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Hello November! And HELLO holiday preparation! If you’re anything like me, you’ve been counting down the days until it’s acceptable to share your holiday cheer. And honestly, I think this is it! Today I’m so excited to be sharing these TWO rad DIY holiday projects with you but also to be announcing a month long collaboration that I know you are going to love.

This month, I’ve joined forces with four other rad Canadian bloggers who love black, white, greenery and shine as much as I do for our Modern Holiday Home series. We’re going to be bringing some fun holiday projects and decor EVERY SINGLE WEEK for five weeks. This week, we’re partnering with one of my fave craft brands- Therm-O-Web to take on some projects with Deco Foil! You can find all of our projects linked at the bottom of this post AND we’re partnering on a sweet $100 giveaway to get your own stash of Deco Foil to craft with (that’s at the bottom too- make sure to enter!).

I got a little carried away on this project and ended up making not one but two projects using the same technique. I’ve used Deco Foil in a lot of different ways but today is aaaall about the brush strokes. And I love brush strokes. And even more than brush strokes- I just love how the foil plays on the black! I kind of fell out of love with black for a while- I used to have black everything, from furniture to picture frames to throw blankets and I have gotten rid of almost everything. But there’s still something about it… it’s the perfect balance to all the white and grey and sparkle that the holiday season is full of. I used a bunch of different foils for these projects and love how the mix came out. I *may* have found a new favourite foil colour even!

The first project these chip board gift tags. I love how they look dipped in the brush strokes of different foils just layered on top of one another, then the foiled names to finish it off. These are SO simple, you guys… like, your kids could make them with you. And mine did. Aubrey had so much fun pressing down the foil to make sure we got all the spots just so.

The second project is using the exact same technique but to make a brush stroke tree sign. I had this up for only a couple days when I made it/photographed it before I pulled it down (before Halloween) and had company asking where I bought it, you guys. It’s so cool in real life! Foil is always one of those things that’s so hard to photograph how amazing it actually is. This sign is awesome on a mantle or it would look rad hung in a gallery wall as well. I’m loving how it has no rustic frame- just the black to help keep it modern and balance the business of the different metallic foils.

Ready to learn how to make them? I’ll go through the process at the same time (since it’s preeeetty much identical).

To make these brush stroke foil projects, you’ll need:

• Wooden sign painted black (mine is MDF) and/or black chipboard tags
• Deco Foil Liquid Adhesive
• Flat paint brush
• Deco Foil Adhesive Pen (for names on tags)
• Variety of Deco Foil Transfer Sheets… here’s the colours I used:
  • Copper
  • New Penny (From the Rebekah Meier line… and this is the possible new fave, you guys! It’s that gorgeous pink!)
  • Gold
  • Old Gold (Also from the Rebekah Meier line)
  • Rose Gold
  • (I didn’t end up using the Antique Pearl that’s in the supplies photo!)

The first thing you’ll want to do is prep your surface. If you’re using prefab chipboard tags like I did- those need nothing! If you’re wanting to make a sign… I cut mine out of MDF, gave the edges a light sand and coated it in a black paint with a foam brush (to avoid brush strokes).

Then, you’ll want to squeeze out some of your Deco Foil Liquid Adhesive (it’s a squeezy tube) and get painting your brush strokes! I used a flat brush to get that really square brush stroke look. In hindsight… I would be more liberal with the adhesive to get more texture in the strokes. When you’re happy with how your strokes look… let it dry! Here’s the thing- the bottle says to let it dry for 1-2 hours BUT that’s if you’re using it like a squeezy bottle which would give you a much thicker line of adhesive to dry than when you brush it on like this. You need to leave it MAYBE an hour. I left mine a bit too long, I think but that made some nice voids so I’m not kicking myself. You want the adhesive to turn clear, but still very tacky.

When you’re ready to try foiling… grab a sheet and press it firmly using your fingers over a section. Avoid edges of your sheet so you don’t have any harsh lines in your design (especially important in the larger tree design!). Peel it back to reveal gorgeous brush strokes foiled! If you have transfer of the adhesive onto your sheet… it’s not quite dry enough. The adhesive should pull the foil onto your design, not the other way around.

Grab a different sheet and get layering those metallic foils until you’re happy! I have two different series of shots to show you- first… the tags! I layered until the bottom looked completely foiled in a kind of patina way. I took a photo after each different metallic foil I used for you to see how it layers up. NO additional adhesive was used. It just kept picking up on different voids.

The second… the tree! I was a bit more strategic in piecing the different colours together on this one, but after I was happy with the general sections of colours, I went back and really rubbed the foil in the voids to get an all over patina type foil effect.

And guess what… that’s really it! If you want to add names to your tags, use the Deco Foil Adhesive Pen to letter and let dry according to directions (super quick!) before pressing the foil over like you did with your Liquid Adhesive transfers. Ta-Da!

I’m so in love with these metallics on black! I am eagerly storing them away until Shane lets me pull out all the Christmas decorations in a couple weeks! If you haven’t used Deco Foils before and you’d like to see more projects with them… for sure check out all the other ladies in this series below but also… I have more that you can check out right here.

Now the part you’ve all been waiting for, I’m sure! The giveaway! Therm-O-Web (Deco Foil!) has been sweet enough to offer up a $100 gift card to a winner along with free shipping (FYI, that’s a TON of foil and tools!) so you can get your craft on before the holidays! We will be running this giveaway for one week and you can get your name in a whole bunch of ways in the Rafflecopter (widget) below! And if you win… you know we want to see what you end up making!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Check out the other projects in the series! I could honestly put any one of them (or ALL of them!) in my house and they’d fit right in. I love these ladies’ style!

Left to right, top to bottom:

Harlow & Thistle’s gold foil Christmas tree tote / The Sweetest Digs’ holly jolly gold foil pillow / Love Create Celebrate’s black and gold foil holiday signs / The Learner Observer’s metallic foiled holiday napkins / Lemon Thistle’s foil brush strokes sign & tags

I so hope you found some amazing inspiration this week on our Modern Holiday Home series! We will be back next week with some more modern Christmas inspiration for you all!

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