kaberett: Photo of a pile of old leather-bound books. (books)
[personal profile] kaberett

Okay! So! The notebook I have bought myself a decade's supply of (just starting year two) is the Pebble Stationery Co. A5 Cosmo Hardcover, which is covered with linen. (I actually have five blue and five grey, and I'm intending to alternate them.)

I had resigned myself to needing to keep things carefully organised and even then probably have to actually open the notebooks up when I find myself wanting to refer back to something, But Then a few days ago it Occurred to me that I know that linen-covered notebooks can be stamped with debossed designs, with or without (hot, I think?) foiling. I also (think I) know that this does not (necessarily) require the design to be stamped prior to assembly of the notebook (but maybe spines are harder???).

... I quite like the idea of stamping the year onto these notebooks (again, optionally with foiling), but I am having Difficulty finding information on (1) what kind of set-up I'd need given that I have this one extremely specific use-case, and (2) the extent to which foils contain Plastic (which I would not be able to justify). "Okay but can I also stamp the spines" is its own whole separate Thing.

Most of the information I'm managing to find focusses on cardmaking and involves a specialist printer that will accept materials of maximum thickness of around 2mm, which are not exactly, ah, relevant. But surely some of you have already fallen down this rabbit hole, or at least can tell me what I should be searching for to get slightly less frustrating results? How ridiculously expensive and impractical would a home set-up be given that I have no desire to set up my own stationery monogramming cottage business? Are there places that offer this as a service for notebooks that have already been written in as opposed to ones you're buying from them new??? etc!

(no subject)

Date: 2025-01-04 03:07 am (UTC)
momijizukamori: Shatterstar from the comic series X-Factor, looking very excited (you mean there's more?)
From: [personal profile] momijizukamori
So there's a few levels of options. A traditional hot foil stamping machine is not really a hobbyist user item, largely, unless you're REALLY into doing hot foil stuff (I think the cheapest I've seen a secondhand machine for is $400 USD and that was considered a crazy good deal), but you may be able to find a small letterpress shop that could do it for you - but you'd be limited to their existing lettersets/decorations unless you want to pay a bunch to have a new brass stamp made (I have no idea what fees for that would be like).

There are ALSO hot foil attachments for various home craft cutters, though I think the journal is probably too thick to put in (the clearance on the one I have is only 3mm). However! The company that makes those ALSO makes freehand hot foil pens, and I know people who've had decent luck either cutting a cardstock stencil or tracing over a drawn template. Buuuut I can say for sure that the foil for those has a plastic carrier layer (not part of the final product, the heat activates the glue on the other side so it sticks to your object and pulls off from the carrier), and I have no idea how much metal is actually in the 'foil' layer.

Another related option is regular foil/leaf, which you can get with and without a plastic carrier, is definitely actually metal, and which can be stuck down with a variety of adhesives - the downsides there are that getting the desired pattern in adhesive can be hard, the stuff without a carrier is SUPER delicate unattached, and you don't get the debossed effect that you get with hot foil stuff.

(no subject)

Date: 2025-01-04 10:44 am (UTC)
lunabee34: (Default)
From: [personal profile] lunabee34
I don't know anything about this question, but I'll be lurking here.

I hope you find a good answer.

(no subject)

Date: 2025-01-04 06:10 pm (UTC)
From: [personal profile] ewt
Is there a reason that an ordinary ink stamp would be unsatisfactory? I mean, the foil sounds amazing, but personally I would probably just write on the spine with a sharpie. A traditional rubber stamp with stamp pad seems like it might be a good middle ground between these options...

(no subject)

Date: 2025-01-04 09:54 pm (UTC)
From: [personal profile] ewt

I wonder if nail varnish and rubber stamps work well together.

(no subject)

Date: 2025-01-05 01:16 pm (UTC)
vass: Small turtle with green leaf in its mouth (Default)
From: [personal profile] vass
You could experiment on a scrap piece of linen (maybe wrapped around some cardboard) and see if it is likely to.

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kaberett

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