Hello crafty people! To be honest, I was trying to think through some new media that I could use and share with you here, and I got sucked into the internet for a few hours looking at videos and blogs so you didn’t have to. While looking around, I came across some videos about using aluminum foil on your cards and decided to give it a try. I was inspired by a video created by Village Cards & Crafts where I learned how to incorporate aluminum foil into the card.
Before making these cards, I glued two pieces of very cheap aluminum foil from our kitchen onto some scrap cardstock, using an old gift card to spread the glue in a thin layer evenly across the both of the card bases. I then added the foil and then put both of the panels with foil underneath acrylic blocks to dry flat. I came back the next day and used my favorite stitched-rectangular die to die cut the panels.
Card #1
Then I used a floral embossing folder that I stamped with clear embossing ink as a sandwich to emboss the tinfoil panel. After the embossed panel came out of the embossing folder, I added some embossing powder over the whole thing. The embossing powder stuck to the flat areas (which were the areas that were stamped with the embossing ink). There were a few areas that the powder didn’t stick, so I cheated along the bottom and added some more ink and powder since the area was so spotty. After using my heating tool to adhere the powder, I was left with the orange and silver panel that you see here. The embossing powder above is metallic, meaning that when it is heated it has a shiny finish.
I decided that the shiny orange and silver of the aluminum foil needed a shiny sentiment and matte layer, so both were cut out of white glitter cardstock, while the shadow of the sentiment was die cut out of vellum. Some clear and light orange sequins were glued around the sentiment. To finish the card, I glued the whole thing onto a top-folding A2-sized white card base.
Card #2
This second card was created in the same manner–heat embossing on an embossed piece of aluminum foil glued onto cardstock. This time I used a matte embossing folder and decided to play with the background colors. I find that sometimes I just default to a white cardbase because it is easy, but wanted to step it up with this card.
To make the sentiment,I pulled out some patterned paper in my stash and sprayed it with a shiny brown spray. After the sprayed paper dried, I die cut it with a hello sentiment as well as from a scrap piece of the white glitter cardstock (the same one from the first card). I offset the two die cut sentiments and glued them together so that you can see the white glitter cardstock peek out on the right side of the sentiment. After the glue holding the two layers of the sentiment dried, I glued it onto the bottom of the card. I then glued some purple and pink sequins around the sentiment. I then glued a die cut matte layer of the same sprayed patterned paper used to make the sentiment behind the aluminum foil layer. Finally, I glued the whole thing onto a kraft-colored A2-sized cardbase to finish the card.
I hope that these cards inspire you to use some aluminum foil on your next project.
Anna York is from Oregon, US. She has been writing for TPC since 2023. Anna started paper crafting in 2008, had a break while her kids were small and started cardmaking again in 2019. Anna mostly makes cards. Her paper projects are often made in sparkly, whimsical style and she loves colors.