Looking to get a little more out of your cover plate dies? Me too! As far as dies go, they tend to be on the more expensive side, so I’m always looking for ways to do more with mine. This may not be news to you at this point, but one really fun way to do this is by using them like hot foil plates. Today I’ve got 2 card projects to share that feature hot foiling with a cover plate die, one with more subtle and one with much more obvious foil details.
First things first: The cover die. For these cards I used the Catherine Pooler Cosmic Cover Plate, which features really pretty little circular patterns that I used sans-foil here. This time, I paired it with shiny gold foil and created the impression the way I would with a regular hot foil plate, heating it on my Glimmer platform, then running it through my Big Shot machine. Thankfully, the foiling gods were on my side and this left a super clean impression on my A2 piece of Hammermill cardstock.
While I had all of my supplies out, I grabbed the Pinkfresh Studio solid hot foil plate and my leftover foil to create the reverse impression on another piece of cardstock. As you can see in the photos, this resulted in a much shinier background, but again, with that Cosmic Cover Plate design.
If you’ve done much foiling in the past, you’ll know it can be part art and part science. I’ve found the key to reverse foiling successfully seems to be letting the solid hot foil plate (regardless of brand) heat up a LOT before adding the foil and cardstock. The Glimmer machine doesn’t have various heat settings, so my usual process is to leave my plate on the hot platform for about 2 minutes before adding my foil and cardstock, then starting the timer. Once the timer finishes, an extra pass through my die cutting machine never seems to hurt either, just to ensure that there was enough pressure applied. Of course, what’s right will vary from machine to machine, so definitely let yourself do some experimenting and be sure to write down what works!
The strawberries you see here were leftover from the Strawberry Fields card + gift box duo that I made here earlier this month, so I won’t spend much time talking about the process. (You’ll find the details and all products used here.) Suffice it to say that I’m always very grateful when I’ve got leftover die cuts ready to go! For each card, I paired a little strawberry cluster with a set of leaves, then layered them under sentiments created with the Essentials by Ellen You die, Nice of You and All About You stamp sets.
I hope this post has encouraged you to think about those cover plate dies in your stash, and how you might try using them as hot foil plates. If you decide to give it a try, be sure to tag me in your creations on Instagram @mycraftyperspective. I can’t wait to see what you make!
