I love the look of foil on paper and wanted to create the same effect using my Cricut.
I’m proud of my work but once in a while I’m really proud of my work and I feel really really good about this set of cards.
The photographs really don’t do them justice. The shimmer on the lines looks really great in person in contrast to the paper.
I was looking at my Christmas cards from last year and realized I was paying a fortune to add that “foil” effect for each card. It then occurred to me I have faux foil in the form of foil vinyl. ding ding ding!
I was having fun a while back doing some pencil sketches and had drawn a set of floral illustrations. (I used pinterest as a source of inspiration but drew them myself so no copyright laws violated!)
How I Turn my Illustrations into Cut Files
There are ways to use all sorts of vectorization software but for this project, I pay for a service called Vector Magic.
I use Vector Magic because it is fully automated and works better than Adobe or the free stuff for more intricate images.
In any case, I just sketched in pencil. Took a picture on my phone, then uploaded it to Vector Magic and then I had an SVG cut file to use with my Cricut!
There’s a little bit of clean up work to do once in design space. You have to delete every scrap except for the make illustration. But I think the whole thing took like 5 minutes.
In any case, for those of you interested in just making the cards…
Recommended Materials for Gilded Cards
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Cardstock – For vinyl on paper, I like using non-textured cardstock because it sticks better with the transfer paper. Otherwise, especially with intricate designs, the vinyl doesn’t stick to the paper.
- Assorted Starter Pack – Basic assorted colors, great starter pack, perfect weight for most papercraft projects
- Cricut Joy Insert Card Packs – You don’t have to use these with the Cricut Joy, they are nice material kids for cardmaking.
- Cardstock Warehouse Brand on Amazon – I love the quality of all the matte-colored cardstock with Cardstock Warehouse. It is my go-to brand for individual matte colors that I might need
- Poptone Assorted Variety Pack – This is the perfect peppy assortment of colors of heavy cardstock. It’s a heavy cardstock assortment with colors I actually use frequently for cardmaking.
- Seasonal Assorted Variety Pack – This is a slight variation on the Poptone assortment and has a quite few neutrals that complement almost any accent color.
- Stardream Metallics Line – For paper crafts, the Stardream line is the go-to for a metallic shimmer finish. It is the perfect sheen to make any project pop. The core is also colored is which hard to find for metallic paper.
Vinyl – I bought an assorted set of vinyl that included a glossy gold and silver sheet.
Transfer Paper – Its kind of necessary for this project. I use Amazon’s Choice Transfer paper and it worked great for this project.
Cutting Machine – I use a Cricut. Check out my recommendations for Cricut machines and accessories for beginners for more info.
Templates – I’ve included both the card and a set of 3 hand drawn illustrations in this kit available in my resource library.
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Tips for Making these Gilded Floral Cards
Step 1: Cut out the vinyl and card base
Step 2: Weed the vinyl. I usually do this in 2 steps. First I get the big background piece off. Where it meets the junction points of the floral drawing, I sometimes just rip it off so it doesn’t pick up the smaller pieces of the floral drawing.
I then weed the small pieces. Sometimes if I lost a small piece, I use a weeded piece as a replacement.
Step 3: Transfer vinyl to transfer sheet.
You can do the foil transfer in one go or alternatively, you can layer on designs and create different artwork with the same template.
Step 4: Fold the Card base
I don’t bother putting score lines in my card templates because it confuses people and never lines up properly. I just fold and scrap with my scraper.
Step 5: Transfer vinyl on transfer sheet to card
Optional watercolors:
I love love love watercolor pens, they make any novice watercolor painter look like a pro. While you can paint on medium weight cardstock, if you’re going to make a bunch of these, I’d highly recommend getting dedicated watercolor paper. This is the exact kind I used.
Another way to achieve a similar look is to use the Cricut Foil kit. I have a more detailed tutorial here if you’re interested in foil projects.
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I signed up several times, I know the password is “home”, but can’t click on anything to download you cards. I am new to this and would love to try to make some of your amazing things. What am I doing wrong? Am I supposed to sign up for every purple thing I see? Thanks for your help in advance.
Louise