Tutorial: Use Heat Transfer Foil to Create a Stylish Laminated Pendant

This tutorial will show you how to create a super stylish pendant using heat transfer foil and watercolor paints to embellish a photocopy. In the spirit of the DIY Wedding idea, I decided to ask my friend Phil Guie to draw an image for his girlfriend, my friend and fellow NewNew team member Kari Love, something that he knew she would find very romantic. I took Phil's drawing, an adorable depiction of the eternal love between the Unicorn and the Narwhal, and put a frame around it, then shrunk it down to the right size to be worn as a necklace. With no further ado, here are all the steps you will need to follow to make a shiny, uniquely romantic laminated pendant for the one you love.

Step #1: Assemble Your Materials! You might not have all of the materials for this project just lying around, but the're all things that are good to have on hand and should come in handy for millions of future projects.

Materials:
1. Black-and-white photocopy of an image you would like to make into a pendant. A black-and-white laser print should also work. It's fine to make your copies on regular 20 lb copy paper.
2. Gold foil joss paper or other decorative paper for the back of the pendant.
3. Heat Set Laminate Pouches, 10 mil thickness. You should use small pouches, such as those made to laminate business cards, for this project, because when you are laminating small items, a small pouch is less likely to trap ugly air bubbles that will cause you trouble.
4. A regular home iron.
5. Metallic heat transfer foil. Transfer foil can be purchased in New York City at the Pearl Paint Craft Center on Lispenard St. or online at one of my favorite suppliers, Dharma Trading Co.
6. 1/16" eyelets and an eyelet setting tool. 1/16" eyelets can be hard to find. I ordered mine online from this company.
7. A 1/16" hole punch. You can find these at most art supply stores.
8. A hammer.
Things not pictured that you will also need: A glue stick, scissors, Metal jump rings, and a necklace chain to put your pendant on.
And, finally, you will need access to a laminator.

Step #2: Transfer the foil onto your image. Set your iron to the Cotton setting, no steam. Place the foil on top of your photocopy with the shiny side facing up. The foil should transfer after a few seconds of heating with the iron. After you peel the foil sheet off of your image you may want to gently rub the image with a finger to make sure all the foiled lines are clean and crisp.

The photo below shows the copied drawing pre- and post-foiling.

Step #3: Make your image beautiful by painting with watercolors. You could also color it with colored pencils or markers.

Step #4: Glue your image to the back of the joss paper so that the back of your pendant will be an attractive gold color instead of just white. Any decorative paper or magazine image will work to make an attractive back for your pendant.

Step #5: Cut your image down to its final size.

Step #6: Laminate your image. You can laminate multiple pendants together, but you should leave around 3/8" of space between them to make sure the laminate seals completely around each one.


Step #7: Cut your pendant out, leaving about a 1/16" seal of laminate all the way around.


Step #8: Make a hole with your 1/16" punch. For rectangular pendants, it helps to measure and make sure your hole is in the center so that the pendant hangs straight.


Step #9: Insert an eyelet into the hole and set it with the eyelet setting tool and a hammer.

Step #10: Add a jump ring, slip your pendant onto a chain, and give it to the one you love!

Stella - lookcloselypress