I love finding new and interesting art pieces to hang on my walls, but you know what I don't love? The exorbitant prices that the stores charge for even the smallest framed print! That's why I love getting my DIY on and making my own gold foil prints. And the best part? You can fully customise your prints to create something truely unique! Soon all your friends will be asking where you bought all your fab art work - they won't believe you did it yourself!!
I already know what you're thinking - how much is this going to cost me?! Whilst it can get a bit exxy buying all the supplies for a DIY project, hopefully you will already have some of these at home, if not, I will give you cheaper alternatives that won't break the bank.
Here's what you will need:
Paper
Laser printer
Reactive foil
Laminator or iron
Photo frame
To get started, use Word or Photoshop to lay out your quote, choose your favourite font and prepare it for printing. Alternatively, check out Google Images for a design that you like. Just make sure that it is black and white with minimal shading, so that it will print out correctly.
Now print out your design using a laser printer (the reactive foil will only bond to the paper if printed with a laser printer, not an inkjet printer). If you don't have a laser printer at home, you can have your design printed off by a printing service offered at places like Officeworks, it should only cost you about 10c for an A4 size, however if you choose a paper with gloss or a higher gsm, it will be slightly more costly. Alternatively, you can buy a toner ink marker like this one and freehand your design.
For this project I used some glossy photo paper to print my design onto, however I have used regular paper and patterned scrapbooking paper in the past and these work great too! The reactive foil I used for this project is from the brand Heidi Swapp, which can be purchased here.
Now, cut out a piece of the foil big enough to cover your design, and lay it on top of the paper with the shiny side facing up, making sure there isn't any stray hairs or dust settled on the design as it will stop the foil from transferring. If you have a laminator, feed the two pieces through, making sure the foil stays in place. If you are using an iron, place an additional piece of paper on top of the foil and use a low heat setting to ensure nothing burns or wrinkles. Once it is cool, remove the foil to unveil you masterpiece!
I absolutely love how the prints come out, totally profesh!!!
Think of all of the things you could add gold foil to! I have already gone a bit crazy, creating more framed prints for my home, which you can see in the slideshow below. I am itching to try some other ideas (I'm thinking DIY gold foil party invites without the "arm-and-a-leg" price tag)!!
Let me know if you are going to try making your own gold foil prints, or if you have any other ideas you'd like me to DIY!
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