I’ve had many requests to know how I am able to add custom foils to my projects. The good news is that it’s pretty easy if you have the right tools, or at least have access to them. The basic principle to this technique is that these special foil sheets will transfer onto laser printer toner through heat and pressure. Beyond that it can get a little tricky.
Tools needed (clockwise starting with the artwork):
- Artwork
- Carrier Board
- Heat Gun or Hairdryer
- Small Laminator
- Foil transfers
All of the above can be purchased from PulsarProFX. Tell him John sent you and he’ll… have no idea who I am. If you don’t have access to a small laminator or for some reason don’t want to drop $130 on getting one then you can try using a clothes iron. I’ve never tried it myself but I’ve heard of people doing it with varying levels of success. There are also other items for sale on the site that don’t apply to this technique so don’t bother buying a starter kit unless you also want to make decals. The foils are sold separately or if you want to try all of them there’s a sampler pack (you know you want to try hologram).
Print, in pure black, the artwork you want to be foiled on to any paper that can go through a laser printer. With the tools I have the largest size I can make is 8 x 10 but I’ve never needed to foil anything larger than a few square inches anyway.
If you live in a humid climate you may need to dry the paper. Any moisture in the paper will latch on to the foil and cause spotting. A heat gun will make quick work of this and a hairdryer will make much less quick work of this.
Place the artwork on the Carrier Board and then the foil on the artwork making sure that the dull side of the foil is touching the toner.
Make sure that the foil folds over the Carrier enough so that you can get a firm grip on it both top and bottom. This is to make sure that the foil doesn’t shift as it enters the laminator.
As the project enters the laminator you’ll feel it begin to pull it in. When this happens focus your attention on smoothing out the foil as it moves through.
It’s important to keep the foil taught so that no wrinkles are formed.
After the project comes out the other end of the laminator it’s going to be fairly hot but it won’t burn you (maybe). Next, peel back the foil to reveal your artwork.
Congratulations! You just made your first home-brewed foiled thing. Now sit back and amaze at the shininess of it all.
Really cool demo! This will come in handy one day when I’ve got some dime to drop on some new equipment. Right now my head is exploding with the possibilities…
Like I said you probably have all the tools you need other than the foil itself which can be purchased for $9. Also, using a clothes iron would be fine for small projects.
I’d need to get a laminator. I checked out that website. It was awesome! I learned how to do really cool chrome lettering in photoshop
Thanks John! This is great.
OOOO! I can’t wait to try this out!! Thanks John!
Cool. Thanks John. I have a unicorn/wolf/wizard illustration that really needs this.
I hope you’re referring to some sort of mystical hybrid between all 3.
Of course. What would be the point otherwise?
I’m going to try this. Sounds very fun. Thanks!
awesome.
Great idea. Just stumbled upon this via Pinterest. Do you think a heat press would work in lieu of the laminator?
A heat press should work well so long as the pressure and heat are very even. Certainly worth a try. Actually, a typical clothes iron works pretty good though the foil won’t come off quite as perfectly as a laminator.
So true. I used clothes iron and it’s never been done perfectly.
I imagine, it could also work by putting the foil & paper through the laser printer – this is what we did during our design college years looooong time ago – before colour printers became affordable.
By the way: Back then we put one or two pieces of removable scotch tape to fix the foil on the paper. This saved lots of the precious foil – instead of wrapping it around the back of the piece.
Interesting idea. Though a paper jam sounds likely if you didn’t do it just right
There used to be a product made by Avery (I think) that was this same basic idea (running the foil through the laser printer). You got a variety pack of foil and some paper and you assembled it according to directions and when ready to print you loaded it all up and hoped for the best. It worked pretty well, as I recall, but this was about 15 years ago.
Okay…complete awesomeness!
I’m not much of a commenter but this tutorial is valuable I can’t help but express my gratitude. I just ordered everything and can’t wait to try it. THANK YOU JOHN!
Glad to share! Have fun and let me know if you have any questions when you give it a go. Honestly, you probably will because it can be a little tricky to get it just perfect.
Cool technique, thanks for sharing! Is the purpose of the heated laser printer toner solely to act as a sticky surface for the foil to adhere to? I’m wondering if it would work on slow-drying screen printing ink….
The foil is attracted specifically to laser printer toner (under intense heat and pressure). I’m afraid it wouldn’t transfer to screen printing ink. Also, the foil is pretty fragile and wouldn’t suggest a textile application.
Yea, laser printer toner (or photocopier) only!
I tried it on charcoal / charcoal pencil a few days ago with clothes icon. It fails.
Do you think you could foil and then run through a laser or inkjet printer… or would that melt the foil off again?
I’d suggest a inkjet printer. I’ve done it. No problems. Also, the registry on a inkjet printer tends to be far superior, if that matters.
Thx 4 the great tutorial!
You don’t seem to be using the Sulky KK 2000 temp adhesive, that means it’s not really needed?
That adhesive is used in a different process, specifically for making decals that can be transferred onto virtually any surface.
I remember back in the late 80s/early 90s this system existed; you could get PMS matching color film to overlay your color mocks to achieve single spot colors in certain areas. Probably stored away somewhere with all my old presstype too…
Yeah, I’ve heard about those. In fact, there are still some groups around that will make those transfers for you.
This is fantastic. it would work fantastic for small prints and cards. already have some ideas stirring in my head.
I will probably try the iron way first just to see how it comes out before i buy a laminator. I do have a few office depot giftcards laying around that would be perfect for this. But then I have a machine that sits around most of the time.
thanks for the how to
follow up question already:
would using pure black out of a color laser printer work, or does it need to be out of a black and white laser?
i have a tiny bw at home, which would work, but i know it can’t run that fancy of paper.
Color laser printers work great. The idea is to lay down as much toner as possible, which a four color black is great for.
Did you have to modify the laminator as per Pulsar’s directions or did you leave it stock?
Nope, I didn’t modify it at all.
I was so excited to see this tutorial, but I just can’t get it to work for me! I’m using an iron, and Martha Stewart foil transfers – should I be using a different foil type?
Was it transferring poorly or not at all?
Just really poorly… I’m wondering if it’s my crappy off brand toner so I’m getting something printed at Kinko’s and doing a test. What I’ve been doing is putting the to-be-foiled paper on a hard surface, putting the foil on that, placing a piece of paper over the foil to protect it, and then pressing down on the iron.
Yes, toner is very important. Try a different printer, Also I’ve found that color printers have better coverage. Good luck!
Do you mean laser color printer?
Have you tried it with something other then that specific carrier board, like some chipboard or something?
I bought the 320 because i want to go a little bigger and the carrier board only comes in 8×10, so trying to think if anything else will do it.
That’s a great question. I actually looked into it in the past but never found a good solution. I even asked the seller of the carrier boards on that site and he didn’t have an easy solution either. The problem is that it has to be very thin, heat resistant (can’t be metal), and decently strong.
Sorry, let me know if you discover something.
I had asked him too. I plan on making some prints and foiling them, and the letter size doesn’t do it for me. He said the carrier boards only come in that size.
The description on his site says it is .02″ thick fiberglass fr4 carrier board. I googled it a bit and found some retailers that sell bigger and giant sheets. I might try some chipboard first just to see and if not try one of the options I found. I would like to be able to go up to 12×18
This is one I found. Lots of sizes. Shipping was a flat rate of $10 to start which I am not a fan of. But the sheet is $12. So I might give it a whirl and buy a couple. I would be t th size I want for just a bit more, worth a shot. Does it sound like what you have, I know it might be hard to tell.
http://www.g10fr4.com/g10_fr4_sheet_material.html
I probably won’t order his so I won’t have something to compare to. Fingers crossed. I will keep you updated.
Copiers use toner, right? Would a copy work? (Only have an inkjet printer here at the house.)
The laminator comes with carriers, though, for the laminating sheets. It’s thin card. It doesn’t keep items from laminating, so it must not be too thick to let the heat through. I’d think it would be worth a try in place of the carrier board.
I tried photocopier before and it works just fine.
Totally try the laminator carrier sheet, might as well. It may be difficult to keep the foil taught on top of it though because it’s not rigid.
Yes, a photocopier works so long as the photocopy is really solid. Sometimes photo copies can be very imperfect.
Hi John, just saw your above foil techique on pinterest and thank you very much for the info because I love me some foil but I have 2 questions for you, firstly, did you get any feedback about other types of carriers and how well they work and what is ideal thickness of carrier and secondly there are 2 kinds of laminators cold and hot laminators, is the heat gun used for the heat or is it a heat laminator that does the trick?
I haven’t heard any success stories about alternative carriers yet. Stay tuned hopefully someone will fill us in.
The heat gun is for getting all the moisture out of the paper that you just printed toner on. Foil can sometimes transfer onto the paper if it has a little moisture in it, you get a sort of speckly effect in areas that you didn’t print toner on.
I tried it with an iron; see results here. Really fun!
http://howaboutorange.blogspot.com/2012/09/diy-cards-with-copper-foil.html
I wanted to come back with some thoughts and results.
I am still experimenting but right now my prints are coming out almost tiger striped. Like my ink coverage is uneven and it isn’t adhering as well. I did make the prints at around 1:00 and didn’t run them with the foil until 6, so maybe it really does need a fresh print. My printer is at work and my laminator is at home right now… I looked at the enlarged shot of your before shot and mine look similar. so i just need to play more. I also did a double pass through the laminator, which didn’t change anything.
I was running mine on 80# and 100# french paper cover that I had a sampler pack of.
Carrier sheets
I used a piece of thin chipboard with one of mine, and i also ran one with just the paper and no carrier sheet. They came out the same. So if your paper is thick enough. No carrier needed (hopefully the heat through the backside is not causing my adhesion problems). I also just cut out the foil big enough to cover my image and used painters tap to tape it to the paper flat and ran it. no folding over the edge, less waste, etc.
First try
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/24423939/foiledagain/photo.JPG
Double pass. it actually held the halftone nicely, the adhesion problems make the halftone look bad. Also the gold on the green just was a bad choice. i thought it would look good, it was super hard to see.
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/24423939/foiledagain/image_1.jpeg
Hi John, this is amaaazing! I am so excited to try this for greeting cards and invitations! About to buy all the tools that I need and have a couple of questions:
1. I’m planning on purchasing the foil from the PulsarPro site, of course. Is the carrier board pretty much the only other thing I need from that site?
2. Looking into laminators and found the H220 on amazon. I also see one called the GBC “Inspire” for about 1/2 the price. Do you think this one would work the same or would you recommend just getting the H220?
Thanks and thanks for the awesome tutorial!
Yes, all you need is the carrier and foils, other than the laminator, of course. As far as that goes I can’t say that I can recommend a specific brand. So long as the size is correct you should be fine.
Have fun!
Can’t wait to try this. FYI you can buy a small 8.5×11 laminator for $20.00 from Costco.
HI, great project idea! I’ve read several blog posts on this, but no one mentions using the clear mylar carrier sheets with the foil…did you use these? Are they to make the TRF foil transferable? I’m a little confused on how I can put the foil onto a darker cardstock.
Any help is really appreciated. I make jewelry and print my own description cards. I would *love* to foil the words “Sterling Silver” on the (dark-ish) card.
The process as described above works for any paper that can go through a laser printer no matter the color of the paper. Good luck!
Awesome! Thank you! You’ve saved me some frustration and $$ on wasted supplies.
Hi! Thanks for the great tutorial! I’ve been fooling around with the foiling technique all day. Have you had any problems with the foil not adhering to the print and leaving a distressed look to the foiled area. I’ve tried several paper types and print settings on my laser printer. The foil seems to adhere the best to prints in rich black so it uses all the color cartridges to print. Other than that I can’t seem to get a quality solid print. Any ideas?
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[...] & the XO card. For more info on perfecting the foiling method, check out this post on the Designer CoOp. Step 5: Trace the edge of your envelope on the backside of the print, and cut out. Match the liner [...]
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[...] & the XO card. For more info on perfecting the foiling method, check out this post on the Designer CoOp. Step 5: Trace the edge of your envelope on the backside of the print, and cut out. Match the liner [...]
Hello,
We are trying the at home foil and it keeps foiling only some parts(basically it doesn’t look as clean and perfect as yours turned out). Do you have any suggestions on what the problem could be? Its leaving some spots foiled and some not. Any information would be great!
What are you using to transfer it with? If you’re using a home iron that’s usually the problem, perhaps you could borrow a small laminator from someone or if it’s a big deal you could probably buy one from Amazon for about $100. Beyond that you might try another laser printer, you need to have a good solid coat of toner. Let me know.
Do you have other examples using other colors, specifically the blue or aqua? This is such a cool project and I want to incorporate it into my wedding, but I want to see what color would match best. Thanks so much for your tutorial!!
I was wondering if you’ve ever tried this on hats? I hand silkscreen and paint trucker hats and I know people use foils on hats but I’m trying to figure out how…..many mahalos
Well, first of all I’m not sure how you would be able to get a hat through a laser printer. And even if you could the foil would scratch off really easily.
Is there a way to modify this to work with leather or other materials? Or am I limited to just paper?
HOT FOIL & HEAT TRANSFER FOIL, Is it the same?
Is the carrier board the same thing as using laminating pouches? Because every time I search for carrier boards it comes up with super thick coated paper boards and that does not appear to be what is used here.
Disregard that comment, immediately upon reading it back to myself I realized how dumb that sounded.
this is a very great idea, can’t wait to try this!
Heya! Great tutorial. Wondering if it’s better to foil straight after printing or can I leave the print for about an hour before foiling?
When i was working in a design studio in london in the 80′s we used an Omnichrom machine with Pantone colour overlays. We would cut tiny pieces of masking tape to secure the first two corners of the colour film on the image before feeding through the machine. With careful cutting you could get a two colour logo! The machine was just like a laminator with heat and speed settings. The carrier was very thin to allow the heat through to the colour films.
I have it without a carrier and with masking tape in a laser printer (and laminator) and it works quite well but results are inconsistent, i usually get little black specs showing through. So thanks for the info, I will try heating the black image first!
Also I would turn the laser toner to full coverage before printing my black and white image. My lovely old printer had a setting at the back to do this and results were better!
I put the foil and card in a paper pouch so it goes through the laminator easier and without risk of the foil getting stuck. To get a thicker black laser print for the foil to stick to, print it using 100% C, 100% M, 100% Y and 100% K.