Foiled Elegance: Coloring Foiled Images

Hello! Today I’m sharing my inspiration for the start of the latest Creative Fingers Challenge. I needed to restock my cards with a new sympathy card. I thought I’d create the card before I actually needed one for such a sad occasion. I never feel like making cards at those times… 😔

I chose to experiment a little with foiling and the best way to color part of the image while foiling the rest of the panel. I started with my feature piece, the My Rose digital stamp from our challenge sponsor, Morgan’s Art World. I digitally removed the surrounding background from the digi stamp and added it to a blank Photoshop file. I then added a free label png image from KissPNG and spent a little time adjusting and moving both images around until I was happy with their arrangement. Once I was happy with these two images and their position, I saved the file, just in case I decided I wanted to print the two images without a background at any stage of making the card.

I then decided to experiment with adding a background to these images. I added a black and white floral background from a digital patterned paper pack I found on Etsy and immediately fell in love with the look. I had bought this patterned paper pack specifically for foiling and hadn’t worked with it until now. I was really impressed with how it worked with the other images. Again, I saved it as a new file, this time with the background included. The two saved files could still be used in the future for any occasion and I could always print both to create a multiple layered feature. For this card, however, I added a 5mm black border to the background piece, saved the file with the sentiment on it and printed it onto XPress-it blending card to fit a 5.5″×6.5″ card base.

Next, I trimmed the panel down to size and colored the flowers and leaves with my Chameleon Pens, allowing it to dry fully before I foiled the entire panel with gold Deco Foil, using my Minc Foiling Machine set to only “2” on its heat settings. I knew that alcohol pens wouldn’t be suitable for coloring the piece after foiling because they give the foiled surfaces a milky appearance. I also deliberately didn’t use pencils on any of the coloring before foiling as the foil would adhere to any wax based pencil I added, making a mess of the entire piece. Once I had foiled the whole panel, I came back in with matching Chameleon Pencils and added some shadow tones and white highlights to the flowers, being as careful as I could not to go over the foiled areas with the pencil either, as the wax pencil will also alter the shine of the foil. In hindsight, I think I would spend more time with the alcohol markers alone to get the coloring fully completed before I foiled. It would just be much easier but, for this card, the pencil coloring completed the panel nicely. I created a simple white card base and finished off by gluing the foiled panel directly to the card front, perfect for sending through the mail.

I loved how the foil looked over the colored areas and I think I’ll be experimenting with this technique quite a bit more in the future. The XPress-it blending card is also a wonderfully smooth cardstock to foil, as well as use the markers on. It’s just a shame I couldn’t photograph the foil in its full glory. Thanks so much for spending time with me today. I look forward to next time…😊

Advertisement