Day two of The Foil Files and this one is so fun. Me thinks you’re gonna love it more than that time you had breakfast for dinner…because we all know that breakfast for dinner is the best thing in life.
The inspiration for this post came from Shae via Twitter, who told me that she’d love to see the Damask Love take on foil stamping. Well, Shae – here it is! I hope this is what you had in mind!
Foil stamping is nothing more than applying metallic foil…usually gold or silver …to paper. If you are a seasoned stamper, you are familiar with heat embossing – a technique that allows you to achieve a similar foiled look. Today I’m going to walk you through the real deal – how to create simple foil stamped stationery at home using heat reactive foil transfer sheets. The process is not difficult at all, but you will need a few specialty tools:
{1} A Laminator: Here’s the deal. When I was a kid, I was absolutely obsessed with the laminator in my elementary school classroom. I wanted to laminate every damn thing in sight. So a few years ago, I went ahead and gave into my childhood love of laminators and bought one of my own. Turns out they are really affordable. I’ve used it to make all sorts of stuff – and for this project it’s a must have. I own THIS one and love it. It’s compact and lightweight and works great for my needs.
{2} Toner Reactive Foil: Chances are you don’t have this on hand, but it’s another must have for this project. I suggest purchasing the Starter Pack which contains 19 different colors of foil and each piece measures 8″ x 36″ – plenty of foil to make a grillion cards! This foil is designed to react with an ingredient contained in laser toner. Once placed on the toner and when heat is applied, the foil transfers over to your design. Keep scrolling and you’ll see what I mean!
{3} Stamps: You’ll need stamps to create your design. I prefer woodblock stamps for this project, since they give a really crisp impression. If you opt for clear stamps, just make sure you use a good pigment ink.
{4} Cardstock: The beauty of this technique is that you can get a beautiful foil design on pretty much any color cardstock. You’ll want to be sure the cardstock is smooth, though – otherwise the foil will not apply smoothly. My recommendation is to start with the My Favorite Things Smooth White Cardstock. I tried several types of cardstock and this one gave the best finished product. The My Favorite Things Kraft Cardstock also works beautifully with this technique. It’s the only kraft cardstock that I could find that left a smooth foil impression.
{5} A pencil. Pretty sure you have one of those
{6} Ink. If you are stamping with woodblock stamps, I recommend Staz-on ink in Jet Black. If you are stamping with clear stamps, I recommend Memento Luxe Ink in Tuxedo Black.
{7} not pictured: A folded card
{8} not pictured: a good paper trimmer.
You’ll want to start by creating a template for stamping your card design. Do this by simply tracing the edge if a folded notecard. Also , make small tick marks at the fold of the card. This will help you later when it’s time to score.
Now, stamp your design onto the right side of your template. Those tick marks will help here since you can visualize where the fold of your final card will be.
Walk (or drive) yourself over to the nearest Kinkos and make laser copies of your design. Do not erase your pencil lines before copying…you’ll need those!
Trim a piece of the toner reactive foil so that it is large enough to cover your design. It does not need to cover the entire paper.
Tape the foil onto the laser copied design. I opted to place my tape outside the edges of the card to avoid any scarring or residue that the tape might leave once I peeled it off.
Make sure your laminator is on and ready to go, then simply place the paper and foil through the machine and let it do it’s work. I like to run mine through twice just to be sure enough heat is applied.
This is the fun part! Peel away the foil and you’ll see the magic happen! The foil will adhere to the design and you’ll see the negative image left in the foil.
Last up – use those tick marks to score and fold the paper in half. Then use the pencil lines to trim the card down to size. Done!
Once you’ve created one design, you can easily duplicate it with several different colors of foil. Just make a bunch of copies of your design and have fun playing with all the colors available.
Wow! This is gorgeous and I LOVE the technique. I will be doing this soon! Thanks for the inspiration. 🙂
This is gorgeous! For personal use only, though, as most stamp company angel policies don’t allow mechanical reproduction (copies of a stamped card) to be sold.
These are sooo pretty! Love!
You’re so fun. Love your project and your description – “laminate every damn thing in sight” – too funny! Got rid of my laminator a few years back – making me regret that move.
Very clever! This is awesome!
What beautifully elegant cards!
I’ve been foiled! This is such a great idea, Amber. I’m adding this to Evernote so I could come back to make this note card set. Thanks so much for the inspiration! 🙂
These are lovely. I just recently dug out a whole bunch of the reactive foil from probably 20 years ago. You’ve inspired me to see if it is still good. Using the laminator is a really slick trick… the instructions from the olden days had you running it back through the copier inside a carrier.
Love the design. Simple but elegant.
Beautiful!! Where do you come up with all those amazing ideas??. I have nothing from the list of supplies you have here and still I want to try this so much – I might opt to try it with an iron – just for the fun of it 🙂
Shut up!! I love this so much. I’m so buying that laminator next week 🙂
I am totes (as we say in the UK) buying that Laminator…AMAZING cards as usual Amber!Cx
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This is such a clever idea! I definitely need to get one of those laminators. I’d love it if you shared this over at The Makers link party going on at my blog right now, UpcycledTreasures.com Hope to see you there!
Love this idea! Can I use a HP home laser-jet printer for this?
HI Monica! Yes! You can definitely do this same project with a laser printer. The laser printer toner will react with the foil just like the laser copier toner. You’ll just need to design something on your computer to print and then complete steps 4-9 as shown in the tutorial
I love this technique! Brilliant idea with gorgeous results. One question – does it work well with small, fine lines? I was thinking of trying it with a stamp that has small type on it but I am not sure the foil would adhere to tiny areas like that.
Oh wow!! Love this look and I am truly fascinated to try this technique – I have everything to hand except the foil – and this is easily remedied – LOL
I noticed you didn’t use a carrier for the laminating – is that just particular to that laminator? I usually use one. I love laminating too – in fact, my boss calls me the “The Laminatrix” – Tee hee!
What an amazing technique! Just wondering if you tried this technique with the MFT natural cardstock? The kraft cardstock is a little too dark for my project, but I think natural would be great. I just wanted to see if you got good results before I put in a cardstock order. Thanks so much!
Hi Anika! I’ve not tried it with the natural cardstock. For best results, you wanna use something that is really smooth. The MFT cream cardstock works beautifully and that might work nicely with your project idea.
Wow, I want to try this – I don’t have a hot laminator but this makes me want to go out and buy one! Gorgeous cards!!
What setting do you use on your laminator? 3 mil or 5 mil? Thanks!
I used the 3mm setting! Hope this helps!
Thank you!
Help! I’ve been banging my head against the wall all night. I put my laser printed designs on paper with the foils over top, cover with a clean paper and run them through the same laminator. Except my end result is bits of foil all over the non printed area in addition to the design! Any ideas? I’m losing it!
I just got my laminator yesterday and it worked perfectly with my laser print. The only thing I can think of is that the original wasn’t “clean” and/or the laser printout has extraneous toner spots that would have picked up foil. I trust the foil was placed face up over the laser print. Try a different print. Maybe the laminator needs cleaning. Good luck and I hope you get it working.
Just saw a post about this on another site. Apparently “coated” card stock works much better than non-coated. It is not always on the label but look for smooth card stock. Textured is splotchy according to some.
Would copies made on a copy machine work just as well as laser copies?
Hi Guys! Whilst reading all of your comments and suggestions, I was browsing on spotlight and saw this particular brand “Heidi Swapp” and their product is called Minc Reactive Foil Gold.
Please let me know if anyone has used this as I’m hoping to stock up one this 🙂
Hey Cat! I’ve actually been using the Heidi Swapp Minc machine on quite a few posts lately! If you search “Minc” in the search bar, you’ll find a bunch which will give you a look at how the foils work! Hope this helps
This did not work for me. I purchased the Minc reactive foil from Hobby Lobby to test it out before buying a roll and paying for shipping. I printed my design on smooth cardstock from a laser printer and taped the foil over the design. I put the cardstock through the laminator twice and could tell it had warmed up, but when I peeled the tape and foil off no transfer had occurred at all… What am I doing wrong?
I love this foiling technique. My problem is finding a laser copier that will take cardstock. I am not good at making designs from the computer and printing them out, so I would like to stamp my images and use the copier to print out the cardstock. Hope this is not too confusing to you. I could sure use some help to find a printer, copier, scanner with toner ink to copy my images.
If the foil has to be used with toner-based ink, why are you using inkjet ‘ink'(Staz-on ink in Jet Black or Memento Luxe Ink in Tuxedo Black)? I am just making sure before I go any further. Do I have to take my cards to a ‘toner based ‘printer or copier before applying the foil? Thanks in advance.
Hi Marilyn!
Good question! You can stamp the image with whatever ink you like! The important part is that you should make a copy of the project on a copy machine – that’s where the toner will come from. Hope this helps!
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