Foiled accents have been a huge trend in the papercraft industry for several years now. And while there are several ways to get the look, the most stunning (and my personal favorite) is with a hot foil machine. I’ve shared a few projects recently using this method, but wanted to share a few more today because Spellbinders is having a fantastic sale on all things Glimmer this week…so if you’ve been thinking about diving into the world of hot foil, now may be the perfect time to do it!
The Glimmer Hot Foil Machine is super easy to operate and doesn’t take up a ton of desktop space. I already owned another brand of foil machine when I decided to purchase the Glimmer machine too…because I wanted one that I could use with my manual die-cutting machine, wasn’t overly complicated to use, and didn’t make multiple shrill beeping sounds every time I heated up a new foil plate (I craft late at night and during naptime for my kids). I’ve been very happy with the Glimmer machine and haven’t pulled out the other one since!
For two of these projects, I’m using a couple of the new Glimmer plate designs from the October release (Spellbinders was kind enough to send me these to try). When I saw this ornate border design from the Art Deco Borders set, I knew I wanted to create a frilly tiered background with an ombre color scheme. I trimmed five pieces of Neenah Classic Crest Solar White Cardstock to 4.25″ x 5.5″, hot foiled the border design in silver foil onto the bottom of each panel, and then fussy cut around the design with scissors.
I chose five bright pink and purple Distress inks (Spun Sugar, Worn Lipstick, Picked Raspberry, Seedless Preserves, and Dusty Concord) to ink each foiled panel using blending brushes. Though not a perfect “ombre”, I really liked how these colors went together.
One thing I love about the Glimmer Hot Foil Plates is that some of the sets have alignment guides to help you link multiple plates together on the heating element while keeping them perfectly aligned. This is particularly helpful with sentiments…for example, the Birthday Hugs & Wishes set contains three separate foil plates to create a few different sentiments. Using the alignment guides, I could be sure that “birthday” was perfectly centered above “hugs & wishes” when I foiled it onto white cardstock using purple foil.
To embellish the card, I die cut flowers from white cardstock using the three smallest sizes of petal shapes from the Cinch & Go Flower Dies set. After inking them lightly with coordinating inks, I shaped them with a ball stylus before assembling.
The final card has tons of the dimension that I was aiming for, but you could eliminate much of the bulk by simply foiling the border design repeatedly on one panel of cardstock and ink blending over the entire background if desired.
I love the elegance that foiled letterpress brings to a project and think this would make a great birthday card for a fancy sweet 16 party!
This next card uses the same two sets of foil plates and techniques, but in a simpler, somewhat more masculine way.
Start by foiling two of the border designs down the center of a piece of white cardstock trimmed to 4.25″ x 5.5″ with silver foil. (To align the foil plates in this case, I simply use the grid lines on the heating element.)
Lightly blend Blueprint Sketch, Peacock Feathers, and Twisted Citron Distress Ink over top of the foiled designs using a detail blending brush. Allow the Twisted Citron ink to fade out to white on each side.
Place the Happy Birthday sentiment plate onto the heating element and apply Cobalt Foil to white cardstock. Die cut the sentiment out of the panel using the smallest die from the Candlewick Rectangles set.
Mat the foiled background panel with both Frosted Silver and Cobalt Velour cardstocks before adhering it to an A2-sized white card base using tape runner.
Pop the sentiment panel up in the center of the card using foam adhesive.
This last Christmas card and envelope set shows more of the versatility of hot foiling…you can hot foil a lot more than just plain cardstock! Here I’ve used gold foil to apply the beautiful Hollyday Stationery design to a red shimmering envelope (as well as a few small holly leaves from the set onto patterned paper with red and green foil).
Then I used the Ho Ho Ho Holiday foil plate to add a gorgeous gold foil design to black flocked cardstock for a super elegant look that reminded me of Santa’s belt. Lastly, “Merry Christmas” from the Holiday Sentiments set was applied to vellum using green foil for a soft look (layered over white cardstock for more contrast).
Note: Unconventional materials may need longer heating times or slower cranking through your diecutting machine for complete coverage.
I hope you’ve enjoyed these fun foiled card projects and that I’ve inspired you to maybe give hot foiling a try. There’s no better time to take the leap with the huge Glimmer Blitz sale over at Spellbinders…it includes the Glimmer machine itself at a great price!
Supplies Used:
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 Spellbinders Glimmer Hot Foil System Shop at: SB | SPL |
 Art Deco Borders Foil Plate Shop at: SB | SPL |
 Birthday Hugs & Wishes Foil Plate Shop at: SB | SPL |
 Holiday Sentiments Foil Plate Shop at: SB | SPL |
 Hollyday Stationery Foil Plate Shop at: SB | SPL |
 Ho Ho Ho Holiday Foil Plate Shop at: SB | SPL |
 Spellbinders Glimmer Kit of the Month Shop at: SPL |
 Cinch & Go Flower Dies Shop at: SB | SPL |
 Candlewick Rectangles Dies Shop at: SB | SPL |
 Classic Ovals Small Dies Shop at: SPL |
 Cobalt Hot Foil Shop at: SB | SPL |
 Fuchsia Flower Hot Foil Shop at: SB | SPL |
 Silver Hot Foil Shop at: SB | SPL |
 Gold Hot Foil Shop at: SB | SPL |
 Viridian Green Hot Foil Shop at: SB | SPL |
 Red Hot Foil Shop at: SB | SPL |
 Blueprint Sketch Distress Ink Shop at: SB |
 Peacock Feathers Distress Ink Shop at: SB |
 Mowed Lawn Distress Ink Shop at: SB |
 Twisted Citron Distress Ink Shop at: SB |
 Spun Sugar Distress Ink Shop at: SB |
 Worn Lipstick Distress Ink Shop at: SB |
 Picked Raspberry Distress Ink Shop at: SB |
 Seedless Preserves Distress Ink Shop at: SB |
 Dusty Concord Distress Ink Shop at: SB |
 Picket Fence Life Changing Brushes – 10pc Shop at: SB |
 Picket Fence Life Changing Brushes – 4pc Shop at: SB |
 Cutterbee Scissors Shop at: SB |
 Paper Blossoms Tool Kit Shop at: SB |
 Neenah Classic Crest Solar White Shop at: SB | CCS |
 Frosted Silver Cardstock Shop at: SB |
 Cobalt Velour Cardstock Shop at: SB |
 Flocked Cardstock Shop at: SB |
 ATG Tape Runner Shop at: SB |
 Tombow Mono Multi Glue Shop at: SB | CCS |
 Foam Squares Shop at: SB |