Share the Love with Foil-Mates Blog Hop!

Good morning, all! How about a quick hop to inspire with the new Fancy Foil and Foil-Mates products from Gina K. Designs? :) Please enjoy our ideas showcasing all the fabulous products and leave a comment on each blog as you hop for more chances to win a $50 gift certificate to Gina K. Designs.  Winner will be drawn randomly and announced on StampTV. Check the Big New Forum a few days after the hop.

I just love the XO design as a background and these new tags! I used the Gina K. Designs Fancy Foils™ 6" x 8" • Bubblegum Pink and coordinating Pure Luxury Bubblegum cardstock for my card base.  The fun XOXO background is included in the 

Foil-Mates™ Backgrounds • Love and Kisses.   Round tag is from the Gina K. Designs Foil-Mates™ Sentiments • Sweet Expressions  pack. I cut it out with one of the Double Stitched Circle dies, and matted both on Pure Luxury Black Onyx to really POP!

 Gina K. Designs Fancy Foils™ 6" x 8" • Bubblegum Pink 

Foil-Mates™ Backgrounds • Love and Kisses. 

Gina K. Designs Foil-Mates™ Sentiments • Sweet Expressions  pack. 

Double Stitched Circle dies

I also want to point out how much I like how Gina has spaced these Foil-Mates designs.

Not just with dies in mind, you can quickly crop the sentiments into rectangular mats with just a couple swipes of your paper cutter, and they are ready to make some quick foiled cards!  Foil once, then cut twice, so easy! The background pieces you see here are from one piece of foil and one Foil Mate sheet.  Ready to go on 3 cards!

Last, I want to share something fun I discovered, a happy accident! I love the smooth, shiny looks that foil creates, which is so amazing on these designs, but found by mistake you can create some really cool gungy or weathered looks if spots of the toner are showing through!  With proper use, you should not get spots, and I knew my Foil *should* work because it always had for me before, but when I wasn't getting good results for the first time when I started making some cards for this hop, I thought, maybe my laminator (Scotch) wasn't working properly anymore?   Thankfully, before I ran out and got another laminator, I realized I must have accidentally flipped the switch when I was getting off the shelf, from 5 to 3mm!  Well! This makes a HUGE difference (and it does say 5mm on the back of the Foil-Mates pack in the instructions, thank you, Gina)! So glad I figured it out, BUT no way am I throwing out the spotty pieces!   Spotty design below:)
I think they look TEErrific with these tags and greetings, especially since I almost always use black in my designs!  Kind of like, "foil for guys"! "Distressed foil"! Anyway, be sure to check that if you are suddenly ( or have never!) not achieving good results with your laminator.  It is NOT the Fancy Foil's fault! And hopefully just a setting like in my case! :)

Foil is hard to photograph, but hopefully you can see the spots and texture in the foil in these two photos of this pink and red card.  These are the "goofs"! The Red Velvet sponging adds another layer of texture and interest,  and in my mind, makes the imperfect foiling make more sense, if you will. Cardstock iS GKD Pure Luxury Red Velvet and Bubblegum Pink.

Ready to see more from the team? Let's go!

Gina K.
Beth Silaika
Cathy Tidwell
Donna Idlet
Karen Hightower
Laurie Schmidlin
Melanie Muenchinger- you are here, thanks for visiting!
Rema Deleeuw
Sheri Gilson
Susie Moore
Theresa Momber
Lisa Hetrick