Star Wars pen advice.

[Joe S.]

My sister is a big Star Wars fan, and has been hinting that she would like a fountian pen. My goal here is to make more of a novelty pen. My idea is to turn a pen with one of those star/glitter/space/night-sky blanks and use decals (a decal is a glorified sticker, right?) of the Death Star, X-wings, planets, ect. Under a CA finish. Where can I get decals like that? Or does anyone else have any better ideas? Thanks in advance!

 

[glycerine]

You can buy decal paper that will work in your printer. If you can find some images, you could just make the decals yourself...

 

[mredburn]

A quick Google search shows Lego with Star Wars stickers, Target has them. lots of links. And a check on Ebay shows 28 thousand plus listings.
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trksid=p5197.m570.l1313&_nkw=star+wars+stickers&_sacat=0&_from=R40

 

[Joe S.]

Been googling, it looks like "frisket film" is the same thing? I'll need to stop by Michels and ask.

 

[fiferb]

Just a heads up, if you use a dark blank, a clear decal with printing on it will be very difficult to see. You may need to go with a white background decal and then trim very close. Hard to do without leaving a white outline around the picture.

 

[Joe S.]

Just a heads up, if you use a dark blank, a clear decal with printing on it will be very difficult to see. You may need to go with a white background decal and then trim very close. Hard to do without leaving a white outline around the picture.

And what I'm planing is really small, maybe I could over-lighten the pictures so it evens out?

 

[bensoelberg]

Can't help but think that you should maybe reconsider the decal idea, and make her a pen that looks like a lightsaber. There are plenty of acrylics that would work for the saber part, then just segment on a darker acrylic or wood for the grip section. Could be a one piece slimline.

 

[Buzzzz4]

There are some great Star Wars stamps out there on ebay.

 

[Joe S.]

Can't help but think that you should maybe reconsider the decal idea, and make her a pen that looks like a lightsaber. There are plenty of acrylics that would work for the saber part, then just segment on a darker acrylic or wood for the grip section. Could be a one piece slimline.

I thought of that, but she wants a fountain pen, maybe it could be done as a fountain pen...

 

[paintspill]

someone just posted a superman sketch pencil the other day. check it out, that style would look good on a fountain pen.

 

[Joe S.]

Or do a Jeff Powell "masterscroller" style Yoda...

 

[Haynie]

Guide you, the force will. Yes, hmmm.

 

[ALexG]

I had the same thought I would do a lightsaber

Can't help but think that you should maybe reconsider the decal idea, and make her a pen that looks like a lightsaber. There are plenty of acrylics that would work for the saber part, then just segment on a darker acrylic or wood for the grip section. Could be a one piece slimline.

 

[glycerine]

Just a heads up, if you use a dark blank, a clear decal with printing on it will be very difficult to see. You may need to go with a white background decal and then trim very close. Hard to do without leaving a white outline around the picture.

And what I'm planing is really small, maybe I could over-lighten the pictures so it evens out?

Not if you are printing on clear decal paper. You can't really "lighten" the colors. But if you use the white decal paper, you should be good to go...

 

[eliasbboy]

You could try a glow in the dark blank. I'm making a "Halo" video game pen for my nephew with one.

 

[JasonM]

+1 to the lightsaber idea. That was my thought too, though others beat me to the response.

 

[LL Woodworks]

Couldn't resist a google search. A FP something like this is totally doable.

 

[TerryDowning]

add a watch battery and an LED and that could be lots of fun.

 

[firewhatfire]

Make a closed end pen with a glow in the dark blank for the light saber end. The cap would be the handle end

 

[azamiryou]

If you want to use clear decal paper, make a large image of the whole scene - starry background and all. Then use a white blank. It can be hard to maneuver a large decal like that without messing it up, so plan to screw up a few times. This will get you an image without the white outlines from using white decal paper.

But you give up the depth of the blank. If you want to keep that, you can use white decal paper, but print your graphics with a black background. That way when you trim close to the image, the outline will be a less visible black.

Or just get stickers and keep the white border that's already there. It won't look like the X-wings are actually in space, but it could be a neat effect (like stamp pens).

 

[Joe S.]

You could try a glow in the dark blank. I'm making a "Halo" video game pen for my nephew with one.

The pen I'm envisioning looks awesome! Let me know when you finish making it!

 

[Joe S.]

Overall, I like the black border idea best. But I'm going to try a lightsaber too!

 

[creativewriting]

Buzzzz4 posted a comic book pen a few days ago that might be a good idea for you. I'm sure there are some good retro graphics that you could cast to make a nice novelty pen.

 

[Joe S.]

I'm scraping the decal idea for now and going with a fountain pen lightsaber. I'll be ordering from exotics, so which acrylic do you think would look cool for the colored part?