Watercoloring Hot Foiled Press Plate Images with Emily! | Creativity Unlocked

Hi friends! Emily Midgett here with you today, and I have some inspiration using the beautiful new Blossoming Apple Press Plate. 

Welcome to Creativity Unlocked, where we highlight a new product from each month's collection or a fan favorite from past collections!

Press Plates have such versatility; they can be used as intended to create beautifully detailed letterpress images, as well as to create debossed texture on your card panels, but they also work splendidly as hot foil plates. The coating on the plates themselves seems to enhance the hot foil capabilities, and the amount of details included in Press Plate illustrations is exquisite. I used the new Champagne Mirror Hot Foil Roll to create this intricate and delicate foiled image. Let's get started with the details!

Hot Foiling with the Press Plate

I started by hot foiling the Blossoming Apple Press Plate onto some Altenew Hot Press watercolor paper using the new Champagne Mirror Hot Foil Roll. The intricate lines of this Press Plate are transferred beautifully onto the watercolor paper.

I've had great results hot foiling on both hot and cold pressed watercolor paper; if you haven't tried it and love to watercolor, I highly encourage you to give it a go!

The watercolor paper has a similar texture and weight to traditional letterpress paper and works just as beautifully.

Watercoloring the Foiled Press Plate Images

After I had hot foiled the image in the center of my A7 panel of watercolor paper, I taped the image down to my watercolor board and pulled out the beautiful Artistry by Altenew Watercolor Tubes. I prefer to put tube watercolors into half pans and allow them to dry, as I feel like this allows me better control of the intensity of the pigment being put down on my paper. I watercolored the gorgeous apple branch image, using plenty of water to create lots of bright highlights and adding a lovely, hazy blue sky behind the branch.

Once I had completed my watercoloring, I allowed it to dry while still taped to my watercolor board in order to minimize warping. Once the painting was bone dry and nice and flat, I trimmed the panel down and mounted it on a creamy A7 card base with some liquid adhesive.

Adding Witty & Punny Sentiments

I don't normally love punny sentiments, but I thought that the sentiments included in the Blossoming Apple Press Plate set were super cute and not terribly corny. I hot foiled the sentiments onto some white cardstock, again using Champagne Mirror Hot Foil Roll, then trimmed them out and added them with Instant Dimension Foam Tape for a bit of extra height and interest on this otherwise-flat card. For a bit of extra shine, I added a shiny champagne twine bow and a smattering of creamy gems from the Red Jasper Gem Sparkles set.

Well, that's all for my project today. I highly encourage you to try out hot foiling on watercolor paper with your press plates. The results are so crisp and lovely!

Got any questions about this technique? Comment below!

Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!

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