Pink foil Christmas tree

As well as cutting out the panels for the previous sets of cards, I also cut the block Christmas tree design out of Dura-lar to create a stencil. I had come across a tutorial that used gel medium and pigment powders with stencils and wanted to try that, but I was waiting for the gloss medium I ordered to be delivered and, well, I got sidetracked and that’s still on my list of things to do…

What I did have was some Deco Foil Transfer Gel. I bought it more than five years ago, used it for some testing and then pretty much forgot about it again. I found it in my stash and — I have to say I am really impressed — after five years it is still in perfect condition. So many supplies dry up very quickly regardless of how you care for them (Nuvo pastes have been particularly bad in my experience), but this was absolutely fine.

I think I used a palette knife when I did my original tests; this time I grabbed an old store card to spread the gel through the stencil and found it much easier to get a smooth finish.

Before doing the foiling, I stamped a mix of snowflakes and stars on the background panels. I’m still not sure about the simplicity of the panels on my previous cards, so this time I started out by adding some decoration. I also cut the panels slightly smaller so that the sparkly card base would show around the edges.

Supplies:

• stamps:
  Hero Arts – tiny flakes
  Hero Arts – tiny stars
• stencils:
  Block tree design by me
• foiling:
  Deco Foil Transfer Gel
  Heidi Swapp – hot pink
  Heidi Swapp – teal
  Wow Fab Foil – copper
  Deco Foil – rainbow
• paper and card:
  plain white card
  Papermill Direct – Charcoal Black Pure Sparkle Card Blanks