Fall Birthday Card with Therm O Web Distressed Foil Leaves

Today is the birthday of a treasured friend and I made this special card for her with some of the gorgeous new Gina K Fancy Foils from Therm O Web that I recently received and some other Gina K foil products as well. I saw this video by Gracie on how to make crackled foiled leaves on the Therm O Web blog and couldn't wait to give the technique a try with my new Radiant Red and Glittering Green Gina K Fancy Foils. Watching her video would be the best way to see how these crackled foiled leaves are done, but basically she applied a layer of Deco Foil Transfer Gel on die cut leaves and let that dry thoroughly. Then she wrinkled up a piece of Deco Foil many times, laid it on the die cut leaf and ran it through a hot laminator. Then she laid another color of Deco Foil on top of the leaf die cut and ran it through the laminator again.

My first few attempts were no where as pretty as Gracie's in her video (mine has lots of white spots after doing to two step process) and so I reached out to her for suggestions as to what I might have done wrong. She suggested I might have needed a thicker coat of Transfer Gel and as you will see tomorrow and Thursday, her suggestion worked! But I sponged green and red dye ink on the white spots of my leaves and I decided I liked the distressed look. I tied four leaves together and attached the bunch over a beautifully foiled Petite Patterns strip from Gina K Designs on a kraft card. I added a die cut acorn from Tonic Studios and a perfect stamped sentiment from Rubbernecker. Here is a close up of the distressed foiled leaves:

I foiled a beautiful Birthday Essentials Happy Birthday from Gina K. Designs Foil-Mates for Therm O Web with my new Radiant Red Fancy Foils for the inside of the card. I wish you could see the glitter and shine of these new Fancy Foils! All of the foiled elements on this card just sparkle when the card is moved and still photos do not do them justice. 

I am wishing my dear friend Gail a sparkly fall happy birthday with this special card. Be sure to stop back Thursday and Friday for more Gina K. and Therm O Web cards and watch for a series of new YouTube videos soon featuring them in Christmas fun fold cards I have made. Thanks for helping me #share the joy of creativity!

I am entering this card in the NBUS challenge at Darnell's blog here. The Fancy Foils and Petite Patterns from Gina K and Therm O Web are NBUS (never before used schtuff.)