Cricut Foil Transfer vs Foil Quill: Which One Should You Get

If you are wanting to put some fun foil embellishments on your crafting projects, you might be trying to decide on the Cricut Foil Transfer System or the We R Memory Keepers Foil Quill. This post breaks them down to help you decided which one to get!

A few years ago, We R Memory Keepers released a tool called the “Foil Quill” which allowed you to add amazing foil embellishments for your Cricut projects.

This was not a tool endorsed or created by Cricut, but it was something that lots of people were excited about and found good success with it. Most people really loved the results!

However, there were some issues – including the fact that it was a non-Cricut product, which using can void your warranty.

Now that Cricut has released their own foiling tool – many people are asking, “Which tool should I use?”

This post is a straight-forward, non-biased look at these tools to help you decide which one is best for your situation – and if you are already have the foil quill, hopefully it can help you decide if you want to the the foil transfer tip from Cricut as well!

Here is an at-a-glance comparison. I’ll go into more detail at the end of this post.

	Cricut Foil Transfer	We R Memory Keepers
Application	Pressure	Heat
How Many Tools	1 housing with 3 tips	3 separate tools
Clamp	Clamp B	Clamp A
Linetype	Foil	Draw
Line Sizes	Fine, Medium, Bold	Standard, Bold and Fine
Tool Price	$39.99	$39.99-$99.99
Material Price	$7.99-12.99	$8.99-$19.99
Material Selection	Three options	Many options
Machines Compatibility	Cricut Only	Various Machines
Plugged in?	Nope – just drop and go	Corded and plugged in with USB
Foil Used	Cricut Foil	We R Memory Keepers (though other brands may work)

Application Method

The most prominent difference in these tools is the application method.

The Cricut Foil Transfer Tool uses pressure to imprint the foil into your base material. This doesn’t require any additional plugging in, and it works very well.

The Foil Quill requires that you plug it in, and it uses heat to imprint the foil into the project. Most people don’t have any issues with this, but it can pose some safety risks because it does get hot.

I honestly am not super versed in foil, so I don’t know if one method is ideal over the other other.

Winner: Cricut Foil Transfer Tool

Both return permanent and professional-looking results. However, the pressure-based system seems to be a little more straight-forward and is a bit safer as well.

How Many Tools

The Cricut Foil Transfer System has one housing with three drop-in tips. With the We R Memory Keeper’s system, there are three separate tools for each linetype, each of which has it’s own separate cord.

Winner: Cricut

I’m all about keeping things compact, which is why Cricut wins here for me. It takes up less space – though I could see the little tips might get lost more easily than the three separate tools.

Ease of Use

Both of these tools have a little bit of a learning curve, but I definitely think Cricut’s is most user-friendly. This is primarily because it’s a very simple tool – it doesn’t have any extra cords or

Winner: Cricut

Price

The Foil Transfer Kit is $39.99 – and that includes the housing, the three tips, and a piece of foil. After purchasing this, all you have to worry about is purchasing foil or

Winner: Cricut

Material Cost

These are pretty similar in cost. We R Memory Keepers have options that are more expensive than Cricut’s most expensive option, but they have a wider range of products available, too.

Winner: Tie

Variety of Materials

Currently, Cricut offers 12×12 sheets in silver and gold, and a bejeweled sampler in 4×6 – you can check those out here.

We R Memory Keepers does have a lot more options currently, so for the time being, I give this one to them!

Winner: We R Memory Keepers

Line Types

Both the Foil Transfer Tool and the Foil Quill have three line types that are very similar. Cricut’s use the same housing just with interchangeable housings, while the Foil Quill has three separate tools for different line types.

Winner: Tie

Compatibility with Cricut

Obviously, the Cricut Foil Transfer system was designed to work with Cricut machines, and it’s fully compatible.

We R Memory Keeper’s Foil Quill is an off market product. It does work with the Cricut machines, and it seems to work well. However, it requires that you remove the pen adapter – and by doing so, you void your warranty. If you are outside the warranty terms, this may not matter as much to you.

Because the We R Memory Keeper’s Foil Quill goes where the pen holder is, it makes it a little trickier to do different actions (such as drawing and foiling) at the same time. The Foil Transfer System fully integrates with Design Space, which makes it easy to combine different linetypes within the same project.

Winner: Cricut

Compatibility with Other Brands of Machines

The Cricut Foil Transfer system is only designed to work with Cricut machines. However, We R Memory Keepers is compatible with a much wider variety of machines, including:

• Silhouette Machines
• Brother
• Cricut Maker
• Cricut Explore Air
• Cricut Explore Air 2
• Sizzix

So, obviously, if you have a machine that isn’t a Cricut, then you’ll definitely want to consider the Foil Quill.

All of these require an adapter, which is included with your purchase.

Winner: We R Memory Keepers

Results

I don’t see a huge difference in the quality of the final product with either of these products. They both provide high quality results. I plan to do a side by side comparison of them, soon!

Winner: Tie

Designs

You can use a variety of artwork and designs with each material. I mean, anything that you can get from Design Space or upload to Design Space is fair game. Though be aware that not everything will work well with foil 🙂

Cricut has been adding designs to their library that work great with foil, and I imagine they are just getting started. We R Memory Keepers offers USBs with design files that you can upload to Design Space

Winner: Tie

Conclusion

If you have a Cricut machine and don’t currently own a foiling tool, I would definitely go with the Foil Transfer Tool. It’s less expensive, fully compatible with Cricut, does great work, and it’s not going to void your warranty when you use it.

If you have another machine that isn’t from Cricut, the We R Memory Keeper’s is the option you should go with, since the Foil Transfer Tool isn’t available with off-brand machines.

WHERE TO BUY

CLICK HERE TO BUY THE FOIL TRANSFER KIT ON CRICUT.COM / AMAZON.COM

CLICK HERE TO BUY THE FOIL QUILL ON AMAZON.COM / JOANN FABRIC

More Posts About the Cricut Foil Transfer System:

• What Materials Can I Use the Cricut Foil Kit With?
• The Ultimate Guide to the Cricut Foil Transfer System
• Cricut Foil Transfer Tool – FAQs

More Cricut Posts You May Enjoy:

• The Cricut Maker Machine: Everything You Should Know
• Cricut Infusible Ink Pens: Tips and Tricks for Getting Started
• The Cricut Joy: Answers to ALL Your Questions!
• How to Use the Cricut Explore 2: The Beginner’s Guide
• Cricut Maker vs Cricut Explore Air – Which Cricut Machine Should You Buy?
• Cricut Joy versus Explore Air 2 Versus Maker: Which Should You Get?