Combining Laser and Inkjet with Foil Tutorial

*Nothing to Disclose. I am not affiliated with Heidi Swapp or American Crafts.

So this Christmas I decided that if my kids wanted to hand out a bunch of Christmas cards, they would have to make them themselves!
So I thought that a foiled greeting on their hand drawn cards would look cool! And its easy to do!!!!

You will need the following-
Hand drawn picture/image.
scanner
colour inkjet printer (not laser)
laser printer
Cardstock
foil
HS Minc Machine
Software to print with and add text. (i used silhouette studio)
Manual die cutting machine/dies

1- I got my daughter to draw a pic for the front of her cards. You can see the pic she drew below. Then I scanned it into my PC.

READ MORE AFTER THE JUMP >>>>>>>>>

Foiled Christmas Card Tutorial

*Nothing to Disclose. I am not affiliated with Heidi Swapp or American Crafts.

Christmas time can become quite busy and I know I always want to make my own greeting cards. It gives a personal touch when handing them to loved ones. But nearly every year I just run out of time!!
 Not this year!!!
 I decided that with some amazing files from Designbundles.net  and my Minc Foiling machine I could whip up some quick Christmas cards.


To make these cards you will need the following-

* A design to place on your cards- I used the Christmas overlays from designbundles.net As they are all ready to use in an array of colours.
* A Laser Printer (or print out your images with an inkjet and get them photocopied (as we need the images printed in toner)
* Foil in various colours.
* Heidi Swap Minc Machine (at a pinch you can get away with an iron )
* Cardstock
* Adhesives
* A frame die; I used Mama Elephant All Prettied Up Die set (you could also hand cut your images out)
*Manual die cutting machine

I am using Silhouette Studio for printing. I use this program over other programs as I have found that for whatever reason things tend to print better with the silhouette software.
It is a free program you can download HERE. And you do not need a Silhouette machine to use it.

READ MORE AFTER THE JUMP >>>>>

How to Use A Zig 2 Way Glue Pen with Foil.

*Nothing to Disclose. I am not affiliated with Heidi Swapp or American Crafts.

Currently on the market are many great foiling products and some not so great.
I purchased the Heidi Swapp Minc Foiling Toner Pen a little while ago and found that after using it once, the toner just seemed to dry up after the first use. I purchased a second and the same thing happened, so I need to find a reliable alternative.

I decided to try a few different things including double sided tape, adhesive sheets and Minc paint but what I found the easiest to use and had the most success with was a Zig 2 Way glue pen.
You can buy these in many different sizes, from a tin pen nib to a thick wedge tip. You can buy them in many places but I purchase in boxes of 12 from Amazon for only $25.00 And i use them for a lot of jobs.
I decided to show you how the pen tip worked for me as this gave me the finest detail.

 The Zig glue pen has 2 functions. You can use the pen as a permanent adhesive when using it wet (blue colour) and when it is dry it is repositionable.  For this technique we need to use the pen when the adhesive in clear (repositionable)

Shake the pen and draw on your project with the glue pen. The thin tip gives you great control.

Let the glue dry. When the Zig glue dried it becomes tacky. If you try to use the foil on the wet glue it will not stick. we need a tacky layer.

Once the glue is dry we can place the foil on the glue.

Rub the foil with your finger to get the foil to adhere to the glue. You will see the foil lift off the glue when it is adhered.

Remove the foil once rubbed on. With this technique you do not need to use your Minc machine and any foil will work.

The foil is now adhered and the  glue is no longer tacky.
as long as the glue is dry and tacky it will work. you can even part foil your drawing and used several colours.

You can even put some of the Zig glue onto stamps then stamp and let dry and go tacky then foil.

Until next time ......

Foiling 101.

*Nothing to Disclose. I am not affiliated with Heidi Swapp or American Crafts.

Foiling has become very popular in the past 12 months. Many companies have brought out different products to foil with.
Heidi Swapp brought out the Minc Machine. This is a tool that will apply foil on your projects by using heat and toner. The process appears to be simple but there is a little  "science" behind getting a perfect finish.

I currently help Admin a group on Facebook called Heidi Swapp Minc. In this group we have many different people from beginners to people who have been foiling for years.

One of the most common questions in the group is " Why does my project have black spots?" or " why is the foil not going on my whole project?"
These are legitimate questions and to understand why this is happening to your project, you need to understand how the Heidi Swapp Minc machine works and how the printer, toner, cardboard/media you use make a huge impact to the finished project.

READ MORE AFTER THE JUMP >>>>>>

Silhouette Mint Review and Tutorial

Hi there Everyone!!! Today I have a tutorial on how to use the Silhouette Mint.

What is a Silhouette Mint you ask?? Well it is the latest gadget to come out from Silhouette America.

Basically it is a stamp maker. What I like about this tho compared to all of the previous stamp makers out on the market is that its simple! Yup simple.

The ones like the Theresa Collins stamp maker revolve around using a UV lamp printing a bunch of stuff on various films and "curing"your stamp. Sure the final product was a clear stamp you can re use over and over, but man a PITA to do!!!

The mint machine works with a variety of different size stamp sets. from the tiny 15x15mm ones to a 30x90mm there are plenty of variations to pick from.

The machine comes with all you need to create your first 2 stamps, and then you will need more sets.

At first I really did think that this was an expensive tool to make stamps, but really in the scheme of things its not too bad.

I usually spend on average AUD$25 to get a 15 x 60mm self inking stamp made at somewhere like vistaprint., and once you have the actual stamp set all you need to do it re purchase the stamp sheet sets and interchange in the blocks. (I will show you this shortly.)

So lets check out how it all works.......

Heidi Swapp Minc Review

image source- http://heidiswapp.com

Hi there everyone!!

So a little while back I purchased a Heidi Swapp Minc Machine from Spotlight. They were on sale for $149 from $199 so I was pretty excited to get it if such a discount. Since then they have dropped in price and I have seen them for as little as $99.
But enough with prices, I want to share with you today how the Heidi Swapp Minc works, and show you a short tutorial on how to use it.

As I have been working with the Minc now for almost 6 months, I have learnt that it is super versatile. Ill be honest, I really thought you could grab any laminator and foil your project, and I did just that! I grabbed my cheapo ALDI laminator and tried to foil......with poor results. The image was splotchy and not all the foil adhered to the image. Considering I was using a Heidi Swapp brand of product I really thought it would work. That was mistake number 1. Thinking I could go all cheapo and use any old thing.
3 Laminators later, I still got a mixed result.Again all spotty and not perfect adhesion.

So I invested in a Heidi Swapp Minc Machine. To start with everything I foiled came out perfect. All the Heidi Swapp accessories and papers worked a treat! I loved it!

Heidi Swapp paper pad and adhesive alphabet light and hot pink foil

Then I tried to print my own images to foil, with mixed results. I decided to purchase a new laser printer. I brought the one that Heidi Swapp recommended, the HP mono P1102w laser printer.
Since I purchased that laser printer, everything I have created has foiled perfectly!
There are a lot of other factors that affect a perfect foil and I will do a post on that soon, but for the money, getting a good printer and the minc machine is totally worth it if you want perfect results!

So how do you use the machine? Today I will how you how to make a basic card with the Heidi Swapp Minc.

Firstly you will need the following-
Heidi Swapp Minc Machine
Heidi Swapp Foil- gold
Carrier folder(comes with the Minc machine)
Cardstock
Laser Printer.

1- On your white card stock, print the image or sentiment you would like to foil. If you have a laser printer use this, if you do not have access to a laser printer, that is OK, you can use a regular inkjet printer and take to your local copy shop. Copy shops use toner in their machines so just get a copy of your design then you can foil that.

2- Once you have printed your image cut the foil to fit over the card.

3- Place in the carrier folder and run through your Minc Machine. It is good to note that there are 5 settings on your machine. Each one is for different material you are foiling. With standard smooth cardstock and a laser printer I have found that setting 3 is perfect.

4- Once it has run through remove the card and foil carefully from the folder and slowly remove the foil.

5- You will see that your image/sentiment is foiled! It is that simple!!!! Fold your card and it is ready to go!

All in all the Heidi Swapp Minc is an amazing machine as long as you do read all instructions and use the correct product. The rrp$199 price tag here in australia is a lot of cash, but if you can find it for $99 on sale its more worth it!

Stay tuned as ill be sharing tips and tricks with the Minc soon.
Until next time.....

Look what arrived!!!!!

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So in the post last week came a awesome little tool! Yup I got the Silhouette mint finally!
I cant wait to share it with you all and a tutorial or two!!!!

So watch this space!!!!!

Until next time......

A New Look for Loki Made it...(Formally A Day in the Life of Osiris and Loki.)

Hi there everyone!!!!

Well I have finally revamped the blog!!! yeah!!!!! Im hoping to get some great tutorials up and running soon on the Silhouette Minc machine, The Silhouette Cameo and the Silhouette Mint Machine...which I might add just arrived to my house today!!!!!

I have a you tube channel up and running now, who atm only has nail art videos and tutorials, as I need to share it with my other blog  Lokis Lacquer but i can pop different playlists in so if you see lokis lacquer about fear not its me too!!!!!

So until next time.......