Playing with Foil and Chipboard with Karen Bearse

First of all in the wake of the horrendous, shooting tragedy in Orlando, FL I would just like to say my heart goes out to the victims and family members whose lives are forever changed. May you find strength and peace in the days to come.

Karen Bearse here with a tutorial on how to play with foil on chipboard. I am working on an art journal project and wanted a page in my book about my love of all things coffee. One of the things I like to do when art journaling is add in current favourites like food, entertainment, travel. It is a different way to highlight my current life and likes. Here is what I ended up with.

Inspired by the awesome “every day is coffee day” chipboard piece I decided to make an art

journal page showing both my love for coffee and my like of the TV show Dr. Who. I have to say my original intent was very different but this page fought me every step of the way and the idea had to be completely reworked. Still I really like the result, however I would add the coffee bean chippies if I had them. So grabba cup of Joe and let’s go!

Here is what I pulled out to play with to start. My art journal page was done on a piece of mix media cardstock, holes punched using a cinch. This helps to remind me to keep my ephemera away from where the binding will go.

My background was spritzed with Glimmer Mist to get a nice colour down. Once the page is dry use a hard piece of foam to apply deco foil adhesive in streaks down the page. This adhesive is especially made to work with foils. I did the same application on my coffee cup, covering the entire surface area except where my photo was going to go. Set aside to dry for the recommended 1-2 hours. The glue will feel super sticky when ready to go.

Here is the fun part! Simply put a piece of decofoil down, colour side facing up & rub using your finger, a popsicle stick or the side of an old gift card depending on how smooth or sketchy you want the foil to go on. Feel free to use different colours or a multi-colour piece of foil. The great thing about this technique of foiling is you can see your results as you are creating and can add or subtract the colours. If you want a different colour simply apply more glue and redo that section. If you miss a spot just put the foil back down and re-rub.

I decided to do rainbow for the coffee cup & words “coffee day” & for “everyday” used pewter. The word “is” kind of got a bit of both. Using stamps with sticky embossing powder allowed me to foil the coffee rings. I then adhered the cool, coffee cup photo. Here is where I ran into trouble. When the chipboard piece was put on the background the words got lost. I tried multiple effects behind the words to help them pop and ended up with a big mess. My final solution was to add a pocket with coffee ring scrapbook paper. The neutral colour works great behind the words. It helped solve my problem and gave me a tuck spot for a tag to journal on. Phew. Adding sewing around the edges adds texture. To finish, the page edges were distressed and a few coffee beans were stamped in… you guessed it “ground espresso” distress ink. Sadly the other elements I wanted to add just didn’t work, again I wish I had those beans! The end result is a super shiny glimmer page that changes brilliance when the light hits it. Happy Crafting!

Southern Ridge Chippies:

- Every Day Is Coffee Day

- Coffee Beans  (recommended)

Other Supplies:

- Decofoil, Decofoil adhesive by Thermoweb

- Glimmer Mist by Tattered Angels

- Paper by Moxxie

- Stamps by darkroom door

- Espresso distress ink & glossy accents by Ranger

Remember to play along in the monthly challenge over on the Southern Ridge Trading Company blog. Each month enter for your chance to win 4 designs from the online store - chipboard.ca -$20 (before tax) retail value of YOUR OWN CHOOSING! 

- Karen