Starting today – July 10th – Stampin’ Up!® has added foiling to their amazing product line for paper crafting. It is absolutely amazing!!! I just got my machine a couple of days ago along with a couple of dies and I’ve been able to experiment a tiny bit. I’m definitely a big fan! Now I just need a break from my pesky day job so I have some more time to play and really get accustomed to the machine and any tips I may figure out.
There are actually two types of foiling machines out there in the paper-crafting world. The first (and I think oldest) is a machine that uses heat to fuse foil to toner. For this machine (which is like a laminator), the images have to be printed on the paper, and typically you purchase the paper with the designs and then foil with the color you want. The second is a machine that heats special dies that then apply the foil to the paper that you provide. This is the type of machine that Stampin’ Up! is selling. The dies are more expensive than the pre-printed paper, but you have A LOT more versatility to pick the paper (and therefore the color of paper) that you want to foil your image on. And you won’t run out of it like you can with the pre-printed papers since you’re using your own paper for the foiling.
I’m explaining all of this because the types of foil for these machines are different – you cannot use foil for the laminator style-machine in the hot die machine, and vice-versa. If you purchase the Stampin’ Up! machine, make sure that you purchase foil for die-based foiling systems. Stampin’ Up! offers 3 colors of foil: Gold, Silver, and Pink. If you purchase your foil from Stampin’ Up! you will definitely have the right type. If you purchase foil elsewhere, make sure that it is the right variety.
You can shop all of the Hot Foil products here on the Stampin’ Up! site. Stay tuned here because I’ll share projects as I have a chance to play with my new toys.
