Day: March 19, 2025

Wayward Wednesday | 100DayProject Day 25

100DayProject Day 25

Foiling is such a fun technique!

I finally used my foiling machine. I started with the easiest way: using a polyglaze sheet that already had a pattern on it. I ran two of those through and they worked out well, particularly the one that I used heat setting 4 rather than 3 for. I then tried to create some full cardfront panels covered with DecoFoil Due transfer gel. Once it dried I ran it through with the remaining foil to create the opposite pattern. I also created a few card fronts with polka dots stenciled with the transfer gel. Those came out very well. I’m going to create some more card front panels fully covered with the transfer gel tomorrow – ideally once I find my brayers – because I found that it was difficult to get a smooth layer of transfer gel when using a palette knife to spread the transfer gel. The resulting ridges show up because the foil didn’t always transfer quite correctly along the ridges, and even where it did, you can notice the ridges when you angle the card front in a certain way. I did some ink blending on the 2 swirled card fronts which turned out well. I meant to try to ink blend on a full card front before applying the transfer gel but forgot until after I had already cleaned off my tools and worksurface so I’ll try that tomorrow when a few friends are coming over for lunch and a crafternoon. I will also try ink blending on the dotted cardfronts. And will also try to run the opposite patterned ones through with another colour of foil – because that looked like an interesting technique when I watched a foiling video several months ago.

Heat setting 4 worked better than heat setting 3

I also tried using a few different types of embossing powder (Ranger clear as well as two types of sticky embossing powder – one Stampin’ Up! and the other Ranger) with a few different types of sentiments. I’m not thrilled with the results so far but will do some more experimenting tomorrow. My first attempt with the clear embossing powder didn’t work, perhaps because I double stamped the versamark which perhaps resulted in too much adhesive so too much foil stuck. Maybe I used too hot of a heat setting? The sticky embossing powder didn’t seem to get adequate coverage and too little foil transferred. I can’t remember if I used put down 2 layers of versamark first or not. Maybe the heat wasn’t hot enough? I do want to try stamping with the transfer gel as well – I think having an even coat of transfer gel using a brayer will lead to a better impression of the stamped image. So hopefully I can find those wayward brayers.

I got some transfer gel onto the back of my card fronts which ended up sticking onto my carrier sheet.
You can see the how the foil didn’t transfer as well where the ridges in the transfer gel formed when I tried to spread it over the full surface of the card front using a palette knife. I think using a brayer may give more even coverage.
In this photo you can see how the ridges show up when the light hits the foil in a certain way.
The two cardfront will definitely be usable even if there are a few spots where the foil didn’t transfer. Some ridges it still transferred fine (but you can see the ridges at certain angles of light) and some others the foil didn’t transfer.
The polka dots transferred the foil very well. I’m looking foward to seeing how it looks once I’ve ink blended.

Clearly I need to do some more experimenting. And recording what works so that I will remember it when I come back to these techniques in the future.

You can see how some of the cardstock stuck to my carrier sheet because I got some of the transfer gel onto the back of the card stock when I was stenciling the gel onto the card front. Perhaps I should have put a bit of parchment paper behind. I’ll try to see if I can clean off the carrier sheet with some soap and water. I’ll definitely have to buy some extra carrier sheets to have on hand when I wreck some other carrier sheets with wayward transfer gel.

There was definitely some wayward foil in my foiling experimentation today. And some wayward transfer gel. And I expect there will be some more in my continued experimentation tomorrow.

Card 17 (partial)

I ink blended onto the cardfronts after foiling the swirls. I also created a ink blended card front which I haven’t yet put transfer gel onto but I will try that tomorrow. And I will try to turn at least one of these foiled card fronts into an actual card!

But I won’t experiment too much because I want to move onto getting at least one card finished tomorrow for my Card 17 for The Foiling Metallic Details class which is lesson 3 of the Clean and Simple Boutique Cards course.

Some of my samples of trying foiling using clear embossing powder as well as some sticky embossing powder. Tomorrow I will label them and make some notes about what worked and what didn’t to keep for future reference and future experimentation. I also made a few samples which turned out fine just using clear and gold embossing powder (not foiling on top of it) so that you can see the sentiments more clearly for comparison purposes.

Wayward Wednesday

Just when we were almost back home my theme for today came to me: wayward. This was because the Canada Geese overhead (a sure sign of spring) seemed to be heading more east than north so not exactly the direction that I was expecting. But I was happy to hear their honking regardless of their somewhat sloppy formation and wayward direction.

I skipped Pickleball today. Roland wasn’t going since his Achilles has been bothering him. I opted to stay home and tackle the huge mess that is on my desk in the family room. That desk seems to be the spot that so many of my wayward items accumulate. Which makes the desk completely unusable and means that my wayward items spread onto the kitchen table and counter and dining room table. So spending some time to try to reign in my wayward items and redirect them to more appropriate places in the house seemed like a better use of my time this morning than playing Pickleball. Here’s to hoping the desk stays clear and usuable for a long time. I shall endevour to keep it clear of wayward items so I can use it to work on my laptop, to send out cards (a habit which will be much easier to implement if I have a dedicated, clutter-free (okay, let’s be real, a tolerably-cluttered) space) and to pick back up some Spanish studying (which will also be much more likely to happen if I have a dedicated spot to work on it – although I do need to figure out how to have some time to dedicate to it as well – it might have to wait until after I’m finished my 100DayProject.

Kevin came over for lunch which was great. I also enjoyed an hour playing virtual golf at The Bunker with Louise. Definitely some wayward balls! A very fun evening out. We have another golf night with a larger group of ladies next Wednesday as well. Which reminds me that I need to send out a reminder email.