What do embossed metal & Duetica Fonts have in common?

Flowers & Butterflies!
That's what!!

After attending a CHA show I fell in love with metal embossing on a new level. Sure I had tried it several times....only to have the thin metal sheets tear. Magdalena Muldoon of MercArt used a tin coated pewter that performs magically under the embossing tools. Tearing isn't an issue now like it used to be. While looking through Ms. Muldoon's book, Metal Embossing Workshop, I found the loveliest butterflies. While the outside is full of butterflies, I just had to bring their beauty inside as well.

The butterflies patterns were copied out of the book and traced onto the pewter.
The metal embossing begins. Using a wide arrange of metal embossing tools, leather, and an acrylic mat, the butterflies came to life.

Here they are all trimmed (except for the antenna of one) and ready for color. The butterfly on the far right has inlaid blue shell, a product from New Zealand. As it's rather expensive, I decided to go another route for the color.

Mmmm, should I paint? Nah, would hide details. Then I thought of the alcohol inks by Jacquard! Perfect for this project. Intense color but had transparency I was looking for. Colors used: Sunbright yellow, Sangria, Passion Purple. The metal shines through the alcohol inks beautifully.

Now for the saying! Duetica fonts makes the customizing easy with their unique fonts! Here I've used the Floot font, making the letters wispy & carefree like the butterflies fluttering near them. If you've not yet experienced the new way of lettering with Duetica, you're missing out! Any project you're going to spend anytime at all creating deserves the best and Duetica sure fits that bill. As the butterflies dance around the happy phrase, beautiful paper flowers add punch to the whole project.

And thus the end result. A shadow box containing the precious metal embossed butterflies with the phrase: Flowers & Butterflies drift in color illuminating spring. While we're in the dead of summer, these creatures are still fluttering around. Quick Grip by Beacon Adhesives sure planted everything to the black velvet backing and is my number one all time favorite adhesive!

Let me know what you think of this project.......by the way, have you had a chance to experience the new way of lettering? Check it out through Duetica!