It's Easy! Foil Quill on Wood!

Foil Quill on wood? Yes you can!!! I've spent the last couple of weeks playing with my foil quill and seeing all the really cute Christmas Foil Quill designs, I just knew I needed to figure out a way to do this on wood! I was surprised by how easy this is to do!

Supplies:

• Wood Block from a popular kids game, painted with acrylic paint
• Polyurethane and brush
• Foil
• Foil Quill tool and tape
• Appropriate Die Cutting machine
• Lazertran Waterslide Decal Paper, I got mine on Amazon
• Bowl of water

Instructions:

1. Paint the wood blocks with acrylic paint of your choice and let dry thoroughly.
2. In this sample I'm using the "Ho Ho Ho" design from Crunchy Pickle "Foil Quill Christmas Words set 1". I have it sized to fit a 3" x 7/8" wood block to 2.29" wide by 0.70" tall.
3. Foil your design on Lazertran Waterslide Paper. I used the Inkjet version, but since you aren't printing, I imagine you can use the laser paper too. Be sure to foil on the chalky, egg white colored side of the paper. I made the mistake of putting my foiling paper wrong side down and when pulling it off of my mat, it left the special coating on the mat ... so don't do that!

I used my boldest foil tip (blue one) on a speed of 5 and a pressure of 7 with one pass.  

4. Remove from your mat and take a craft knife and cut away any excess paper from the design. This will minimize the special coating and the foil will look more "melted" into the wood.

5. Now take the cut away design and drop into a bowl of room temperature water. It will curl up on you, but that is okay, it will flatten out. 

6. You will know when the decal is ready - it will slip and slide away from the backing paper.

7. Now carefully slide it onto your wood block. It has a gum paste on it and will stick. I caution you as it is fragile and will tear easily.

8. Gently smooth out the decal and press with a lint free cloth to remove the wrinkles, water and bubbles. 

9.  Let it dry - The paper will turn white again when dry.

10.  Now for the melting magic!!! Brush VERY GENTLY a THIN coat of polyurethane over the top of the dry foil. You will see the decal "melt" into the wood piece. I caution you here too to be very stingy with the polyurethane - too much and the wood becomes plastic looking and dulls the foil. Let it dry for a day or two, depending on the humidity in your region.

11. That's it! Now dress it up however you want. I took small drill bit sized 5/64 and drilled a pilot hole in the top of the block before I painted them. Then just added an eye hook, some twine, ribbon and a bell. 

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