Materials needed: Laminator or craft iron, dies of choice, “black toner paper”, wax paper, foil sheets (we are using Deco foil, which we find to be of superior quality to some of the other foils on the market).
You can get a sheet of black "toner paper" by printing large black rectangle, covering most of your paper. This must be printed on a laser printer. If you don't have a laser printer, you can print it on an ink jet printer, take the copy and some card stock to an office supply store and ask them to copy the black rectangle onto the card stock using the laser copier. Laser copiers and printers use toner, and, when heated, the toner reacts with the foil and bonds to the paper.
If you want to invest in a laminator, they can be found inexpensively at Amazon.
First turn on your laminator and allow it to heat up for at least 20 minutes.
In the meantime, cut your die cut out of the black part of the “toner paper”.
Cut a piece of foil the size of your die cut and place shiny/colored side up on the black side of the die cut (the matte silver side should be placed against the toner paper).
You can either run this directly through the laminator or place the layers between a folded sheet of wax paper and then run this 'package' through the laminator.
Gently lift the foil off the die cut to see if it adhered to your die cut. You may need to run large pieces through the laminator twice. Pieces without much detail or loose edges can be run through the laminator without the wax paper carrier sheets.
It is very important that your laminator is hot for this process to work.
A few pro tips:
1) Don't run the same thing through too many times, especially with the same wax paper carrier sheet. At some point, it will simply fan-fold into the machine, and you will have to take it apart and pull it all out (it will be unusable at that point).
2) If you are sending through something pretty small, always use a wax paper carrier (we use the boxes of single sheets of wax paper that you can get at Costco - also desirable is they are not highly waxed).
3) If you are trying to use more than one color of foil on a piece, the piece at the bottom (against the toner paper) is what will stick. There is also a danger of the foil pieces slipping as they go through. If you get your piece back with places that the foil missed, try sending it through again with more foil and a new wax paper carrier sheet.
4) Some die cuts work better than others, but give them a try! There was a feather die that a customer had at play day that turned out stunningly - it had a slight embossed look in the center. Try any of your dies you may have and see what great looks you get.
Alternately:
If you don’t have a laminator you can also use a craft iron for this technique. Follow the process above but use the craft iron to iron the foil and then the back side of the die cut. You don’t have to use wax paper although we would recommend it if the die is detailed. It is easy to catch the edge of the iron on little pieces like leaves or stems. As you are ironing the pieces you can gently lift the foil to see if it adhering to your die cut. If it isn’t adhering, just apply more heat.
We had SO much fun playing with foil techniques at play day! I hope you will try it.
Magenta Stamp Used:
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| 07.674.F Circle of Friends 3 |
Other Materials Used:
Memory Box Sketchy Rings Die 99149
Deco Rainbow Foil
Toner paper
Laminator
Versamark Ink
Ranger Black Sparkle embossing powder
