This is an awesome art to have in your skill set .. cover cracked vases... cover interesting wine bottles. . revamp a tray, mirror, frame ... Anything!!

Step 1: What You Need :

1. Your item to foil : in this instructable I am using some wine bottles;
2. Glue gun and glue sticks .. (for your patterns)
3. Heavy duty aluminum foil (which I bought at the local supermarket)
4. Some cold glue .. I dilute it with a little water so it isn't so sticky;
5. Black Acrylic paint;
6. A scouring pad or piece of sandpaper
7. Paint brush for glue;
8. Paint brush for black paint
9. old dish with water
10. Wire or beads or other decorative items (optional)

Step 2: Prepare Your Item to Be Foiled

- make sure your bottle is clean enough so that the hot glue sticks
- Put your design on your bottle with the hot glue

TIP: incricate details don't show well. . do big bold patterns

Do two or three at a time .. :-)

Step 3: Foil

- tear off a piece of foil that will cover your bottle properly
- dont have too much of an overlap.. foil on foil doesn't stick very well. .
- Be careful not to let your hot glue pattern stick to the foil - it tears !!

Step 4: Preparing Your Foil

- first crumple your foil . .. enough to give it texture
- then smooth it out.. will have crinkle pattern
- Paint your foil with your watered-down cold glue. .. just a thin layer. . not too much.. it will leak out

I usually glue the dull side so that the shiny side is on the outside - but it really doesn't matter either way ..

Step 5: Adhering Foil to Bottle

- wrap your foil around your item.
- Do this in steps
- make sure there is enough 'give' for the curves of your pattern

Step 6: Trimming and Smoothing

- Trim the excess
- Make sure the foil is in all the nooks and crannies of your pattern
- use your hands and smooth as much of it as you can down

Your hands may be very sticky by now
rinse your fingers un your tub of water. . makes it smoother and the glue wont sick to your foil

keep your trimmed excess pieces handy

Step 7: Smoothing Over

- I use a plastic spoon (anything blunt) to rub all over my foil. . you want the foil to adhere to your bottle now and your pattern to stand out
- Don't worry about tears and holes
- use your trimmed off pieces of foil and glue little pieces to fix your tears
smooth the fixes over

For some reason the cold glue doesn't stick foil to foil. . so I then use an ordinary paper glue to fix up

Step 8: Painting

Now ... paint your entire project with black paint!
- don't overdo it
- A light coat will do just fine - you can always add more if you want to

TIP: paint a spare trimmed off piece of foil for fix ups after the final step

Dont forget to do your bottom bits

Step 9: The Reveal

- Give your paint a chance to dry (don't leave it too long - makes to more difficult to take off)
- Take your scourer or sandpaper and rub over your entire project
- Don't scour too hard - you scour the foil off the raised pattern
- If you find you are too heavy-handed then WET your scourer lightly .. it will smear off rather than scour
- Continue until you are happy with your pattern

Step 10: Fixing Mistakes

- if you have torn or made holes in your foil - - - don't worry!

Remember your "spare" piece ?
this is when you tear your spare piece to fit your 'fix ups'