First go at Decofoiling with transfer gel

I took the plunge and bought a glimmer machine last year from Spellbinders and love it when I use it. At the time I was tossing and turning between that and the Minc (laminator) system with Decofoil. Minc uses heat and the foil sticks to toner images, so quite a few companies sell you images to foil or you can use special inks or use a photocopier. I went with the Spellbinders glimmer machine as even though the plates are expensive, once I have them they are mine and I don't have a photocopier at home.

At my Crop and Create event last year we used Decofoil in our Brutus Munroe class where die cuts had adhesive sheets on them and then you burnished the foil on with just rubbing and the foil transferred and it certainly looked shiny, see HERE for those examples I created and probably a better explanation on "how to do it".

My day 2 class with Online Card Classes was glazes and pastes and Laura Bassen used Deco transfer gel through her stencil, set aside to dry and then put the deco foil on top and ran it through her Minc machine and they looked fab. So I thought OK it's time to break open that pot and the 2 packs of Deco Foil transfer sheets I have bought; Mystic Rainbow and Emerald Watercolor. The 2 stencils I used I know the brand but they have "no name" on the packaging. The leaf one is from The Crafters Workshop and the big spots was a 9 x 12 stencil from Dylusions.

I transferred the gel through the stencil and then set aside to dry (they recommend 60 mins) I was more like 90 mins. My first problem was the transfer sheets are 6" x 12" and rolled in a tube, so you have to remove them all and I thought I was only cutting one but I had actually cut 3 when I went to place on my panel as 2 of the 3 fall off and stuck to bits of the sticky gel and I was holding the "one" I thought I had cut so that was kind of hilarious. I ran it through my Big Shot and it sort of messy looking with bits missing and lines. When I did the leaves I took more care and definitely only cut one sheet but when I went to pull up the transfer sheet after passing through my Big Shot it obviously wasn't dry as I had to tear the cardstock to remove it. The great thing about this OCC is we have a Facebook page and as much as I think Facebook has a lot to answer for a lot of social problems it is great for crafting groups and the main reason I keep it going. Consensus from other attendees is my layer of paste was too thick and to scrape more of.

I have a tutorial happening in my SCT Crop and Create with Therm-o-web and foil and transfer gel this coming Friday as a mini tutorial so I will wait and try again after that.

OK that's a lot of talking let's have some pictures!!! I used Neenah Natural White; which I bought by mistake but it's cream coloured and 110lb, so nice and heavy weight. This is what my pieces looked like after foiling, the torn card stock is bottom RHS for the leaves.

I knew what I wanted to do with the spotted background as I had been wanting to mount up my Crazy Bird I watercoloured in Jenn Shurkus's distress watercolor pencil class a few weeks ago. I must have known he was going on something colourful and crazy as I had a really fine wash of the seedless preserves on the top of his bowler hat so I added some peacock feathers last night too. I also die cut out of one of the big pinky/purple spots that were cut off a "HI" and have mounted it inside the card.

Just so you can see the shimmer and shine it is really pretty IRL, the bird was embossed with clear EP on Versafine black ink, which is why he also looks sparkly in places too.

Just a simple sentiment die-cut on a Vellum shadow:

And all shiny too:

Together so not really a disaster but when I had transfer sheets sticking to my sticky fingers and the card being ripped I was thinking OMG what a mess but definitely "better than horrible".

#OCCStenciled2 #creativechickclasses

✿ Karen ✿