A Whole Lotta Foiling Going On

Good morning, hope you had a wonderful summer - today is officially the first day of meteorological autumn, my favourite season, particularly for the abundance of my favourite foods and the fact that its not too hot to walk around but still pleasant.  Love it.   It's also when thoughts drift towards Christmas so today I have 4 Christmas cards to share - all featuring foiling (without the need for a foiling machine) and lots of new items from the Hero Arts Winter Catalogue that is now live in store.

Firstly I have a crisp snow themed card - quite a quick one to make and could be sped up even more if you didn't ink blend the background (just switch out that technique for some blue cardstock and splatter some white paint to get a similar effect)

I used 3 shades of blue oxides and after blending out from the centre from the darkest to lightest shades and sprayed with water and blotted off with a paper towel to get a soft snowstorm effect.  My foiling on this card is very subtle, but it does add a nice touch which shows up better irl.  I used stick-it glue over teal cardstock and then rubbed aqua foil onto it before die cutting the Altenew Crystal Frame Die from it.   The snowflake cluster die from Hero Arts was cut from Lawn Fawn Pearlescent Vellum (again shows up more shimmery irl but is impossible to photograph) which was glued to white card with more stick-it (then you don't see any of the glue!    Finished with a white embossed sentiment also from Hero Arts and a few teal gems.


Next up, I took the die cut foiling technique to the next level with the new Poinsettia Ornament die from Hero Arts and with the aid of stick-it, gave it a full-on two-tone foil finish which I just love and its really easy and fun to do!

I started with cranberry card from Hero Arts and covered it with a layer of stick-it - and after running it through the die cutting machine with the stick-it side up DID NOT REMOVE the release paper - this is the key to this two colour technique.  I took my craft knife and carefully trimmed through the release paper where the bits I wanted in gold joined the bits I wanted in red.  Removing them one at a time, I could then gold foil the berries and flower centres whilst the release paper was still in place on the red areas.  (see the top two photos below)

Once all the gold is foiled, remove the "waste" areas and then removed the release paper from all the remaining areas and then pop a piece of red foil over the top and rub the foil over with your finger (or a bone folder is a great tool for this technique too) and then you get a perfectly foiled ornament!  Simply added to a card with a heat embossed sentiment from Hero Arts Winter Holiday Messages (tip  - I stamped with the ornament in place but NOT adhered, then removed it before applying heat so I didn't damage the foiling, that way the sentiment is where I wanted it and its easy to just adhere the ornament around it afterwards)  I drew a border with a fine liner to finish.

Next I did some tiny bits of foiling just using wet glue - it you apply a really thin layer of glue and wait until it's tacky but NOT wet, then you can apply foil that way too!  I used it as accents within the new Layering Snow Globe die from Hero Arts.

I used the same technique as from the snowflake to layer the pearlescent vellum onto white card so I could cut each "layer" and know my glue wouldn't show through.  I then applied wet glue to the trees, house roof, snowman and applied the foil once tacky.  Perfect little highlights of foil.  The missnow globe itself I cut from silver mirri card and the background in the globe is from Lawn Fawn's Snow Day Remix paper pad which is my all time favourite pad for Christmas backgrounds so I am so glad they brought it back as I used my old one up!   The sentiment again comes from Winter Holiday Messages.

I have one final card to share, which had a couple of mishaps, but I managed to rescue it enough that I could still share it even if it could be better (will make sure I do better on the next version!)   For this one I used a brand new stencil from Simple Stories with Altenew Embossing Paste as that is another easy way to get foiling without a machine!

I started with a piece of navy card stock and applied a thin layer of paste through the stencil, lifted it off and washed the stencil straight away so the paste didn't dry on it and ruin it.   This is where my error came - as the stencil has solid letter centres, the paste in those letters wasn't as thin as it should have been, so even though I left my foil to dry over night, when I lifted it off this morning, the centres were still wet and therefore the foil hadn't stuck there.   The technique is to lay the foil gently onto the paste, leave it for about 30 mins so it starts to dry a little, and then gently rub it over the paste so it catches the edges, then leave it overnight to fully dry.

So rather than bin it, I took craft knife and carved out the centres, there is a little white edge of paste showing, but I can live with that for this one, and on the next one I know to make sure to check the paste is thinner in those larger areas (or to remove it if you want the letter centres to not be there)

The starry background is from another new stencil which will be in store tomorrow, check out the Echo Park section to find it and lots of new Autumn/Christmas themed papers, stencils, embossing folders and washi tapes.

Hopefully that gives you a few ideas of how to work with foil as its definitely the season for it!

NEWS FROM THE STORE

As I said above, we'll have a few new collections from Echo Park/Carta Bella in store tomorrow

We will have the new MFT release on Tuesday when it goes live in the USA

The new Waffle Flower release is in transit and will go live on release day or as soon as we get it.

We've got the collaborative Hero Arts stamps on order and expect them at some point this month.

We have a new collection from Colorado Craft Company in transit with a fun spooky theme, and that will be in store as soon as we get it after they release it on Tuesday.

We have new Sugar Pea Designs, Concord and 9th and Altenew releases on order, all due mid-September or earlier customs willing.

We have a very large Lawn Fawn restock order in, but we are waiting to see what they have available from the new release and have asked to wait til they get it back before it ships if it is out of stock but we've not heard back form them as yet.  A few items that were on back order (like the notebooks) have already been shipped to us but they went USPS by mistake so will take a couple of weeks to arrive.

We are bringing Flora and Fauna back for their Christmas release, and have added a small quantity of the releases from this year we missed to go with them.  We are waiting on them to ship.

As Neat & Tangled are now only releasing 3 products a month, we are still going to carry them, but will only order every couple of months to make ordering cost effective so the latest release will be coming later this month with their September release.

Our servers are being moved to a new facility by our hosts this month - we have influence over the date so please note that the store will not be online at all from 6pm on 13th September until the early hours of 14th September (there is no finish time as it will just happen as quickly as possible) but if you can't see the store during that time, that's why and it will hopefully reappear on Saturday morning without issue.

That's all for today - catch you later.

Tara

We Go Together Like Movies and Popcorn Card

Hi everyone, Taheerah here wishing you a happy Friday!

Movies and popcorn, is there a better pairing? In my opinion it's not a 'real' trip to the cinema if you don't have some, and a movie night at home just isn't the same if you aren't snuggled up together on the sofa sharing a big box of freshly made popcorn!

The Popcorn Stencil from Newton's Nook is a perfect design for the movie buff (or popcorn lover)! I've had an idea in my head since I laid eyes on it, and couldn't wait to give it a go:

I love how this turned out! Looks almost good enough to eat, right?!

I started by building up a few layers of popcorn with my stencil, using ink, mist, and even a Nuvo Jewel Drop to add different colours and interest. I rotated the stencil each time so each layer could peek through. This was only the background part and was pretty much covered up by the top layers but it still added some interest to what would otherwise be a plain white base!

Next came the actual idea itself - embossing paste! I started with adding a drop of yellow reinker to some paste and mixing it to a lovely cream, then laying down my first dimensional layer of popcorn. Now comes the trick - applying heat with a heat gun or heat tool puffs the paste up so it looks just like popcorn! I sprinkled a little gold glitter over some of the popcorn for added texture and interest!

I added my second layer in the same way, adding white popcorn this time. I added some fine splatter from a brown reinker to add a little attitude, before starting on my sentiment.

I used the sentiment from the Newton's Movie Night stamp set, stamping the sentiment in Versafine Onyx Black ink. I trimmed the sentiment into a movie ticket shape - so cool! I added red stripes to the the layer of cardstock behind the ticket - I used some skinny washi tape to mask the stripes then swiped the Versafine Clair ink in the Glamorous colourway to create the stripes! Both pieces were added to the card base using dimensional glue gel for some variable height from the base.

I'd love to hear what you think of this card. Is there someone you know who'd love to receive it? Thanks for stopping by!

Oh Happy Day

Not only is that the sentiment on today's card but it also sums up my day (well evening) as I finally found some time to have a good play with some new materials we've had in store, and any day I get time to play is a happy day indeed!

I've made what I'm going to term a "sampler" card as it features 4 panels each using a different material but all of which marry together to make a cohesive whole.

Starting top left, I created a panel of embossed gold foiled leaves using Altenew's embossing paste, Echo Park's Flower Market - Market Delights Stencil, and We Are Memory Keepers Gold Foil.   Although the foils are designed for use with their Foil Quill Tool, I am aware that not everyone has an electronic die cut machine to plug the tool into, so I'll be playing around with other ways you get the foiled looked on your projects and this is one of my personal favourites - using foils with embossing paste.   It's really easy to do, simply spread the embossing paste using your tool of choice through the stencil (I use a small cake decorating spatula when playing with pastes as I find I get more control from one of those - something like the ones pictured below).   Remove the stencil and carefully place your foil on top, just letting it fall into place (remember to wash your stencil and tools straight away) and then then when the paste is starting to dry (refer to your product and test drying times for thicknesses) rub the foil over the raised areas to make sure its sticking all over.  Leave it to fully dry and peel the foil back and hey presto foiled stencil designs!

Top Right I stuck with more elements from Echo Park's Flower Market collection and used the Bloom and Grow Embossing Folder to make the background square and added die cut elements on top using the Floral Swag dies - I cut some elements twice to build it up to be a larger cluster using shades of greens and peaches to tie in with the other elements.   The white gives the whole design space to breathe but the embossing gives detail so it's not just blank.

Bottom left is where the colours came from - this time just a slither of paper from the Flower Market pad - if you are new to Echo Park, then this is how their collections work - they have a paper pad at the core and then have other elements from dies to stencils all designed to work with each other.

Bottom right and we have more newness from Altenew in the form of one of their stunning foiled washi tapes - I opted for Misty Meadows as it had similar themes to the Flower Market collection.  I cut a piece of card to the size I wanted and placed a larger piece of washi over the top and folded the edges behind as sometimes I find washi edges can lift over time.

The sentiment comes from an older Avery Elle set - Oval Burst and I cut it twice, once from the pine card I used on the floral swag and once from gold mirri so I could layer them up and pull the gold theme together.  To make the "samples" into a card I just popped them on foam tape and spaced them so there was even gaps throughout.

I hope this encourages you to look at what "collections" you can pull together in your stash and make some sample panel cards.

NEWS FROM THE STORE

It's going to be a busy week!

We have the following stock to add over the next few days:

Lots of stuff from Ranger:

• Alcohol ink restocks
• New Pearl Alcohol inks
• Distress Oxide Sprays
• New stamps and stencils from Simon Hurley
• and a few other miscellaneous bits like the new improved alcohol ink pen, empty distress oxide pads so you can mix your own colours, and clever anti spill rings from your alcohol inks.

The full range of Versafine Clair pigment ink pads as a replacement for the Avery Elle and Mama Elephant ones which the brands rarely restock so have been out of stock with us for a long time.  We've trialed other pigment inks and found the Versafine Clair to be superior so are adding them and their staple Onxy Black pad which is my go to for bold black sentiments.

Some beautiful new paper pads and washi tapes from Simple Stories

The brand new release from Mama Elephant (live on the 15th) with restocks too

The brand new release from Lawn Fawn (live on the 16th)

The following are either already in transit or will be shipping this week for next week:

• Concord and 9th's new release
• Neat and Tangled's new release
• Newton Nook's new release
• Avery Elle's new release (released on 23rd)
• Altenew's latest release of stamps, dies and pins.

It's OK - we don't need to sleep...........

Tara