of metal embellishments out there that you can use on your layouts and projects. You can even make your own!  Let's take a look at some of the samples the Contributing Artists are sharing with us today.

When you think of shabby chic elegant, you don't typically think about metal.  Neither does Vicky. She admits that she doesn't use much metal. But on this layout she used a beautiful brad to hold that turned corner down. What a sweet adornment to this cute page!

Here's another adorable page by Heather this time.  So many sweet elements on the page. She added some coated metal brads from Basic Grey to her page.  Such a perfect addition that blend so well with the splatters and the pattern of the mat paper.

OK - when you can drag yourself away from gazing at that amazing sunset photo, let's talk about how Nancy incorporated metal on her page.  Her page is shabby, gorgeous and chic. There's even a slight vintage feel to it - check out those bits of lace!!  And yet, she has creatively included some terrific metal embellishments that enhance the look of her page.  That key complete with a floral gem, is perfectly placed on the lace. So vintage!  And as you look across the page to the other side of the photo, you see she has included two old style photo turns. I love the way she grouped them together.  You did see them, right? You didn't get caught drooling at the sunset photo again, did you??!!  Well, you're not going to want to miss what we have next...

Look what Marlene has done here.  She reproduced the look and feel of the metal statue/sculptures in her photo right on her page!  I love the look of that embossed metal as a mat to the photo. The brads on her little "band member" that look like screws are so cute as details for his face! Here is how she made that little guy " The guitarist was done with my Cricut using Handy Man - the head is a paint can, the body and arms a shop vac and sledge hammer legs and feet.  The guitar is a dust pan on a t-square."  Marlene used some alcohol inks on some of the metal to help tone it to blend with her layout. The strips, eyelets, brads and alpha all found a good home on her layout!

Metal is one of my favorite mediums to use in my crafting. I just love playing with it!  So I've got a few samples to share. In this first one, I used some Vintaj hinges to accent a favorite photo of one of my boys.  After adding the flowers and pearl flourish to the page, I wanted to make sure the page still had a masculine feel to it. The hinges were just the right addition to accomplish that!

Metal is not just for traditional scrappers.  Digi scrappers can use metal too. This layout is a completely digital page.  But I used some metal look elements and alpha. They add a nice grungy feel to the design.

In this frame that I made for a photo of my husband, I wanted to express my admiration for his commitment to the fire service.  I embossed some silver metal to get the look of the diamond plate that you see on fire trucks.  I also embossed some copper with gears for that "manly" look.  Check out the flower too.  I made part of the flower from a recycled soda pop can.  I cut the flower shape with my Cuttlebug.  I then used alcohol inks to color it.  That bold antique looking metal brad and a few metal charms finished off the bloom.

These are some great ideas for including metal of all sorts on your projects. Have you used metal on your pages/projects? Remember, if you'd like to share any of your pages with us, email them to scrappycath at gmail dot com.  We will include them in a future Reader's Pages post!