Faux Tin Tiles Made With Aluminum Cookie Sheets

Susan Myers
by Susan Myers
3 Materials
$5
3 Hours
Medium
Recycled crafts are one of my specialties. Embossing disposable cookie sheets is an easy technique and creates amazing art. Beautiful faux tin tiles! Disposable aluminum cookie sheets can be found at your local party supply store. This simple embossing and paint technique turns a disposable pan into a work of art.
For this project I used:
2 disposable aluminum cookie sheets
Free patterns from my pattern page*
A knitting needle
Paintbrush
Various metallic acrylic paints
Spray primer
A cork bulletin board
Thumb tacks


Begin by measuring out and cutting (3 ea.) 7″ squares from each cookie sheet. Use a ruler to measure them and mark the cookie sheet by pressing a knitting needle along the ruler, then simply cut them out with scissors.  Take the ruler and score 1/4″ from all four sides of your square using the knitting needle.
Use the scissors to clip a notch in each corner. Fold the metal over carefully along your scored seam.  This will create a smooth finished edge for each tile.
Print out the patterns. (You can find 12 different free patterns for this project here).
Lay the metal tile on top of a folded towel and use a knitting needle to press the design into the metal. 
Here the metal tile is shown with the pattern scored into it.
Keeping the tile on the folded towel, then use the end of a paintbrush handle to gently rub indentations into the metal where you want them.  The more you rub, the deeper they can be, just be careful not to use a ton of force as the aluminum is very thin metal.
Once the piece is indented to your satisfaction, it is time to paint it.  You could certainly leave it unpainted at this stage, but I’m all about color.  Lightly spray each piece with a layer of primer.  Once it is dry, begin painting the indented areas using metallic acrylic paint.
Once all the indentions are painted, add a base color to the raised areas.  Add details by watering down some metallic acrylic black paint and adding it to lines and edges of the indentations, giving it an antiqued look.
There are many ways to display your finished tiles.  I chose to use a cork bulletin board and lined them up carefully, pinning them down with thumbtacks.  This resulted in a great piece of wall art that will definitely surprise anyone when you tell them it started out life as a couple disposable cookie sheets.
For the full instructions and all 12 free patterns, be sure to click here!
Resources for this project:
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Susan Myers
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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Frequently asked questions
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  3 questions
  • Betty Betty on Dec 17, 2017

    I can't seem to find the free tin tile patterns. Could you send me a direct link please? bjhop01@frontier.com

    Thank you. Betty

  • Paula K. Varble Paula K. Varble on Dec 26, 2017

    What did you use as your base color on the raised parts....was it acrylic craft paint. Does it adhere? I see primer listed in your supply list.

  • Patti Patti on Dec 26, 2017

    I really like these. I'd like to know if I could put them on my kitchen wall. And if so what could I use to put on them so I could wipe them down. Thank You so for Sharing This.

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