Silhouette has taken the foil craze to a whole new level! Have you seen the new Foil Transfer Sheets? This new foil material is pressure sensitive, so you don’t have to deal with heat, adhesives, or any extra materials. It’s perfect for the Silhouette Curio™’s emboss fill feature, which is what I’m going to share with you today.

Supplies Needed:

Step One: Create Design

  • Set page size to 4 in. x 5.25 in. for the front piece of the card. Make sure you also select the correct Curio cutting mat (8.5 in. x 6 in). You’ll find both in the Page Setup Panel (top icon on the right side of your screen in v4).
  • Open the watercolor flower design, ungroup it, and remove its cut outline. Resize to approximately 3.7 in. wide x 4.9 in. high, and position it in the center of your document. (See the image above to find your scale options in the Transform Panel.)
  • Open the thank you phrase, resize to approximately 3.6 in. wide x 2.5 in. high, and position it over the watercolor flower.

Step Two: Convert To Solid Fill

  • Select the thank you phrase and open your Emboss Panel (only available with Curio).
  • In the first tab of the Emboss Panel, choose:
    • Deboss
    • Spiral Embossing pattern
    • Spacing 0.005 in.
    • (Note: You can choose a different fill, but make sure it’s a tight fill (small spacing) if you want the text to look filled in and not see individual lines inside.)
  • Reposition the flower and phrase so they look centered and balanced (see image above).

Step Three: Print

Now let’s print and trim down the watercolor flower.

  • In the Page Setup Panel, set your page size to the watercolor paper for your printer (i.e. letter size), but don’t move the designs. This is a temporary page-size change for our next step.
  • Print the page onto watercolor paper.
  • (Note: Don’t worry about registration marks because this is not super precise; we’re just going to trim it down to be smaller than the card front. Curio’s precise loading will get it close enough. The text will not print; only the flower.)
  • Trim the printed page down to 4 in. x 5.25 in.
  • Set the page size once again to 4 in. x 5.25 in., but don’t move the designs.

Step Four: Add Foil

Prepare to emboss:

  • Optional: Create reference rectangle for foil; mine is 4 in. wide x 3 in. tall. Use the drawing tool and the Scale option to resize exactly.
  • Use the Move options to position rectangle so it encompasses the thank you phrase and is also easy to position by hand when ready to emboss (aligned with left and bottom edges is the easiest here). I set mine to “Move Corner To” X = 0 in., Y = 2.25 in.
  • (Tip: Drag tiny blue square in Move Panel so it’s in the upper left corner.)

  • Turn off cut lines for the rectangle that represents the foil by selecting it and choosing No Cut/No Emboss under Tool 1 in the Send Panel.

  • Cut foil into 4 in. x 3 in. (exactly the dimension of your rectangle)
  • Place the printed watercolor flower on the Curio mat as shown on your virtual mat. (Platforms = 6 when working with a regular cutting mat and thin paper.)
  • Place trimmed foil transfer piece onto the watercolor flower, metallic side up, so that it’s in the same position as the reference rectangle (aligned with left edge and bottom edge). It’s tacky, so when you press it down against your paper it will hold in place. Be sure to remove the protective barrier piece.

  • Load the Curio mat into the machine.
  • Open the Send Panel:
    • We’re only using Tool 1, so the lines to be embossed should be showing filled red. We do not want the small rectangle to cut, so be sure that no bold lines are showing except for the foil design. (See image below.)
    • Place the emboss tool in the Tool 1 holder. (The white emboss tool in the holder is indicated by a red circle.)
    • Tool 1 settings:
      • For your material, select Foil, Embossable.
      • For your action, select Emboss.
      • For your tool, select Embossing Tool (Fine) .
      • By choosing these settings, you should get Speed 5, Force 33, and 1 Pass.

  • Click Send.

Step 5: Tidy Up The Foil

  • When the design comes out, slowly peel away the Foil Transfer Sheet to reveal the foil design. (See image below.)

  • Clean up any extra bits of foil, especially in the letter centers by pressing down a light-tack masking tape or transfer tape against the design to lift off the excess foil. (See image below.)
  • (Tip: Make the tape less tacky by dabbing it against your clothing before using, and avoid pressing the same area repeatedly against your finished design.)

  • Attach the foiled watercolor printout to a card front and watch it shine!

This material is pretty exciting, and I’ve already got a list of projects I want to use it for. What you do want to use this foil transfer for?