Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Product Review from Firecracker Designs: Stamp-N-Foil Fish

Pamela of Firecracker Designs was recently contacted by a company called Stampee.net about possibly carrying this foil product in her store. Stampee.net offered a test sample of the Stamp-N-Foil and bonding powder, and yours truly was designated as the official tester for FCD. :o)

The foil product comes in a generous 4.75" x 20' roll, so there is plenty to play with. The maker intends for the product to be used/applied with the aid of a heat laminating machine. As I don't own one, nor was I willing to buy one specifically to test this product, I set out on a mission to see how it could be used sans laminator.

My first few experiments invloved the foil, bonding powder, a heat gun and bone folder. This produced okay results. It was a bit hard on the fingers since I had to be right under the heat gun rubbing with the bone folder; the results were decent, albeit distressed. If you were going for a distressed look, this would be an acceptable application method - but watch your fingers!

So, the next thing I tried was a fine tipped glue pen (Zig) and free-handed drawing. I placed the foil directly on top of the glue pen design, tapped it in place with my fingers, and let it dry. Once dry, I removed the foil sheet. The results were very exciting! Even though I only used a border scrap of paper for this test, I may try to incorporate it into a future piece of work. It was playful and fresh.
So, the next thing I decided to do, was use one of FCD's die cuts, the something fishy fish to be specific, and the coordinating stamp. I covered the foil with a piece of paper to protect it, and rubbed it to firmly adhere it. I then set it aside to dry. Once dry, I removed the foil sheet, and stamped the image on top using black Stazon, and added a bit of shimmerz to lightly color portions of the fish. I then attached this matte to a plain ivory card. To finish the card, I used the fine tip Zig glue pen and drew a border around the card. I then covered the glue with some foil strips and set it aside to dry. The finihshed results are quite happy: shiny, playful, cheery. This will definitely brighten anyone's day! What do you think? This is the scanned version; you know scans never show shine very well, but this version captures the color fairly well:


Here are a couple of alternate views taken with a camera to capture the shine. Notice the shimmery background on the handmade paper? Lovely, isn't it? And the clean shine of the foil on the border and fish - also very pretty:




Hope you enjoyed this product test. The product is fun, but to really appreciate its intended purpose, you must have a heat laminator. The product is supposed to work with a stamped image, coat with bonding powder & heat (like you would a clear EP), then apply the foil, cover with a sheet of paper, and feed through a laminator. When done, the image is supposed to be a perfect rendition of the stamped image in foil. I suspect not many stampers own a heat laminator. If you do, and would be interested in seeing this product in FCD's store, I'd appreciate a comment back.

As always, thanks for stopping by! Happy Stampin'!
Ursula
Thanks to Ursula and Firecracker Designs by Pamela!
To purchase Something Fishy stamps and die cuts and Shimmerz, please visit Firecracker Designs 
♥ Stampee Diva

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