Chris' Review	Penny's Review	Karen's Review	Renee's Review	Terri's Review

Review by Chris

I am always on the lookout for fun, easy techniques and products that give my layouts and projects a little “Wow” effect, and I now have a new favorite - Fabulous Foil! from Crafta Frame. Adhering a release foil using an adhesive product is not a new concept. But the selection of colors and the length of the foil strips provided in the Crafta Frame product set it apart from others in the market place.

I received one package of Fabulous Foil! and a Zig Memory System 2-way glue pen. The foil pack includes 8 colors: silver, green, blue, red, pink, purple, gold and copper. Each color comes in a 2 inch strip that is 20 inches long. That’s a lotta foil!!! The Zig pen is one of the preferred ways of applying the foil. With the pen, you have the freedom to design anything you want – lines, shapes, outlines and solids. After drawing your shape with the glue pen, you must let the glue dry completely or the foil will not release properly. Once totally dry, the glue has some “tack” to which the foil will stick. You place the foil, shiny side UP, on top of the glue and rub with your finger. No other tool is required. That’s when the magic happens. The foil transfers to your drawn design perfectly. There are no stray strings or streamers or irregular edges. If you miss a spot, you just put the foil back on, rub again, and voila! The spot is covered and you cannot see the “seam.” The hardest part in the whole process is waiting for the glue to be completely dry – that requires patience! I love the length of these strips, because now I can design a pattern on a full 12x12 layout and apply the foil without repositioning the strip. I’m all about quick and easy!

For my first project, I wanted to test the glue and foil on a non-paper product. I had a wood decorator item that I picked up at a craft store for $1. It’s cute, but plain with just a coat of paint and it clearly needed some pizzazz. Using the Zig glue pen, I drew freehand hearts and scattered dots around them; I waited for the glue to dry and applied the foil. So easy. With the addition of a couple pieces of ribbon and some flowers, I have a cute little Valentine’s Day decoration for the bookcase in the hall.

Title: Love
Products used: Foil (Crafta Frame, Fabulous Foil!)
Adhesive (Zig Memory Systems, 2 Way Glue pen)
Ribbon (Really Reasonable Ribbon Club)
Flowers (Prima)
Rhinestones (RhinestoneNY)

Next I wanted to try the foil with a different adhesive and I decided I’d try photo tabs. I adhered them to a piece of black cardstock in a mosaic pattern. After peeling off the protective paper, I was able to apply the foil right away since there is no drying time involved. The foil went on smoothly and without a flaw. Using the Zig glue pen, I drew a freehand heart and wrote the word “love.” After applying the foil I adhered a red puffy heart in the center and now I have a cute card to send for Valentine’s Day. No tools required!

Title: Love Card
Products used: Foil (Crafta Frame, Fabulous Foil!)
Adhesive (Scrapbook Adhesives, mounting squares; Zig Memory System, 2 Way Glue pen)
Heart (Creative Imaginations, Build-A-Bear)

The foil by Crafta Frame is aptly named – Fabulous. It also should be called fun and easy! I did struggle a little with the way the foil is packaged. The long strips are taped to cardboard and un-taping them left them dangling out of control. I got into a little trouble when my errant foil landed on some adhesive on another project. Care must be taken when removing the foil strips from the cardboard insert. This little hitch however does not prevent me from highly recommending this product as a fun, fast and easy way to add some WOW to your scrapbooking and other craft projects.

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Review by Penny

If you like to add sparkle and pizzazz to your crafting projects, this product is a must have. Crafta Frame has developed Fabulous Foil!, a simple descriptive name for a truly fabulous product.

Fabulous Foil! is thin strips of foil attached to clear release paper. Each package contains eight colors--gold, silver, copper, red, green, blue, pink, and purple. Each color comes on a 2” strip that is 20” long. Packages are available on Crafta Frame's website for $7.99 retail along with how to’s and a project gallery to get you started.

The results of your foiling depends on what adhesive you use. Crafta Frame recommends the Zig Memory System Squeeze & Roll adhesive for an embossed-like effect, but other adhesives will work. Liquid adhesive must have dried before you can apply the foil. The Zig adhesive works well for this since it rolls out blue and dries clear so you know exactly when you are ready to apply the foil to your project.

On this project I used the recommended Zig adhesive to freehand a border inside the patterned paper frame. Once the adhesive had turned clear, I laid the silver foil strip shiny side up and gently rubbed my finger over the areas where adhesive was applied. Then I removed the strip and repeated as many times as needed to cover each area with foil.

Title: Egg Hunt
Products used: Fabulous Foil! (Crafta Frame)
Cardstock (Memory Makers)
Patterned Paper (American Traditional Designs)
Stickers (Sandylion)
Font (Cricut "Mini Monograms")
Rub-ons (Doodlebug)
Ric Rac (Scrapbooking Society)
Brad (SEI)
Adhesive (Zig 2-Way Glue, Adhesive Tech rectangular glue stick)
Pen (Uni-Ball Signo, Zig Writer)

With a “dry” adhesive such as a tape runner or glue dots, you do not need to wait on drying time. You can lay the adhesive down and immediately apply the foil. On my second project I used double-sided tape with a scalloped edge. What a cool effect!

Title: Play
Products used: Fabulous Foil! (Crafta Frame)
Cardstock (Making Memories)
Patterned paper (Sandylion)
Ink (Tsukineko Versa Color)
Font (Cricut "George")
Acrylic paint (Ranger)
Punches (EK Success, Stampin' Up!)
Pen (Uni-Ball Signo)
Adhesive (Adhesive Tech rectangular glue stick)
Chipboard (Fancy Pants)
other: scalloped double-sided tape


Title: Foil Detail

The foil strips can be used over and over again until all of the foil is gone. You can place partially used areas of foil over your adhesive to apply multiple colors or cut it into pieces to apply a color to a certain area.

This is one of the easiest ways I’ve found to add a personal touch and sparkle to your projects. It is quick, easy and best of all, fun! I highly recommend Fabulous Foil!

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Review by Karen

I started this review having some experience with foil products. I have used them before and found them to be very messy, or they didn’t produce the effect that I wanted. I figured that I would have similar results with the Fabulous Foil! The product information included suggests using a Zig Memory System Squeeze & Roll Glue pen as your adhesive. I chose to use a rubber stamping product called “Heat and Stick” for my projects.

The Fabulous Foil! is packaged in a folio with a black cardstock insert. The foil is taped to the front of the black card and wrapped around to the back. Each strip is 2 inches wide and 20 inches long. There are eight colors: pink, purple, gold, silver, blue, green, copper and red. There are directions included on a separate piece of paper included in the folio. The MSRP for the 8 color pack of Fabulous Foil! is $7.99.

For my project with the Fabulous Foil! I stamped a butterfly image with embossing ink. I then sprinkled “Heat and Stick” powder over the image. Shaking off the excess before I heated the powder with a heat tool, I prepared my image for the foiling process. I cut a small piece of the purple foil, about two inch square, and laid it over my image. Then I simply rubbed the top of the foil. I repeated this step until all the image was covered in purple foil. It was SO easy, and there was no mess!

Title: Bugologists
Products used: Cardstock (Prism Prismatics)
Stamps (Boho Buzz, Technique Tuesday; Big Timber Line letters Tall, Technique Tuesday)
Ink (Versamark; Noir Black, Pallet ink by Stewart Superior; Creamy Camel, Stampin' Up!)
Tiles (Scalloped circle Technique Tiles, Technique Tuesday)
brads (Queen and Company)
die cuts (Beauty Queen font, Quickutz; mini bug, Quickutz)
Heat and stick (Stampin Up!)
Foil (Fabulous Foil!, Crafta frame)
Adhesive (Adhesive Tech, Permanent Bond Glue Runner)

I also tried the foil as recommended, used over the Zig Memory System Squeeze & Roll Glue pen. I also found this method to work well.

This product is the exact opposite of all those other foil products that I've tried before. It is so easy to use I decided to have my daughter, who is 7 years old, try the Fabulous Foil! In no time at all she was adding foil to sticker, die cuts and stamped images.

I am truly excited about Fabulous Foil! This product is superior to all other foiling products on the market today. I really did not expect to be as pleased with this product as I am. I thought that I would be faced with yet another messy foiling product that did not work as expected; I am tickled pink that the results I got with Fabulous Foil! were the exact opposite of what I expected. If you have the opportunity to try Fabulous Foil! do it!! You won’t regret it.

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Review by Renee

One of the latest trends in scrapbooking is "bling." While I love the glitzy look of bling, sometimes the stones themselves can be a bit bulky. Fabulous Foil! by Crafta Frame is a beautiful alternative. It has every bit of the glam and shine without all the bulk. What's more, it is simple and fun to use.

For this review, I received a portfolio of Fabulous Foil! by Crafta Frame that included eight different colors of foil. Included in the portfolio were Silver, Green, Blue, Red, Pink, Purple, Gold, and Copper foils which were 2 inches wide by 20 inches in length. Also included was a Zig Memory Systems 2-Way Glue pen, the glue recommended by Crafta Frame for an embossed look. However, the website does indicate that other glues and glue dots will work well with the produce, depending on the look that is desired.

When I opened the package of Fabulous Foil!, I immediately began to play with the foils to see what kinds of effects could be achieved. The product was simple to use and provided relatively quick results. The basic steps are to use the squeeze and roll glue pen to create a design, let the glue completely dry and then apply the foil shiny side up on the glue. The hardest part to using the product is patiently waiting for the glue to completely dry. Once the glue is completely dry, the foil can be placed shiny side up over the design to create the beautiful foiled looks. No special tools were required, just the pad of your finger to transfer the foil.

After playing around with the product for a while, I decided to use it to add shine to flowers of my patterned paper on my project. I used the squeeze and roll pen to outline the flowers on the paper. I also used the pen to outline the centers of the flowers and to create extra texture to several of the flowers of the paper. Once the glue was dry, I applied a variety of colors of the foil to the flowers. I found the wide array of colors to be very complimentary to the patterned paper. Even with all the foil that I applied to the layout, I still have plenty of foil remaining to complete several other projects, making this a great value for embellishing.

Title: Silly
Products used: Cardstock (Prism Prismatics)
Patterned Paper (My Mind's Eye Magnolia)
Die Cut flower (My Mind's Eye)
Fabulous Foil! (Crafta Frame)
Liquid Glue (Zig Memory Systems Squeeze and Roll pen)
Craft Foam (Funky Foam Fun)
Die Cut Letters (Sizzlits Notepad)
Adhesive (Adhesive Tech, Permanent Bond Glue Runner and 3-D Design Blocks)

Fabulous Foil! are a great, fun product to add huge amounts for glam to your projects very simply. They are fun to use and add great interest and texture to your layouts. If you like the new "bling" look, but don't like the bulk some of the products can add to your layouts, this is the product for you. You will love the results you achieve.

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Review by Terri

One of my favorite things about scrapbooking is the opportunity to learn new techniques. Since I have been scrapbooking a while now, these opportunities do not arise as much as they did in the past. When I saw the Fabulous Foil! from the Crafta Frame company, I was eager to try this product and learn something new!

My package of Fabulous Foil! came with a Zig Squeeze & Roll glue pen and complete instructions for using the product. I immediately noticed the vibrant colors of the foil. The beautiful jewel tones included silver, green, blue, red, pink, purple, gold and orange. Each of the metallic colors came in strips approximately 2 inches wide and 20 ˝ inches long. I liked that the instructions provided steps on using the foil, as well as some tips.

I decided to use the foil on chipboard. I followed the directions and applied the glue to the chipboard and let it dry. I then cut a piece of foil and placed it shiny side up on the glued surface. I rubbed it and then lifted the foil. It worked great, but as with any new technique I found I got better at this as I went along. I learned that it helped to make sure I pressed completely around the edges, and that the smoother my glue was applied, the smoother my foil went on. I did have a few spots where I must have missed placing the glue, and the foil did not adhere. On those spots I just went back and repeated the process. The result was not quite as smooth, but I think it worked fine.

The instructions stated that another option besides the glue pen was to use adhesive tape, so I decided to try this using Adhesive Tech’s Permanent Bond Glue Runner. The process is the same, except that you do not need to wait for the adhesive to dry. This worked very well, and I liked that I now had two options for using the foil.

For Christmas, my husband surprised me with a new car. The car is silver, and I thought it would be fun to use the foil to emphasize the word “shiny” in my title. I liked the look of it so much that I wanted to find more things to foil, and applied the foil on chipboard shapes too.

Title: My shiny new car
Products used: Cardstock: Prism Prismatics
Patterned Paper: cherryArte
Fabulous Foil!: Crafta Frame
Chipboard: cherryArte
Letter Stickers: American Crafts and Doodlebug
Adhesive: Adhesive Tech, Permanent Bond Glue Runner, Zig Squeeze & Roll Glue Pen

Fabulous Foil! was fun and easy to use. I love that I can use it to create custom embellishments and create different looks on my pages. Since this was a new technique for me, I really appreciated the clear instructions. If you like to try new things and create one of a kind scrapbook pages, you should try the Crafta Frame Fabulous Foil!

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