How to Add Foil Accents (without Toner or Heat!)

I originally purchased reactive foil to use with my laser printer as I've seen cool projects where you can print designs and add foil to them by running them through a laminator, but my results were too spotty, and so I decided to try using my foil in a different way! I found that by using adhesive, the foil sticks much better, resulting in much nicer foil designs.

• Foil: In this project, I used Minc reactive foil in gold
• Scissors
• Adhesive: In this project, I used Tombow MONO permanent adhesive
• Paper: I used plain printer paper to protect my work surface and also as a guide to mask off parts of the material I didn't want to get foil on.
• Materials you want to add foil accents to (e.g. envelopes, cardstock, sticker paper, kraft paper) and any other tools (e.g. hole punch) you need to create your desired item (e.g. gift tags)

I decided on adding small foil accents on all four corners of the front of a card envelope.

Tip: Start simple and practice before trying to get too fancy! :)

I used printer paper to cover parts of the envelope, revealing a small triangle portion that I wanted to foil and applied the adhesive in the area. Using the printer paper as a guide and mask helps to keep a neat line and to make sure the size of the area is what you want it to be -- it's sometimes hard to see where the adhesive is going!

Make sure to have a piece of foil that can fully cover your adhesive area. I like to use up unused areas of foil (shown here)!

Peel off the foil backing to reveal the result!

Examine the foiled area. If there are spotty areas that don't have foil but have adhesive, reapply foil in these areas. Clean off any residual adhesive by rubbing them off with your fingers for a more finished product.

You're done! Enjoy the foil accents!

Try using different types of adhesives (e.g. glue sticks, craft glue) and apply them to other types of materials (e.g. sticker paper, kraft paper)!

Pictured here is a gift box ribbon design I created by using a similar type of adhesive (Scotch Advanced Tape Glider) which provided a more textured look on a cardboard box.

You can even try using stencils to make more detailed designs.

Add foil accents to paper grocery bags to reuse them as gift bags and gift wrap!

I'd love to see what kind of projects you make -- please share!