Playing Cards with Pinkfresh Studios & Michele

Hello friends.  Back with a fun post today using a FEW of the goodies I received from PINKFRESH STUDIOS back in July after winning their GRAND PRIZE July Release!  Yep, they sent everything from their whole release that month to me...absolutely FREE!  And it was a BIG release!  LOTS of stamps, stencils, dies, foil plates, & even their little silver and gold gems!  It definitely pays to play along with their giveaways each month!  Somebody's gonna win, and I was the lucky one in July!  Of course I do need to give credit to my sweet friend Michele who texted me to let me know my name was listed as the grand prize winner, otherwise I would probably have missed the 2 week deadline to email them (I had a lot going on this Summer with my cancer scare and just wasn't keeping up with much in blogland!) and forfeited the prize!  Thanks Michele for looking out for me!!  

Because there were so many of the hot foil plates in the prize, I invested in one of the Spellbinder Hot Foil machines...I love the look of the foil on the cards, but there is definitely a learning curve to using them!  Michele and I both struggled a bit, but after a few tries (well ok, maybe more than a few!) we got the hang of foiling, and each have a few cards to share with you today.

I started with the Small Butterflies and the Daisy Wreath to come up with this card...

Here's a close up so you can see the silver foiling better...

The shine is so different from embossing with silver...super shiny and so pretty!  I had already had the Daisy Wreath stencil and die, but part of the prize was the matching foil plate...what a beautiful touch it adds to the wreath!!  The little butterfly was also foiled with silver, and then stenciled and die cut.  My background is also a PFS stencil...Argyle.

Another foil plate included in the prize was this Thankful for Friends which I foiled in gold, and then stenciled and die cut before adding to a Spellbinders hot foil frame that I also did in gold.  (Don't look too closely...I was still learning when I used the frame!)

Isn't it so pretty in the deep reds and the gold foiling?!  I pop dotted it to my frame and card base, and also added a few of the gold gems that were part of the prize package.  (The sentiment is part of the stamp set Thankful for Friends)

My next two cards use a background stamp (Sweet Blooms) that I already had, but part of the prize was the matching hot foil plate.  I foiled the plate in silver and had to try several times before I got one that was acceptable to me.  I think the larger the plate, the more room there is for extra foil to appear...grrrr!  I have learned that a sand eraser is a very valuable tool to have on hand at this point as it does a really good job of removing extra foil from spots you didn't want foiled!  There is a matching stencil for this design, but I don't have it, so I just used my Copics to color the leaves and flowers.

Here you can see the shine a bit better.  I also added some WOS to the purple flowers, and a few purple gemstones, so this card really does sparkle and shine!

My last card uses the same background stamp as the last card (Sweet Blooms) that I foiled in gold this time.  Because a good portion of this one was over foiled with gold smudges everywhere, I cut the panel down, and still came up with a really pretty card!

I colored in the leaves and flowers again with my Copics, and then added a small die cut wreath (Leafy Circle which I die cut 3 times and stacked for dimension and colored with the same Copic YG03), and also another one of the Small Butterflies that I foiled in gold.  The Leafy Circle and butterfly also helped to cover up some of the gold foil smudges.  Even though this card started out not looking so great, I think it turned out really pretty after I doctored it all up!

A big, BIG THANK YOU to PINKFRESH STUDIOS for their so very generous prize to me...I am still so blown away by your generosity and kindness!!  Make sure you check out too what Michele did with the Small Butterflies and the first Butterflies set with the foiling...you'll be blown away by her color choices!!  I know this was a loooooong post, so thanks for sticking with me to the end!!  :0)  

Thanks for stopping by today ... I love it when you do!