Destination Inspiration - Faux Rusted Metal Effects

Hi everyone, Jenny from Pushing The Right Buttons reporting for duty as your Creative Guide in charge of today's Destination Inspiration. It's always a challenge for anyone putting a tutorial together to come up with something a bit different so that people learn and grow, especially when you've already seen some incredible tutorials over the past couple of months. After much deliberation I decided to show you a couple of techniques for creating faux metal effects using Distress Paints in combination with other media. We all spend time (hours!) on Pinterest gazing at images and ideas, and it was whilst doing this recently that I came across a couple of photos of rusting metal.

Here's the first...

Love it! But how to replicate this? Start by covering a piece of plain card with Pumice Stone Distress Paint and dry completely.

Smoosh Rusty Hinge and Brushed Pewter Distress Paints onto your craft mat and swipe your card through diagonally. Dry with a heat gun and repeat this process until you've mopped up all the paint. It should get less liquid as you go.

Put a few tiny dots of Potting Soil Archival Ink onto your mat with a little surgical spirit (rubbing alcohol). Roll a brayer through to pick up spots of ink and apply to your card with the brayer.

Finally emboss your card with a Texture Fades embossing folder and rub over the raised areas with an Sepia Archival Ink pad.

Here's the second rusted metal photo...

Gotta love these strong colours and bold patterns. Now to recreate it. Cover a piece of card with Barn Door Distress Paint and dry completely.

Add a little Gathered Twigs and Walnut Stain Distress Paints to your craft mat with a little water and push your card into it. Dry and repeat the process over different parts of the card until all the paint is used up.

Emboss your dried card with a Texture Fades embossing folder, then apply a little Brushed Pewter and Stormy Sky Distress Paint over the raised areas with a brayer. If you apply too much repeat the process using a little more Barn Door Distress Paint.

Finally swipe your card through Fired Brick Distress Stain and whilst wet sprinkle over Vintage Photo Distress Embossing Powder. Heat to dry, then rub gently to remove the release crystals.

And here's my finished faux metal effect pieces of card; not far off the originals eh? "Now what?" I hear you cry. You'll get to see the rusted iron piece on my next DT sample, but for the red rusted piece...

... here's a little something I whipped up! I decided to use the whole panel, but you could easily die cut it or chop it into smaller pieces if your design demanded it.

Once dry, the red colour on this panel mimicked Festive Berries Distress Ink, and being completely stumped for the choice of complimentary colours, I took Tim's lead with his Distress Mini's set - Milled Lavender, Shabby Shutters and Tea Dye. These are not colours I'd have chosen but the man really is a genius as they worked a dream! And so to some close ups...

You'll find all of the products used for this tutorial in the online shop of our generous sponsor, Country View Crafts.

I hope you've enjoyed this tutorial and feel inspired to give the two techniques a go. Of course you'll have to wait until the launch of the next challenge to see what I've done with the second background, but in the meantime make sure you get involved with our current theme 'With a Flourish' to be in with a chance to win.

For now it's time for me to wish you a happy week ahead and encourage you to take care of yourselves. Jenny xxx