iCraft Deco Foil Transfer Sheets, 6″ x 12″, Silver, 20 Piece

I can’t necessarily say I recommend this product, simply because it was so incredibly hard to figure out how to get consistent results. Granted, we were beginners in the “gold foiling game,” so we hadn’t he slightest clue what we were doing or what we were getting ourselves into. By the way, if you’ve gotten as far as considering buying this product, I’m guessing you’re at least basically familiar with the gold foiling process already, so I write this review based on that assumption.

If you’re looking to complete a small project using gold foiling, i.e. a cute sign or 5 greeting cards or something, your life will be easier. It’s the bulk projects that are more difficult, since the results are unpredictable, and you have to churn out much, much more gold foiling in order to get enough that pass the quality test. The process of incorporating gold foiling into about 100 DIY wedding invitations, “details” cards, and “RSVP” cards ended up being more finicky than we ever thought possible. Seems like every single variable had an effect on how consistently the gold foil adhered to the surface of the paper or card stock, so we went through a ton, and I mean A TON, of trial and error in order to get our final results, which were admittedly really good in the end. By “good results,” I mean the gold foil adhered to the surface consistently, and by “bad results” I mean it didn’t, and there were unsightly patches of black interspersed throughout the text we were trying to gold foil. And it’s actually very unpredictable as to which kinds of results you’re going to get at any given time, even if all of the variables seem to be right! The following variables seemed to matter a lot in our experience: which laser printer we used, whether the laser printer was loaded with authentic or knock-off toner, what types of paper or card stock we used, how long we allowed for the laminator to heat up each time before using it, the direction in which we inserted the thing being gold foiled into the laminator (no joke), the number of times in a row going through the laminator, giving the laminator intermittent “breaks” to heat back up, the direction and technique used to peel off the gold foil, etc. Again, after much trial, error, and frustration, here’s what ended up working best for us. We used this gold foil in conjunction with:

– This card stock: “Cougar Natural 100# Card Stock 8.5×11 – 100 Pk” (ordered from Amazon – $19.95 per 100-pack);
– This laminator: “Royal Sovereign 9-Inch Laminator (CS-923)” (ordered from Amazon for $28.99); and
– A large, office-sized HP laser printer, loaded with authentic HP toner (Sorry – I don’t know the exact printer model).

A few tips and pearls of wisdom stemming from our sorrowful gold foiling journey:

– Authentic HP toner, for some reason, always produced the best results. Don’t know why.
– The heavier weight we went in terms of the card stock, the better the results got. (Although this 100# stuff listed above was the heaviest variety we tried.) The gold foil didn’t adhere to regular printer paper very well at all.
– Let the laminator heat up for at least 10 minutes before you begin using it.
– If you’re on a roll inserting sheet after sheet, like we often operated, let the laminator have “breaks” intermittently so it can heat back up. (If we were starting to get bad results and weren’t sure why, we gave the laminator a 10-minute or so break and oftentimes saw better results afterwards.)
– Yes, the directions in which you (1) insert into the laminator and (2) peel off the gold foil can absolutely matter, so experiment with different possibilities, and keep track of what works best for whatever you’re gold foiling (particularly relevant if you’re crazy enough to do a bulk project like we did, where you’re going to be gold foiling the same sort of thing many, many times). For example, sometimes we got better results by consistently inserting something into the laminator either upside down or rightside up. And, after laminating, sometimes the gold foil adhered better when it was peeled off starting from one direction over another. And peeling the gold foil away slowly/gently certainly helps it adhere better.
– If you’re continually getting bad results seemingly no matter what you try, sometimes it helps to send the same thing through the laminator two times in a row. This, of course, was much more time consuming, but sometimes it helped the gold foil adhere better to the “more stubborn” text.
– Along similar lines, if you get bad results and the gold foil doesn’t adhere to all of your text, or if you inadvertently miss a spot, you can try placing leftover scraps of gold foil over the missed areas and running it through the laminator again. In keeping with the gold foil guesswork, sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn’t.

I’m sure there are more tips that can be offered, but that’s all that comes to mind for now! Had we known from the outset what a pain this would be, we probably wouldn’t have attempted it, but hopefully our anecdotes and advice will help make someone else’s gold foiling process go much more smoothly. Good luck!

But expensive for foil sheets. But they are one of the biggest brands and applied on well for a first timer trying out foiling.

I didn’t want to experiment with cheaper products until I have some experience. Buy cheap, buy twice is always my Moto.

The gold really popped after foiling.

I love the color and the deal of getting so many sheets of foil in one package (and not having to buy multiple rolls of foil). However, if you’re looking to use this with a laminator, I’d suggest laminating a design that isn’t very intricate. This foil tends to be a bit stiff and small details tend not to show up as defined when you lift the foil off. Also, I noticed that there may be some foil flaking off if the foiled piece is handled a lot. I made some personal cards and foiled them all in Deco Gold and Deco Rose Gold, and for some reason, both colors now flake onto my hands when I handle the cards. However, they are decent foil and somewhat inexpensive for the amount of fun you have foiling art pieces with many different colors. I’d still buy these if I’m working on low-stress, for-fun projects.

Brilliant. Make such a difference to home printed invitations. Quick and easy. If you use a laser printer to print. Heat a laminator to the hotter setting. The best way i’ve found is to place the transfer paper over the area you want gold. Then put another piece of plain paper on top. Run it through the laminator and then carefully and slowly peal the gold paper away and there you go.
Only other hint is that the gold side faces up not down for this to work.

So much better than the MINC, no comparison. This prints thicker and is easier to work with as the paper is sturdier. I’ve had the best results consistently with this brand, and mediocre results every other time with the MINC brand – wish I had only purchased the Therm O deco foil.

Works really well with a laminator. If you’re not getting great results, putting a thin sheet of clear plastic to cover over the foil makes it perfect and smooth every time. I use a cut sheet of transparency film, like the kind they use in projectors – its just a sheet of acetate and it smoothes the foil over the paper giving better results.