Altenew Educator Certification Program: Let It Shine

My card for today uses elements from the Let It Shine class at the Altenew Academy.

I’ve been anxious to give foiling a try since I purchased some Minc foil in the clearance bin at the craft store a few months back.  One of the class days was spent on foil techniques without a foil machine.

I shared a card a few days ago where I used a foil technique with my laminator.  I have an inexpensive laminator that I got at an office supply store on sale and it worked beautifully to laminate over an embossed image.   The laminator re-melts the embossing powder allowing the foil to stick to the image.  You can check that card out here.

For today’s technique, I used foil over double sided sticky tape.  I tried it a couple of different ways.  I ran it through my Big Shot and then I tried it by just burnishing it with my Teflon bone folder.

I actually liked the bone folder technique better.  If I use the Big Shot again, I will put a piece of tissue paper over my project to keep it from getting little bits of paper and stuff from my well loved cutting plates.

I used Altenew’s Halftone Stars stamp and die set for this card.

You can see a lot of shine on this one!  I’ve got my favorite glitter washi tape.  I heat embossed the small stars and the sentiment in silver.  I used red foil over the double sided sticky tape.  I also added some silver metallic sequins.

I wanted to make a card that wasn’t a floral image.  I feel like I’ve been sharing a lot of florals the last two weeks!  What I really love about this stamp set is the sentiments that come with it.  You get 10 stars in different sizes and 10 sentiments that are perfect for encouragement or “Way to Go” cards.

My layout on this card uses a mat cut at 3-1/4 x 5-1/2″ on a landscape oriented card.  I considered using silver foil sheets instead of the washi tape, but that glitter washi tape is quick and easy to apply.

Once I got all of the elements attached to the center panel and had the washi tape placed where I wanted it, I added the panel with foam tape for dimension.  The stars are also adhered with foam tape.

I’ve got a daughter in grad school and a lot of students who always need encouragement or congrats, so I’m loving this stamp set.  It works great for guys and gals as well.  I’ve got more ideas for this stamp set, so you can expect to see more of this!  (I’ve got some die cutting techniques I think this would be fun to experiment with!)

A Few Foiling Tips:

• I found it easy to “ding” the foiling.  Next time I will leave that step until I’m ready to assemble the card.  When you’re doing the craft desk shuffle creating all the parts of the card, it’s easy to scratch.
• When you cut the foil, don’t put the left over piece on top of your stamp set.  They are called CLING stamps for a very good reason.  They cling to foil and don’t give it up easily.
• Make sure you don’t have any stray adhesive, debris, or embossing powder on your card stock before you foil.  You can end up with foil randomly stuck in places you did not want it.  While it was easy to scrape off, the red foil left a red spot.  This was not the first card I started!
• Look in those clearance bins for inexpensive foil.  All new techniques require practice.  It’s just as easy to practice on foil that cost one dollar instead of six dollars.
• You don’t need a foiling machine and all the doodads that go with it.  You don’t even need to run it through a Big Shot.  My Teflon bone folder worked just fine!
• Wrinkles happen (on the foil and elsewhere!), so be prepared to embrace the imperfections!

Thank you for stopping by!  Happy Friday!  I hope we all find the time and energy to craft.