This challenge was all about quarters and as soon as I saw the theme, I had the image of this card in my head immediately.
I used Sticks & Bones Alpha 4 for my letters, enlarging them and placing each to make my 1/4 sections.
If I want to print out a full card panel, I always place a 5 1/2 x 4 1/4 inch rectangle into my publisher document so that I can easily see how my images will fit onto my page. Then i print it out with that rectangle still in place and once I am ready to attach to my card base, I just trim the panel to be just a touch smaller than the rectangle and that gives me a nice, thin border round it.
Once printed, I placed some Fab Foil by WOW! Embossing Powder over my letters, pretty side facing up and slipped it between a folded sheet of standard printer paper.
I print my images using a laser jet printer, rather than ink jet; laser printers use toner cartridges instead of ink and this toner can be reactivated by heat allowing it to bond to heat reactive foils.
To reactivate it you run your image, with the foil over it, through a standard laminator; this adds the heat and pressure needed to bond the two together. There are a few important tips that I always follow:
- Allow your laminator to heat up for a good 20 minutes before you try it; if it isn’t hot enough you will get a patchy transfer of the foil and that is so disappointing!
- If you have a large image, or an image that has quite solid portions, then I always run my image through twice. I just take it straight back to feed it in, without moving the foil at all; this is really important if you want to keep a smooth foiled look across your whole project.
- I always leave my projects, with the foil still in place, for a good 15 minutes to fully cool before I peel back my foil to reveal the beauty below.
I embossed a panel of scrap paper with Oiled Slate embossing powder; also from WOW! And then die cut some letters using Altenew Tall Alphas and I used the scrap bits from that to cut out some hearts.
I stuck these all down to where I wanted them using Nuvo Deluxe liquid adhesive, placing a book on top of them whilst the adhesive dries to keep them flat.
I decided to add some Glossy Accents to my die cut letters & hearts, and then added a few tiny pink gems to tie in the colour from my foil. I popped it up onto a card base made with 110lb Neenah Solar White using adhesive foam tape from Arteza.
I absolutely love using a touch of foil in my projects, I think it adds such a beautiful & professional finish; it really does add that wow factor and it really is so easy to do.
I hope you will try using your digital stamps in different ways; try looking online for card sketch ideas or challenge yourself to follow a design theme, like our using the idea of quarters to design a card.
If you do, then we would live to see your beautiful creations! Tag us into your photos so that we can check them out.
Have fun with this week’s Anything Goes challenge, I can’t wait to see what is submitted this time!!
Thank you for visiting my blog, if you’d like to see more of my artwork & how to’s and/or hear my thoughts on living with a chronic illness then please consider subscribing. T.
— SUPPLIES —
— My Basic Supplies That I Use On Every Project —
Affiliate links are used MINI MISTI Shop at: Scrapbookcom | PBP | SBP | Trinity |
 MISTI – Original Shop at: Scrapbookcom | PBP | SBP |
 Nuvo Deluxe Adhesive Shop at: Scrapbookcom | SBP |
 Gemini Jr Shop at: Scrapbookcom |
 Tim Holtz Trimmer 8.5inch Shop at: Scrapbookcom |
 Tim Holtz Scissors 7inch Shop at: Scrapbookcom |
 Tim Holtz Mini Snips 5inch Shop at: Scrapbookcom |
 Tidy Tray Shop at: Trinity |
 Pick Up Stick Shop at: Trinity |
 Reverse Action Tweezers Shop at: Scrapbookcom | SBP |
 We R Trim & Scoreboard Shop at: Scrapbookcom |
 Pressure Tool Shop at: Trinity |
*Affiliate links are used, where available; this means that I may get a small commission if you purchase using one of these links, at no extra cost at all to yourself. A huge thank you goes to anyone who does purchase using my links, it is so highly appreciated.
- Neenah Classic Crest – Solar White 80lb*
- Neenah Classic Crest Solar White – 110lb (*Use code natashapapertree for 10% off)
- Polkadoodles – Sticks & Bones Alpha 4
- WOW! Embossing Powders Fab Foil – Blush *
- WOW! Embossing Powders – Oiled Slate (from Dockside Trio) *
- Versamark Ink pad
- Altenew – Tall Alphas die set *
- Ranger – Glossy Accents *
- Nuvo Deluxe Adhesive *
- Arteza – Adhesive Foam Tape *
- Laminator
- LaserJet Printer
- 2x heart dies that I have had forever and don’t remember who they are from, sorry.