Make a Custom Foiled Birthday Card with the Foil Quill

Hello! I’m Aly Dosdall, crafter, spokesperson and social media influencer. I’m so excited to be here to share the hottest tool in the craft industry with you, the award-winning Foil Quill by We R Memory Keepers. The Foil Quill works like a sketch pen does in your electronic cutting machine (Silhouette, Cricut, Brother, or Sizzix) to draw in foil on your material (paper, leather, vinyl, acetate, fabric, wood, etc). There are 6 different Foil Quill USB Design Drives available with 200 PNG and SVG files on each that you can use with your Foil Quill. You can also use your own library of SVG files, fonts, and single line sketch files which means you can customize or personalize your foil projects. So cool! Let me show you how it works as I make a DIY foiled birthday card.

Step 1. Plug your Foil Quill pen into a USB power source. You can use a battery pack for charging smart phones, a laptop, a tablet or a wall adapter. You’ll see a light on the Quill when it’s receiving power (I’m using the Standard size tip, but a Fine tip and a Bold tip are also available either in the All In One Kit or sold separately). Let your Quill heat up for about 10 minutes.

Step 2. Insert the Quill into the appropriate adapter sleeve for your cutting machine (A=Silhouette, B=Brother, C=Cricut, D=Sizzix).

Step 3. Place the Quill in the carriage where your blade would go. (Some machines have a sketch pen holder which you can use as well, just be sure you have selected the proper tool in your software before foiling.)

Step 4. Be sure the cord is out of the way so it doesn’t get tangled as your machine is foiling.

Open an SVG file or use the font tool in your software to type your desired message. The best files for foiling are single line sketch files, and I’m using one from the Foil Quill Holiday USB Design Drive. Once you’ve resized your image and placed it where you want on your virtual cutting mat, it’s important to make sure you change the settings in your software so they work for sketching like you would with a pen. I’m using Silhouette Studio Designer Edition software with my Cameo 3 machine.

Your settings should be exactly as shown in the photo above if you’re using the same software and machine. If not, I highly recommend joining the Facebook Group “WRMK Foil Quill for Everyone”. There are lots of tutorials, tips, and other crafters who can help you no matter what type of cutting machine you have.

Now you need to prepare your cutting mat. Place your material down on your cutting mat, then place your foil over the material with the shiny side facing you. You can use the placement tape that comes with the Foil Quill Pens to hold your foil in place, or the Foil Quill Magnetic Mat works great too!

Load your mat into your machine and watch the magic happen!

Gently peel away the foil from your material and say “WOW!” Pretty amazing, right?

Once I finished with the foiling, I mounted my cardstock on a contrasting card and added some decorative washi tape and a sequin sticker. I like to keep the other elements of my projects fairly simple so the foiling can really shine!

Thanks again for stopping by, and happy foiling!