Foiling Snobs club's card swaps: June, August & November 2020

Cards for the June 2020 card swap

I had watched Nancy Stamps Youtube videos before but not until Spring 2020 I decided to put her videos into a closer look. I specifically were interested in the videos of foiling. Later at some point when I purchased my Gemini jr. machine and the Gemini Foilpress by Crafter's companion, I of course had to re-watch her videos to see how to use them. After a few videos I was encouraged enough to set the plugs in, read the manuals and give them machines a try.

My Gemini jr. and the Foilpress after unboxing

In the picture below is the laminating machine that I use. It's not very good but it does its job up to some point. It needs to be heated up at least 30 minutes before using for foiling. Vellum can be foiled sooner because it's so thin. However, I may not use it for toner foiling anymore. 

The old Elfen laminating machine

Last November after doing some foiling with the Foilpress I thought why take out the laminating machine and wait for it to heat up when the Foilpress on the table is still hot and ready to go. So, I tried to foil some printed Christmas sentiments with the Foilpress. I was blown away how perfect the foiling was. The Minc machine which is specifically designed for toner foiling can still wait on the shopping list because I can use the Foilpress for both hot foil stamping and toner foiling. Obviously I can't foil a full page with it but that's okay, I mostly need it for card making.

So, are you wondering what this Foiling Snobs Club is? It's a group on Facebook and one of the founders is Nancy Stamps. The group has international members and it has grown bigger during this time I have been in it, and it keeps on growing. The group is not just about foiling. The group's name was originally something like "Stamping and foiling fun". I have received help from the group admins and the members when I have had questions on my mind.

The card swaps are held every month and they are not mandatory. So if the theme is not tempting or you're having time issues then it's okay if you're not going to take part.

If you like to check out the FCS group on Facebook here is the link. Be sure to visit Nancy's Youtube channel as well.

BIRTHDAY - JUNE 2020

The theme for June was Birthday. I wanted to do some foiling since I had started playing with the laminating machine and different foils. I planned to do some quick cards with my own design. In this case, the design was the sentiment. I did a few designs, chose my favorites and then for the final cards I laser printed them on patterned papers taken from the paper pad.

The longest time spent with these cards was when I tried to find something else to put on the cards. The papers had patterns and colors that didn't seem to fit with whatever I tried. Believe me when I say that I tried numerous of different flowers, card toppers and stickers. It took me hours before I was happy with the results. 

The cards 1 & 2 for the June 2020 card swap

The cards 3 & 4 for the June 2020 card swap

FRIENDSHIP - AUGUST 2020

For the August 2020 card swap I actually recorded videos. Below are two videos, the first one is the making of the backgrounds and the second video is about how I put the cards together using those backgrounds.

The theme for the August card swap was Friendship. It took me a little while to figure out how I would implement this theme. I decided to go for quotes. I searched the internet for some nice quotes and then did the designing on Inkscape. The foiling I did on vellum with Decofoil foils. For the backgrounds I used watercolor paper, flat-bottomed glass beads and Ranger's Distress ink re-inkers for coloring. 

The card 1 for the August 2020 card swap

The card 2 for the August 2020 card swap

The card 3 for the August 2020 card swap

The card 4 for the August 2020 card swap

The card 5 for the August 2020 card swap

CHRISTMAS / HOLIDAYS - NOVEMBER 2020

In November it was pretty obvious that the theme would be Christmas. Instead of playing with foils I wanted to do something more traditional. Well, I did foil the sentiments and I also used a foiled background for one of the cards. But I wanted to do stamping, heat embossing and coloring.

I used a poinsettia background stamp by Stampendous, an angel girl stamp by Penny Black, a girl with the birds stamp by Scrapberry's and a dotted background stamp by Studiolight. The poinsettias and the dotted background were also heat embossed with some embossing powder. For coloring I used Distress inks and Distress oxide inks and some Lindy's sprays to mix them in with the inks. I used die cutting dies by Creotime, Marianne Design, Pretty quick design, Spellbinders and Impression obsession. The sentiments I designed with Inkscape, laser printed them on a plain copy paper, foiled with the Foilpress and then finally added more thickness with some cardstock. 

All the cards for the November 2020 card swap

The angel cards

The poinsettia cards

The perhaps not so Christmassy but wintery card

For this year (2021) I have already entered the February card swap. I will make a blog post about them after I have entered some other card swap as well. Not sure when but probably closer to the Summer...