Foiling using a bit of heat. The techniques described by this section requires the use of a heat laminator such as the one pictured. These are normally available at any office supply store such as Staples. We’ve had good success with this laminator for our needs. Another option is the Minc Foil Transfer machine from […]

This method can use either adhesive foil or reactive transfer foil, but not heat foil. For this method, using tape, shaped adhesive, foam tape, or dries tacky paste to create your pattern you wish to foil. Then carefully place the foil (shiny side up) on the tacky area and gently press the foil on the

Or ways to add cool shiny stuff to cards…. There are several ways to add foil or foil like finish to a card. The most used: Click on the links to get more detail on each method. Back to the Intro Page…

A fairly new form of creating, enhancing or embellishing cards is the use of stencils. To be clear, stencils are not new they’ve been around for a while, especially brash stencils used with paste. But in the past few years stencils created with plastic have gained popularity especially since the advent of multi-layered stencils. Uses

The following describes the some of the different types of die cutting/embossing machines that are available. Small Cutting Machine The image to the left shows the Sidekick by Sizzix. It has the ability to cut with dies up to 2.5 x 4.5 inches. A very easy to use machine that occupies little space. It’s perfect

For the following techniques, the first requirement is obtaining a die cutting machine. This can be an expensive investment, but we have found that the returns are well worth it. Die Cutting Machines A die cutting machine is a tool that presses a die into cardstock to cut out an image. The sample to the

The art of stacking images on your cards. Helpful Supplies for 3d Layered Cards Watercolor Markers – Grey and/or Brown — once you have your cut out pieces, we recommend edging them to hide the white core, and some cutting sins. We use Tombows greys, typically N79 or N55. Depending on what we’re cutting we’ll

Or the art of melting plastic dust on paper. Heat embossing is a technique of stamping that has a wide variety of uses and methods. The most basic use of heat embossing with stamping is to create a raised sentiment or image on your card. With the wide variety of colors and ‘grades’ or thickness

One of the more widely uses of stamping for cards is to stamp an image and then coloring it with markers. Markers and pens are also used to help embellish a card in many ways. There are two major types of markers: Watercolor and Alcohol. Watercolor Based Markers For coloring stamped images using watercolor, we

A (very) brief history of stamping and a description of the types of stamps available today. Wood Block Stamps What we all grew up with. Generally a single image using a rubber stamp backed with a foam layer and mounted onto a wooden block. Unfortunately as time went on, it became much more efficient to