Foil Stamping Technique with Guest Artist Christine Adolph
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Guest Artist Christine Adolph stops by Somerset Place today to share one of her favorite foil techniques, along with a step-by-step tutorial, and design board from when she originally pitched the idea for her successful Fresh Flowers Stamp Collection. Christine Adolph has designed five exclusive art stamp collections for Stampington & Company, and has also been published in Somerset Apprentice, Somerset Studio, Take Ten, and many more.
Hi All, My name is Christine Adolph and what an honor to get invited to share one of my favorite foil techniques here at Somerset Place. I am a licensed artist and I design fabrics, stationary, calendars, journals, tableware, scrapbook products, gift and home décor items for various manufacturers.
Some of you may be familiar with a few of the stamp lines I’ve designed over the years for Stampington & Company (Fresh Flowers, Shorecliff, Garden Melange, Romance and Christmas Found). It seems like yesterday that I fell in love with Somerset Studio. It was around 2002 or 2003, I was a stay-at-home mom with two small children, and my husband came home from work one evening, and as usual I quickly escaped for a “mommy break” to the craft store. That night, I stumbled across a copy of Somerset Studio, and the clouds parted and the angels sang because I had found my “people” and I couldn’t wait to get home and email them to introduce myself. I lived 20 minutes from their offices and I knew I needed to meet them, I just had to connect with these artists who loved collage art techniques and vintage ephemera like I did.
To my surprise, they emailed me back and invited me to visit. I began writing articles and as time went on I asked if I could present a concept board for some floral stamp designs (Fresh Flowers). Those stamps were the beginning of my art licensing career. The Fresh Flowers stamps are among my most favorite products I’ve ever designed (and I’ve designed a lot!). I still use them all the time and the stamps are prominently displayed in my studio.
When I was asked to guest blog, I decided to dig around my garage and dust off my original “Fresh Flowers” design board that I used in my presentation to the company oh so long ago, I thought the readers might like to see it too. It’s a little bit faded and tattered, but full of sentiment for me.
I discovered foil around the same time as I discovered Somerset Studio and the foil techniques have become a signature element in a lot of my work over the past decade. I’m excited to share this fun technique for adding some sparkle to your art.
Foil Stamping Technique
Step 1
Stamp watercolor paper with Button Mum stamp using watermark ink.
Step 2
Using a spray bottle, wet watercolor paper lightly with water. While the paper is wet drop concentrated watercolor onto background. Be careful not to over work it, but to allow the water to do the work.
Step 3
Allow colors to dry and naturally bleed and blend together.
Step 4
Once the paper is dry, stamp Button Mum with clear embossing ink over watercolor background. Sprinkle your favorite brand of Sticky Emboss Powder over the embossing ink, pour excess powder back into jar. Use a heat emboss tool to heat the stamped image and melt the powder. This will create a sticky-to-touch clear image.
Step 5
Place gold foil (shiny or color side up) over sticky embossed image. Use a small craft iron on medium heat to lightly iron the foil to the sticky embossed image.
Allow to fully cool and peel off foil to reveal the foiled image
NOTE: The most beautiful thing to me about art is the “process” and making discoveries and I encourage you to be open to this in your creating. There will be surprises and sometimes the foil will adhere cleanly and perfectly, and sometimes it will be more textured and imperfect. I embrace all imperfections and in fact prefer more of a rough textured application of foil. Keep experimenting to find the style that works best for you.
We have a saying at my studio: “Everything is better with FOIL.” I hope you agree!
Thanks for letting me pop in and share some tips here.
XO-
Christine
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Having lived close to the ocean her whole life, Christine Adolph has been inspired to infuse natural elements from the coastal flora and fauna into many of her designs and artwork. You can explore Christine’s exclusive stamp collections — Fresh Flowers, Romance, Shorecliff, Christmas Found, and Garden Mélange — by clicking here.
Posted: Friday, September 18th, 2015 @ 10:47 am
Categories: How-To Project Tutorials, Mixed-Media Art.
Tags: Christine Adolph, DIY, foil, Guest Artist, How-To, Inspiration, stamping, techniques, watercolor.
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Lovely and informative. I am delighted to see all this beauty by Christine! Christine, you’re so awesome!
Thanks for a great article!
jean
This is lovely! I am not understanding why you would stamp with the watermark in Step 1 ?
The watermark ink resists the watercolor in the next step, leaving a very subtle watermark on the paper of the mums.
How fun this was to read! I loved reading your journey with Stampington, I own many of your stamps and have used them for years.
Thanks for sharing.
AMAZING work, Christine. I just love this embossed, foil stamping technique that you shared. Stampington is so lucky that you chose to show it to our blog followers.
When are you going to submit more designs for a new stamp line with us?!
Thanks for the beautiful, informative tutorial.
Best,
Jordan (jburnier@stampington.com)
Stampington & Company
Oh how pretty! I love this technique shown and will definitely be trying it myself, thank you.
New to stamping , and although I understand what a watermark is in general, I don’t understand the significance of step 1. Please comment :)
That particular ink causes the watercolor to resist slightly, leaving a very subtle image of the mums in the background to add some dimension. It is just barely visible in the pictures.
Thank you Christine for sharing you technique. I definitely will be trying this! I love the results!
Very pretty, but, I don’t understand the purpose of Step 1.
Step 1 Creates a watermark that will resist the ink. It’s a very subtle detail.
Thanks so much Jean, I appreciate your comments. xo Christine
Jordan, thanks for the opportunity to share with your audience. I really appreciate it. xo Christine
Hi Barbara, I hope you try the technique and love it as much as I do. Foil is the BEST! xo Christine
Love this technique! Can’t wait to try it! Thanks for sharing <3
I have foil in several, actually quite a few colors. They’ve never been out of the package but now I know what I can do with it. I’m a beginner, well about a year now but my time has competition with Bible study and an order of women at my church. So sometimes it’s hard to spend the time I would like to on my art. Your art is beautiful and I absolutely love the colors and the gold does the rest. Thank you so much for the idea, I hope you have some videos on UTube but I will check it out and see. God bless, you are so talented.
Thank you so much! I know, it can be difficult to find time to create with all the other fun activities of life to compete with. I’m so glad you found a tutorial that can use your foil!
What kind of foil did you use? Gold leaf sheets or the paper crafting foils? Is there a specific brand because the one I tried didn’t transfer well? Beautiful piece!!!
Thank you. I can’t see it in the pics but, they are lovely.
I’ve not heard of the concentrated watercolor in the bottles that you used. Can you give more information on them (i.e. Manufacturer and name)?
Your art here is stunning! Love how the gold looks so rich on top of the beautiful color theme.
Christine Adolph used Luma Watercolor Inks for her background.
These are paper crafting foils, but I believe gold leaf would work as well. The sticky embossing powder bonds with the material, so there are quite a few products that it can be used with.