The Greetery - 2022 Graduation Card

Happy Saturday!

Today, I gave a graduation card to share.  This card started a whole obsession.  It all started when a craft company called The Greetery had this 2022 Graduation Bundle 50% off in April.  It was quite the bundle - sentiment stamps, die, hot foil plate and 3 stencils. The "Congrats, Grad" is from the sentiment stamp set, red is the die cut, the silver 2022 is done with a hot foil plate and the silver stars uses one of the stencils and silver embossing paste.

So, I received the bundle within a couple days and played the die cuts and stenciling...but the hot foil plate - I wasn't sure what to do with that plate.  I have the Spellbinders Platinum die cutting machine.  Spellbinders makes the Glimmer Hot Foil machine, so I ended up researching and purchasing it.  

I spent about a week watching how to videos on YouTube and taking notes on tips, techniques, the best cardstock to use and how to get great results. 

Hot foiling uses a combination of heat and pressure to transfer the foil to the cardstock.  The Glimmer machine has a base plate that you heat which replaces you normal die cut base.  You heat the metal plate on the glimmer base, add spellbinder foil, then your cardstock and 2 glimmer plates to the sandwich. Then run the heated sandwich through the Spellbinders Platinum die cut machine.  Here is a short video showing the Hot Foil process. 

My machine works great without extra cardstock shims or anything other than the plates provided.  Every machine is different, so I was excited I didn't have any experimentation...it just worked.  And...the obsession began.  

The cardstock recommended online is white Hammermill 110 lb cardstock.  It is not very expensive and works great for hot foil.  You need a very smooth cardstock for a good transfer.  I had already made the red die cut using PTI Pure Poppy cardstock.  It is a heavy and smooth cardstock, so just used it and it worked really well.  I have lots of PTI cardstock so I look forward to trying more colored cardstock in the future.  

I made quite a few cards using hot foil, which I will post in the coming months.  Next week, I will post the Mother's day card I made with a hot foil border and sentiment.

Until next week, thanks for stopping by...

Blessings,

Deb