Silhouette Portrait 3 and the WRMK Foil Quill

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Hi Everyone! A few months ago I finally crossed over and got a Silhouette Portrait 3, and I love it!! It works like I always thought my Cricut should work.

Last week I tried the Spellbinders Glimmer Foil with the WRMK Foil Quill in my Cricut Maker. The results weren’t great on cardstock, but it looked really nice on my clear sticker paper. So this week, I decided to try it on my Portrait 3 because I can adjust the speed and pressure with the Foil Quill, unlike the Cricut.

I have to use the D adapter for the Foil Quill with the Portrait 3, the usual A adapter for Silhouette doesn’t fit the newer machines.

Use Adapter D for the Silhouette Portrait 3.

First I tried the regular copper metallic foil on my favorite black cardstock. I’m using the Standard Grip mat with a Force of 22 and Speed 2. It looks fantastic!

Copper Foil, Medium Foil Quill Tip

Then I tried the regular gold foil, also on black cardstock. It looks pretty nice, there are a few spots where the foil didn’t stick great, but I might not have had my foil taped down tight enough (very important when foiling).

Gold Foil, Medium Foil Quill Tip

Next I tried the Silver iridescent foil with the same Force of 22, Speed 2. It looks sooooooo much better than it did on my Cricut Maker! There are a couple fo spots where the foil didn’t stick so I’m going to try a few more settings.

Iridescent Silver, Medium Foil Quill Tip

I tried a bunch of different pressures and speeds, but none of them are as good as the Force 22, speed 2.

Iridescent Silver, Medium Tip, different pressures and speeds

I also tried the gold holographic foil, it did much better on the the Portrait 3 than with my Cricut Maker, but there are still a few spots where it didn’t stick to the cardstock.

Gold Holographic Foil, Medium Foil Quill Tip

Then I wanted to try it on some black vinyl for stickers. It came out pretty good, but there are some gaps in the solid hearts.

Gold Holographic Foil, Medium Tip on Black Adhesive Vinyl

I changed the fill for the solid hearts from just diagonal lines to a crosshatch fill. Which is SUPER EASY to do in Silhouette Studio, and the results are much better!

Silver Iridescent Foil, Medium Tip on Black Adhesive Vinyl

I wanted to try using the Light Grip mat since the backing of the vinyl sticks a lot to the Standard Grip mat. The Light Grip mat is slightly thicker than the Standard Grip and it’s just enough difference that no matter what force I use, it’s too much and it even melted my vinyl.

Silver Iridescent Foil, Medium Tip on Black Adhesive Vinyl using Light Grip Mat

So I switched back to the Standard Mat and it works much better! There are still some little gaps where the foil didn’t cover, so I decided to do a test with the Bold Tip Quill to see if it gets better coverage with the filled shapes.

Gold Holographic Foil, Medium Tip using crosshatch fill

Yes! The Bold Tip does an even better job with the filled shapes!

Gold Holographic Foil, Bold Tip using crosshatch fill

Silver Iridescent Foil, Bold Tip using crosshatch fill

One final test with the Bold Tip on cardstock. I ended up having to switch my mat to the Light grip mat, I wasn't getting enough pressure with the Standard mat. The Bold Tip gives a really nice flat fill, but I think I like the Medium tip better for lettering.

Gold Holographic Foil, Medium Tip using crosshatch fill, Light Grip Mat

An important lesson learned this week is that the cutting mat can have a really big impact on the outcome of the project!

Silver Iridescent Foil, Bold Tip using crosshatch fill. Top is using the Light Grip Mat. Bottom is using the Standard Grip Mat.

A Cricut Foil Transfer Sheet Alternative

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Hi Everyone! Now that I’ve found some good black cardstock and decent pressure settings, I’ve been experimenting more and more with my Cricut Foil Transfer tool. One of the drawbacks to the foil transfer tool is that there aren’t really any pressure sensitive foils available, aside from the Cricut brand.

I’ve been researching other foils to use and came across some people having success with the Spellbinders Glimmer Hot Foils. They are labeled as hot foils, not pressure sensitive, but other people have been getting good results with them, so I thought I would give them a try. I purchased the essential metallics set, which includes a roll of gold, silver, copper, and pewter. I also bought a set of iridescents that contains a roll of silver, gold, purple, and teal.

These rolls are only 5 inches wide which is something to consider when laying out your design. But they are also 15 ft. long, so there’s a lot of length to work with. You’re not just limited to the 4x6 or 12x12 sheets like the Cricut brand.

I going to test some of my single line SVG files on heavy cardstock. I’m using the Cricut Foil Transfer Fine Point tip.

Since I use gold a lot, I’m first going to test the gold from the essential metallics set. I think the foil sheet is little heavier than the Cricut brand. It didn’t curl up and was pretty easy to tape it down flat even though I cut it from a roll.

Even though I’m using heavy 100lb cardstock, I set my material to Copy Paper 20lb, default pressure for the Foil Transfer tool. I’ve been getting the best results so far with these settings.

After my machine is done, I peel back the foil and the results are BEAUTIFUL!!!

Next, I’m trying the copper from the same essential metallics set. This time I’m testing it on my new favorite black cardstock. Again, the results are GORGEOUS! The copper is a little dustier than the gold. I was able to carefully clean it up with some blue painters tape, without the tape removing foil from the actual design.

Now, I’m going to try a couple of the colors from the iridescent set. First up is the silver iridescent. It transferred nicely, but the iridescence gets a little lost, most likely due to the thinness of the lines.

I also tried the gold confetti iridescent roll. Again, it transferred nicely, but the iridescent effect gets lost. Once again, probably due to the thickness of my lines.

Overall, I REALLY like this foil. I feel like I get more consistent and better results than with the Cricut foil. They also have a wider selection of colors than the Cricut brand. The only drawback I have found so far is the 5 inch width of the roll. But it shouldn’t be that much of an issue if I plan my designs accordingly.

I also plan on trying this foil with my WRMK foil quill. I’ll post those results later.