Foil-Mates Blog Hop, Day 1

Hi Everyone!

I have to tell you, this new line with ThermOWeb™ has been over a year in the making! I first came out with  FOIL-MATES™ a long time ago under the name FOILABLES™ when I first started putting them in my StampTV kits. (That was two moves and three warehouses ago!) 

Some time after that, ThermOWeb™ contacted me and we began a year long process putting together this entire line that is now the FOIL-MATES™ brand!

We wanted to make sure that all the retail stores had a chance to get the product into your hands before we carried in our online store. And now, you can also buy it from us at www.ginakdesigns.com!

I am so beyond grateful to all of the wonderful bloggers, YouTubers and card designers who have created projects and shared them all over social media! I am having a difficult time keeping up with all the posts and thanking each of them indivdually! But from the bottom of my heart, I am so thankful. I am also so grateful to Scott, Lorin, Dawn, Sharon, Julia, Sue, Kat, Joe, and the entire staff at ThermOWeb™ for all their help in launching this line. I wouldn't have known where to start with something this huge! And the stuff that's in the works? Hold on to your hat!

But for today, the design team is ready to show you all kind of things you can do with the FOIL-MATES™ brand! Today, I am going to once again share this one minute hyper-speed video with you because you really have to know how easy it is to do this! And then, I will be working on advanced foiling technique videos to share with you throughout the month of May. (There is a lot more you can do with all of this stuff than just make the cards you've seen so far!)

I am so excited to share my brand new line with Therm O Web! Come visit me at booth 513 at the Creativations Show in Phoenix this week to see the entire line! I will also have more peeks throughout the weekend! Someone pinch me! For full video, visit this link on YouTube or search StampTV on YouTube! https://youtu.be/twdIcdU5PPU #decofoil #thermoweb #ginakdesigns #stamptv #foilmates

A post shared by Gina K. Designs (@ginakdesigns) on Jan 18, 2017 at 9:21am PST

I wanted to break down the line into sections so you can see what it is and how it works together.

FOIL-MATES™

The heart and soul of this line is in these fun pre-printed designs. These FOIL-MATES™ were designed and printed for card makers and paper crafters who love to craft but really don't want to run out and buy special printers or design patterns themselves. Although you can use items you print on a laser printer yourself with any of the Deco-Foil™, these are printed with a super high quality toner from a commercial machine that I could actually live in because it's so big and powerful.

The machines are also set to print using a ridiculously dense setting, unlike your local copy store, so there is a much more concentrated amount of toner on these sheets. (Remember, you local copy store is trying to save money on toner, so if you've gotten spotty results making patterns yourself, it could just be that there isn't enough toner on your card stock.)

Quality card stock is another fabulous feature of this product. We print these on the best, smoothest card stock you'll ever find. We use the Gina K. Designs white card stock so the FOIL-MATES™ will not be bumpy or textured at all. That helps the foiling process a lot! AND, the white will match all of your other part of your card if you use the Gina K. Designs white card stock. (And we all know there are a million different shades of white. Just try to match the paint on your white walls and you'll know what I mean.)

These background designs are so fun and can be used for all different occasions! You can also customize them with water based inks like the Gina K. Designs ink cubes. You can also use watercolor paints, alcohol and water based markers, and more prior to adding your foil. So each project can be unique!

There are two different types of focal image sets.

The Sentiments are perfect for Birthdays, Weddings, Anniversaries, Friendship and Support.

The Invitations are great for Birthday Parties, New Years Eve get-togethers, Retirement Parties, Weddings, Showers and of course, Save the Dates! What bride wouldn't love a foiled Save the Date card or Wedding invitation? And you can use the inside FOIL-MATES™ pieces for all the details or you can create them yourself using a laser printer and foil them to match when using the Gina K. Designs Fancy Foils™ or other Deco-foil™ products!

I love the foil colors in this collection!

These colors are exclusive to the Gina K. Designs palette and match perfectly with our card stock, ink pads, ink cubes, reinkers and envelopes! And the Gold and Silver Sequins are a must! They add so much to both bold and delicate background and sentiments. They look just like sparkling diamonds and diamond cut gold!


The ribbon in this line is an old Gina K. Designs favorite and one I could no longer get! But Scott, from ThermOWeb™ found a way to get it custom made for me and now we can all have this beautiful ribbon whenever we want! All you really need is black and white because you can colorize the white to be any Gina K. Designs color with ink pads, ink cubes, alcohol markers or reinkers!

One of the most challenging parts of this collection for me was developing and designing the dies. I wanted to do something that everyone would love but would be a bit unique as well.

Everyone loves stitched dies, especially me! So instead of trying to decide between single stitched and double stitched, I did both. But I made the single stitched versions, 1/8" larger so when you layer them together, you can get a beautiful, thin, shadow layer behind your focal image layer. So these dies are awesome for all your stamped images too!

Instead of nesting all the way down to the dies that you lose on your carpet somewhere, I decided to do the top three sizes to match the FOIL-MATES™ and then add other fun shapes inside. You can cut these shapes with toner paper, patterned paper or card stock and stamp, glitter, flock, foil, and embellish them anyway you want!

I have some fun cards coming for you that feature these different die shapes so stay tuned for that as well!

Here are many of the cards  I have made featuring the FOIL-MATES™ line.

and here are two of my favorites using technique I demonstrated in this video.

So now it's time for day one of foiled inspiration from the team! 

As you go through the blogs, leave a comment on each one along with way because we will be picking a winner from all the comments who will win a $50 gift certificate to the Gina K. Designs online store!

Start hopping here:

Cathy Tidwell

Chris Dayton
Juliana Michaels
Karen Hightower
Melanie Muenchinger  

Rema DeLeeuw
Sean Fetterman
Sheri Gilson
Susie Moore

Theresa Momber

I hope you've enjoyed today's hop! You can get all of these products now at your local retailer, many online retailers, Thermoweb.com and now at our online store at www.ginakdesigns.com.

Make it a great day and SHINE ON!
Hugs,
Gina K.