Ten Second Studio Guest Designer Post: Flowers

It has been like Christmas since Cheryl at Ten Seconds Studio (TSS) sent me the box with the VerDay Paint and Patina and the metal in it! I have been experimenting to see what I could do and not do with it and what does and doesn't work for me. This week I have been having a lot of fun making flowers and I received a lot of comments about a flower I made to put on a canvas so I decided that today I would share how I made them. I *LOVE* VerDay Paint and Patina and have used it in making flowers from card stock, metal, and on a canvas one that I bought a while back and just doctored up a bit. The first thing you want to decide is what kind of flower, what color of metal you want it to be or look like and what dies or punches you will use to cut it out with. This could turn into a rather lengthy post so grab a cup of coffee while I try to condense it a little by breaking it down into metal or cardstock.

I am lucky to own a Big Shot and a Vagabond die cutting machine and love to use the many dies I have to create fun things. I used Sizzix dies called Flower Layers, Daisies, and Tattered Flowers a Tim Holtz/Sizzix. I used copper and brass sheets and the Flower Layers die to cut this first flower out.

I also used a flower punch from Stampin Up! to cut out a couple smaller flowers using copper but the brass metal sheet was too thick for the punch but worked fine with the dies. The metal flowers can be embossed after cutting with either the molds from TSS or embossing folders. I found embossing them gave the VerDay Patina something to hold on to to get a better oxidization and gave the color depth.

After approximately 24 hours you can take a sanding block and sand the pieces lightly to make the underlying metal shine above the patina. Next you need to take the flower pieces and stack them together securing them with a brad and start forming the petals. The metal that has been embossed has to be manipulated by hand curving and turning it to make the petals to prevent removing the embossing. I also use things like a pencil, chopstick, stylus or whatever to turn the edges over. If you didn't emboss you can use the metal working tools from TSS to turn the petals and give details around the edges and centers.

To make the paper VerDay flowers I painted the bronze and copper paint on white and brown cardstock drying it well before cutting it as I did the metals.

The cardstock will curl as it dries but it is just paper and you can flatten it out using brute force or an iron to straighten it.

Place pieces on a piece of craft foam and using the TSS metal working ball of the ball and cup tool gently use circular motion on the back side of the flower to make the petals curl.

How much curl you want to the petals depends on the size of the ball you use.

Here I just used the erasing tool to curl the center to make a cup to fit the pieces together.

I then lightly sprayed the flower parts with VerDay in a fine mister to start the oxidization process. There is a VerDay Patina Sprayer available from TSS but it has a coarser spray and the flowers need a lighter touch. The next step is to put the pieces together to form the flowers and I hit them with another mist of VerDay and let them sit a day to oxidize.




The canvas flower was easy peasy. I bought the flower a while back and decided to stamp and splotch it with the bronze and copper VerDay Paint and then sprayed it with the VerDay Patina. I hadn’t counted on the Patina causing a slight greenish coloration to the canvas but once it dried and started oxidizing I loved it!



Here are individual pictures of the flowers and what they are made up of. One thing I almost forgot was after the metal, paper, or canvas reaches the color you want it to oxidize to you will need to spray it with a fixative sealer to stop the oxidization.

Canvas with bronze and copper VerDay Paint and VerDay Patina. Unfortunately it doesn't show that greenish cast like the group photo. Trying to photograph and edit these photos was a lesson in patience this week!

Brass flower using Sizzix Flower Die, Brass Metal, VerDay Patina

Copper flower using Sizzix Flower Die, Copper Metal, VerDay Patina.

Another copper metal flower using the Tim Holtz Tattered Flower Die and VerDay Patina.

Copper Daisy using Sizzix Daisy die, copper metal and VerDay Patina.

White cardstock flower made using Bronze VerDay Paint and VerDay Patina. Tim Holtz Tattered Flowers Die.

Brown cardstock using the Bronze VerDay Paint and VerDay Patina. Tim Holtz Tattered Flower die.

I enjoyed playing around with the flowers and if you come back next week you will see what I made with some of them!