Metallic foil at home

[sybillevz]

Hi everyone !

I wanted to share something I found last week, as I was astonished by the cost of foil stamping... This method makes sense if you have a small amount of 'foiling' to do (in this case, it is 50 invitations), but it can be a bit frustrating.

For this you just need a laser printer and some toner reactive foil from Pulsar ProfessionalFx.  I'm just going to post a link to this blog that explains the whole process : http://howaboutorange.blogspot.be/2013/06/diy-foil-cards-better-method.html

Of course, I needed to try this, so I ordered some foil from the german online store listed here : http://www.pulsarprofx.com/decalpro/store/_store.html
and I borrowed my dad's old laser printer. Some tweaking is needed in the printer's preferences in order to have as much toner as possible on the areas that you want foiled but the result is quite ok if you're not too picky.

I can't access the pics I took right now but I'll post them on my IG (pebbleinthesky) for now and edit this post later.
I got this result with the method explained in the blog post (only laser printer) but I'm guessing I could get better results with a good laminator (pulsar Pro suggests one on their website), my old one does definitely not do the trick.

There are a lot of foil colors available and I'm really loving the possibilities this offers.

[SarahA]

Hi Sybille,
Hopped on over to IG to take a look. Have to say I'm quite impressed. Those hairlines look good!
I once needed to make 1 invitation and tried to use the Martha Stewart Foil and glue that goes with it. Needless to say that was a complete waste of money and time  Complete changed the design after that haha.
Good luck with your further efforts!

[Judy G]

I've seen some IG posts about these and I got really interested. I've read some blogs and it looks easy enough to do, but I'm not yet ready to invest on a laminator

[sybillevz]

In this case, the blog post I read suggests to 'laminate' through the printer itself, and it's what I did.  So if you just have the laser printer it can work too !

[JanisTX]

I've been using that product for ages.  My biggest complaint is the inconsistency of the color.  Some of the foil transfers to the text & in other cases, not so much.  And, the stuff is well known to ruin laser printers, so don't run it through a laser printer that you care a great deal about.  I picked up a kit a few years ago on eBay that has a small heated "wand".  I used it on bridesmaid's luncheon invitations recently & found the results to be very irregular.  I don't presently have a laser printer that I don't care a lot about, so I was worried about trying it with the printer.  I may check out my iron on my next project!

Janis

[sybillevz]

Thanks for the advice, Janis ! I find the results very irregular too, but I guess there should be a way to do this properly. I saw a video on Youtube where they heated the paper with a heat blowing gun (? the thing I use to scrape paint off old furniture) before putting it in the laminator, and they seemed to be happy with the results. Maybe the toner needs to be heated first to get better results ?

I don't have a laser printer but I was considering buying a good laminator and going to a copy shop to print... I'm not really ready to invest in something that's not going to produce good results though.
 

[JanisTX]

Hmmm..... I have a good laminator!  I'll experiment with that next weekend!  I'll post back with results!

The bride was very happy with her name in shiny gold on the bridesmaids' luncheon invitation, but of course, I sent her the "best" one.  Some of the others were borderline unacceptable!  I also have a heat gun, for use with embossing.  I'll give it a go, also!

Janis

[Erica McPhee]

I used to do this about 14 years ago.    It worked great with my laser printer but then foil fell out of style and I couldn't find it anywhere. I would love to be able to do this again. My laser printer is just sitting in my garage.

Thanks for sharing Sybille! 

[JanisTX]

Erica, you can get the foil on eBay!  I picked up the craft kit & the foil on eBay.  LOTS of pretty colors are available!

Janis