Fun with foil, part 1

The last couple of weekends I've been having fun playing with Transfer Gel Duo and Deco Foil sheets from Therm O Web. I don't have any heat-based products for laminating (and I don't really want to buy any right now), so I was intrigued by the possibility of using the Transfer Gel Duo with my die-cutting machine to make foiled backgrounds.

I made 12 backgrounds (and turned them into 12 cards) over two foiling sessions. I'll share half of them today and half of them in my next post.

To use the Transfer Gel Duo, you use a palette knife to spread it over a stencil onto card stock (as you would with glitter gel, paste, etc.). Then you let the gel dry. The package says to wait one hour or until the gel is clear. I ended up letting my first batch sit overnight because that's just how it worked out, but the second batch I waited about four hours. The thickness of the gel and the pattern on the stencil will affect drying time (e.g., a stencil with large areas filled in with gel may take longer to dry than a pattern with narrow lines or a small-scale pattern).

Once the gel is dry, lay a foil sheet on top of the card stock (foil side up). Then you can either set the foil with heat or pressure. As I mentioned earlier, I didn't use any heat, so I can't speak to that process. To use pressure, I first placed the card stock and foil in a piece of folded printer paper. Then I placed it on my Big Shot platform, using the sandwich for wafer-thin dies. I also added a very thin embossing pad to make sure there was enough pressure. Then I ran everything through the Big Shot machine. When that's done, carefully peel the sheet to reveal the foiled design. Ta da!

Once the panels were foiled, I turned them all into cards by mounting them on card bases and adding die cuts, stamped sentiments, and embellishments. My favorite of the this first group are the first two cards, with the tea cups. The rainbow panels were the first two I made, and you can see little goof-ups -- like the bottom line on the left card got all wonky because my palette knife slipped under the stencil so there was too much gel. I decided to leave it because it's a bit of a wonky pattern anyway.

I didn't get into the specifics for these cards, so if you have any questions, just leave a comment and I'll respond as soon as I can. And stay tuned for the second batch of foiled cards later this week. Thanks for stopping by!