Poinsettia and Foiled Foliage

 It's always Anything Goes at 613 Avenue Create Challenge but this month we have the optional twist of Foliage - Leaves or Paper!   Do come and hang out on our front porch, we love to see your work!

The sponsor this month is Conie Fong Art!

 For this card I've used her Holly Poinsettia image. I coloured her with watercolour pencils with just a few highlights in red marker because I wanted a more vivid red.   I added a layered mini Poinsettia die cut (Marianne Design) to the image for some dimension and a little gold for sparkle.  

I cut a rectangle from the front panel using a double stitched frame to frame the image and the front panel is attached to the card base with foam tape.  I had this sentiment already on the stamping platform so I stamped it on a scrap of ivory cardstock and cut it with a small stitched rectangle. 

I would like to enter this card in the following challenges

Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge #610 - optional twist "S" for scarf ;

Peace on Earth Challenge #23 - inspired by the winter foliage

NBUS Challenge #42 - the poinsettia is NBUS ;

As You Like It Challenge - My favourite cardbase is A6 - just cut an A4 in half and fold in half, and no additional postage!

Time Out Challenge 221 - Festive

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I've been wanting to try out foiling for a while now!   Seeing this sentiment of  Conie’s - I immediately thought it would be perfect for foiling - bold with some lovely loops and curls!  And being digital I could make it as big or as small as I wanted - I went big!

Just a quick explanation of foiling for those who haven't heard of it.  You print something on your laser printer - yes it has to be a laser printer but there is no time limit so you could take your documents to Office Works or the equivalent and print them there!  Then you put it through a Minc machine or equivalent and the heat makes the foil to stick to wherever the toner is - i.e. your printed image!  Easy, peasy right!  

Well I don’t own a Minc machine, but a friend gave me a cheap knock off and I understand that a laminator will also work!  I found this video on Youtube which filled me with enough confidence to give it a go!   I ordered some Heidi Swapp foil on Amazon but it took ages to arrive.  In the meantime, I found some cheap rolls in Action and bought about 10 a few!  I have to say, I was underwhelmed - the foil stuck to everything not just what I had printed on the laser printer!  Well, I decided to take advantage of this "feature" and cut the foil the same size as my card panel and ran that through the laminator!  There was a fine gold layer over the entire panel, but I quite liked the effect and the sentiment was definitely readable!  

I also ran a die-cut leaf (CraftEmotions Fern) which had NO toner on it through the machine and achieved a lovely shimmery effect.  I took this photo in the sunshine, so you could see the mottled gold effect!

But as you can see from this photo, the leafy pattern on this background panel is still visible when the light isn't shining directly on it!

And here's a short video I took because this effect is very hard to photograph! 

The genuine Minc Foil finally arrived and I'm happy to report the problem with the background foil is gone!  I made these place cards for my friend's daughter's wedding and the gold only stuck to the printed parts - a lovely thistle image and the names!  And it made no difference with the cheap foiling machine or the laminator!  So foiling with a laminator does work!   Why not give it a try for yourself!

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A few weeks ago I posted a card I made for a friend who joined our choir after being forced to flee from Ukraine.  She has just released a beautiful song on YouTube and though it's in Ukrainian, you can easily get the gist of the anti-war story she tells!  If you have the time, listen to it and drop her a like if you enjoy it -"Тополя"Olena Afanasyeva "Poplar"

I'm thrilled you stopped by and hope you enjoyed your visit.  If you leave a comment, I’ll know you were here and how to find you and perhaps we can get better acquainted!  

Kate