When a friend is going through a stormy patch

Would you like to experiment with a design like this? You'll find a supply list below, including a link to the stencil I used from A Colorful Life Designs . Follow the link and use discount code ChrisFan10 to save 10% on your entire order! (Master Creator Bundles are excluded as they already have a 20% discount built in.)

I love getting out my foils and having a play. I took an afternoon recently and did just that - selected some stencils and decided which foils to use with them. The results are always so pretty: I love the shine and the festive feeling that foil brings to a card.

Let’s Get Started:

Card Base: 5.5 x 8.5, scored and folded at 4.25

Border: black, 5.5 x 4.25

Card Face: 5.25 x 4

Small pieces of Cardstock for Sentiment and Umbrella

Card Face:

• I secured the stencil to the card face with Mint tape.

• I used a palette knife to apply Duo gel through the stencil across the entire card face. I used a putty scraper to remove the excess and put it back in the jar. (have mislaid my stencil buddy, so I bought a 6" scraper in bright yellow - that should be easier to keep track of!)

• I waited until the gel was dry (it goes on white, and will be completely clear when dry - 30-60 min, depending on how thick it is) and then added a rainbow Decco foil, laying it directly on top with the pretty side UP.

• I ran this through my Big Shot, and then peeled off the foil. The foil stuck to the Duo Gel and left a pattern of beautifully reflective rainbow coloured raindrops.

Other:

• I stamped the sentiment in black pigment ink and used a clear embossing powder to give it maximum "pop" against the brightly coloured raindrops. I cut this out by hand as there isn't a matching die with this stamp.

• I die cut two umbrellas, one in black and one in white. I glued the white one on top of the black, offsetting just slightly.

• I diecut a filligree pattern in black, and glued that onto the umbrella.

Assembly:

• I glued the black border layer onto the card base, and then glued the card face on top of this.

• I glued the sentiment to the card face, offsetting it a bit towards the bottom right.

• I glued the umbrella in place at the top left, allowing it to overlap the sentiment just a bit.

• I added a tiny acrylic bead to the center of the embellishment.
  

Final thoughts:

I had several tiny gaps in my raindrops where the foil didn't stick: to fix this I added a tiny bit of Duo gel directly on top of the gap and the surrounding area. Once the gel had dried , I added foil and ran it through the Big Shot again. The repairs are absolutely seamless.

I initally tried to stamp and heat emboss the sentiment directly onto the card face, over the foiling. I wasn't certain this would work - and sure enough, it didn't! So I moved on to Plan B, and repeated the process on a separate piece of paper.

This card is well outside of my usual style, and therefore out of my comfort zone, but overall I like it.

Supplies: (and links where possible)

I have listed which products I have used, and where they were purchased. It's a huge marketplace and in most instances there are multiple sources and many alternatives to choose from.

Stencil:Big Fat Drops, A Colorful Life Designs

Stamps: Friendly Thoughts, Stampin' Up! (retired)

Ink: Stampin’ Up!

Versa Mark: Simon Says Stamp

Clear Embossing Powder, Simon Says Stamp

Duo Gel: I Craft, Scrapbook.com

Decco Foil: Mystic Rainbow, Scrapbook.com

Mint Tape:Scrapbook.com

Umbrella Die: Spellbinders, Amazon

Acrylic Bead: IIrridescent Bubbles, Studio Katia

Adhesive: Tombow Aqua, Michaels

Card Base: Accent 100 lb., Amazon

Card Face: Accent 80 lb., Amazon

Sharing Fresh Styles & Smiles for Cardmaking