From Rooftop to Home Decor

If you happened to visit my Stampin' Up! Facebook page last night, you may have seen my question about incorporating roofing material into home decor. I know, sounds completely crazy, right? I would have thought so too...until I came across this particular project and immediately had to try it.

Here's a pic of my finished project:

Top view:

Without the tealight:

Isn't it gorgeous????   Can you guess what it's made from??? Would you believe it's cut from a piece of aluminum flashing? Yup, the same stuff that's used on your homes roof!  I KNOW!!!

I've seen it around "blogland" recently and of course I had to jump on the bandwagon and give it a go!

I popped into one of our local hardware stores and picked up a roll of silver aluminum flashing.  I picked up the narrowest roll I could find (6") but they all come in 50' lengths!!!  Let's just say I've got LOOOOOTS left!

Using my Big Shot and my Snowflake #2 Bigz die, I cut out a snowflake. 

Now, that may sound simple enough, but I will say it was a little tricky.  Aluminum flashing is a little thicker than a soda can, so to make sure the blade would cut all the way through and not just "dent" it, I needed to use a few paper shims.  Each Big Shot is a little different, but for me I needed a total of 4 additional layers.  Fewer than that didn't cut the flashing all the way through and more than that and the sandwich just felt too thick and I didn't want to force it through.

Please Note:  You can ONLY use the Bigz or Original dies to cut anything other than paper.  If you attempt this with a sizzlet die, you'll ruin it.  Bigz and Original dies are steel and so they're extremely strong.  Sizzlets have a chemically etched blade which allows a much more detailed design, but are ONLY made to cut through a single layer of paper at a time.

Once cut out, I used my stylus to help push out the smaller pieces.  I chose to wear gardening gloves while doing this.  The cut snowflake wasn't sharp, but the outside piece was and I didn't want to take any changes of slicing open my fingers!

All punched out:

I cut out a 2nd snowflake and layered it on top of the first.

I then pushed the top snowflake "arms" down and pulled the bottom snowflake "arms" up. 

Then, I added a few mini glue dots to the center between the two snowflakes and squished them together.  I chose to add the glue dots after I'd woven the snowflake arms together just because I found the arms didn't want to cooperate if the center was already glued together.

The final step was to place a tealight in the center and pull the upper snowflake arms around it to cradle it in place.  That's it!

It's not a difficult project, but it was time consuming. 

Maybe you're interested in trying it out yourself but don't really think you want to commit to buying a 50' roll of aluminum!  Because I highly doubt I'll be using the entire roll I purchased anytime soon, I would be happy to sell some at only $1/foot.  Each snowflake used a 6" piece.

Are you interested in seeing how I added the snowflake image to the top of my tealight?  Check back soon and I'll show how quick and simple it is.

Happy Stamping!