Hot foil butterfly cards are a lovely way to add colour and shine to your handmade cards. In this week’s Facebook and YouTube Live, I revisited the Stampin’ Hot Foil System and shared how to create colourful butterflies using the Butterflies Flight Dies and coordinating Decorative Masks.
I’ve been enjoying experimenting with the Hot Foil System since it was released, and this time I wanted to show how you can combine foiling with ink blending to create some lovely effects.
We explored several ways to use the foiled butterflies, including leaving them on the cardstock, cutting them out for added dimension and using the leftover foil to create another set of butterflies.
Creating Hot Foil Butterfly Cards with the Butterflies Flight Dies
The Butterflies Flight Dies are designed to work with the Stampin’ Hot Foil System and include five different butterfly designs. The coordinating dies allow you to cut out all five butterflies together, while the Decorative Masks make adding colour to the butterflies much easier.
For my first samples, I chose a combination of orange and yellow using Timid Tiger, Daffodil Delight and Calypso Coral inks.
I don’t often choose these colours for my cards, as I tend to favour blues and pinks, but I was pleased with how they turned out!
During the Live, I changed to Balmy Blue, Fresh Freesia and Azure Afternoon, combined with pink foil. It’s interesting how different the same butterflies look simply by changing the foil and ink colours.
Adding Colour to Hot Foiled Butterflies
One of the things I particularly like about the Butterflies Flight Dies is that you don’t have to spend ages colouring each butterfly individually.
The coordinating Decorative Masks allow you to add several colours using Blending Brushes. By layering the different masks, you gradually build up the colour and detail on the butterfly wings.
I used three of the four masks to create my butterflies, starting with a lighter colour and adding darker shades for more definition.
This is a technique I particularly enjoy because it is relatively quick, and you can achieve some lovely results without having to colour every small section by hand.
The foil outlines also add a lovely finishing touch.
Get More from Your Hot Foil with the Reverse Hot Foil Plate
Another feature of the Stampin’ Hot Foil System that I wanted to demonstrate was the Reverse Hot Foil Plate.
After foiling the butterfly outlines, you are left with a piece of foil containing the remaining butterfly shapes. Rather than throwing this away, you can use the Reverse Hot Foil Plate to transfer the remaining foil onto another piece of cardstock.
This gives you a completely different look from the original foiled image.
For example, my gold foil butterflies have a white outline with a beautiful gold finish. I cut these out and arranged three of them across an embossed panel, layered over torn Secret Sea cardstock.
I particularly like this technique because you can create two different sets of butterflies from the same piece of foil.
The reverse foiling doesn’t always come out perfectly, but even if there are a few small imperfections, you can often still use the images on your cards.
Different Ways to Use Your Foiled Butterflies
Once you’ve created your butterflies, there are several ways you can use them.
For one of my orange cards, I left all five butterflies on the original foiled panel and added a simple greeting. This is an easy way to create a card without needing to cut out each butterfly.
For the other cards, I die-cut the butterflies and arranged three on the front of each card, saving the remaining two to decorate the inside.
I attached the butterflies mainly through their bodies so the wings could lift slightly, adding dimension to the cards.
I also used an embossed floral background to provide some texture without taking attention away from the butterflies.
Both approaches work well, and you can decide which you prefer depending on the look you want to achieve.
Hot Foil Butterflies in Blue and Pink
During the Live, I created this card using pink foil and a combination of Balmy Blue, Fresh Freesia and Azure Afternoon inks. I love how the different colours blend together to create the detail on the butterfly wings.One of the great things about the Stampin’ Hot Foil System is that you can also use the leftover foil. Using the Reverse Hot Foil Plate, I transferred the remaining pink foil onto another piece of cardstock.
This gives me a second set of butterflies, which I can cut out and use on another card later
You can see how I’ve used this same reverse foiling technique to create the gold butterfly card shown earlier.
Watch the Stampin’ Hot Foil System in Action
If you’ve been wondering how the Stampin’ Hot Foil System works, I encourage you to watch the video below.
I demonstrate how to use the machine with the Butterflies Flight Dies, share some tips for getting a good foil transfer and show how to use the Reverse Hot Foil Plate.
You’ll also see how I add colour using the Decorative Masks and turn the finished butterflies into cards.
The Stampin’ Hot Foil System works alongside the full-size Stampin’ Cut & Emboss Machine, so you will need both machines for this technique.
Supplies Used for These Hot Foil Butterfly Cards
The main products featured in this week’s Live were the Stampin’ Hot Foil System, Butterflies Flight Dies, coordinating Decorative Masks, Reverse Hot Foil Plate and foil rolls.
I also used Blending Brushes, ink pads, cardstock, an embossing folder and foiled greetings to complete the cards.
You can see the products used here:
Give Hot Foiling a Try
The Stampin’ Hot Foil System offers plenty of possibilities for adding something different to your handmade cards. Whether you prefer the colourful butterflies with their delicate foil outlines or the more solid metallic finish created with the Reverse Hot Foil Plate, there are lots of ways to experiment.
If you’d like to see another way to use the Hot Foil System, you can also take a look at my earlier blog post featuring hot foil card designs in Old Olive and Secret Sea.
I hope these hot foil butterfly cards have given you some inspiration and encouraged you to try different foil colours, backgrounds and card layouts.
Which do you prefer – the blue and pink butterflies, the orange and yellow combination, or the gold foil butterflies?
I’d love to hear which is your favourite. Please leave a comment below, and if you have any questions about the Stampin’ Hot Foil System, please let me know.