Foiling with the Silhouette Portrait 3 and WRMK Bevel Quill

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Hi Everyone!

Last week I did some foiling with my Portrait 3 and the WRMK foil quill. This week I wanted to share another technique you can use to foil with your Silhouette Portrait 3 or Cameo.

I found the WRMK Bevel Quill a few weeks ago in the clearance section at my local JoAnn’s, and I’m a sucker for all the little attachments for Cricut and Silhouette machines. Another bonus, I can use this tip in either my Cricut Maker or my Portrait 3.

The bevel tip has a small ball point and is intended to deboss on the “bevel board" materials that are included with the tip , but I wanted to try it with the Spellbinders Glimmer Foil since the foil is also pressure sensitive.

WRMK Bevel Quill

The A adapter included in the kit is intended for the Silhouette machines, but it doesn’t fit the Portrait 3 or Cameo 4.

First, I tried it with the D adapter that also came in the kit, but it doesn’t fit very snugly in the Portrait 3 and pops up out of the tool holder every so slightly when the machine presses down on the tip and there’s no longer any pressure for the tip to apply the foil.

So I grabbed the D adapter from my foil quill set, it’s just a hair wider than the other D adapter. It makes such a big difference, and it stays nice and snug in the tool holder.

D adapter from Foil Quill set

Once again, I used my favorite black cardstock and the Standard grip mat with the regular copper and gold Spellbinder foils. I tried out a few different settings. I ended up getting pretty decent results with my Force between 20-25, Speed 2, and 2 passes.

Copper foil and gold foil on black cardstock

The results are pretty close to what I get with my Cricut Foil Transfer tool and my Maker. The foil doesn’t always stick in some places and it can be a little dusty when you remove the foil sheet after transferring. The WRMK Foil Quill is still my favorite tool for foiling, but this is definitely a good option if you don’t want to be bothered heating up the WRMK Foil Quill.

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.

Spellbinders Glimmer Foil with the WRMK Foil Quill

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Hi Everyone! Last week I tried out the Spellbinders Glimmer foils with the Cricut Foil Transfer tool and my Cricut Maker, and I got some pretty decent results. This week I want to try the foils with my WRMK Foil Quills since they are actually intended to be hot foils. So here we go!

I am most excited to try the holographic foils. They transferred okay with the Cricut Foil Transfer tool, but the holographic effects were kind of lost.

I started out with the gold glittery foil on my heavy white cardstock with the medium foil quill. There are some little spots where the foil didn't transfer completely, especially in my filled shapes. But you can see the glittery effect much more that you could with the foil transfer tool.

I tried it out again on black cardstock with some different single line drawings. Again, some spots where it didn’t completely. The holographic effect was also not as noticeable on the black cardstock. So overall, the gold holographic glitter didn’t do great on cardstock.

Next I tried the silver holographic foil on black cardstock. Also, some spots where it didn’t transfer completely, especially in the filled shapes. But you can see the iridescent effect, especially when you hold the card at an angle. It’s really difficult to capture in a photo, but the iridescence is there!

Then I tried the regular metallics. First, the copper on black cardstock, still with the medium tip. It transferred BEAUTIFULLY!!

After that I tried the gold on my heavy white cardstock. It also worked beautifully!

I decided to give the holographic foils one last shot on some glossy clear sticker paper. First, I tried the gold holographic glitter with the medium tip. It transferred REALLY well to the sticker paper, and you can see sparkly holgraphic effect. (again, super difficult to photograph, but it looks really good in person).

Finally, my personal favorite, the silver holographic foil on the clear sticker paper. It is so pretty and transferred perfectly.

Overall, the holographic foils didn’t work great on cardstock, but they are gorgeous on my clear sticker paper. The regular metallics worked really well on cardstock, I didn’t test them on the sticker paper, but I imagine they would work great on that as well.

I’m really excited to try these foils with my Silhouette Portrait 3 machine where I can actually adjust the speed and pressure for the foil quill. I will post about that next week!

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.