menu
shopping_cart Cart 0 Make Cards keyboard_arrow_down
Help keyboard_arrow_down
Account keyboard_arrow_down

Free shipping over $19

close

Free shipping over $19

Products

Help

Make Cards

Account

...

Teslin/Pouch

Teslin is a synthetic paper - all this means is that it’s actually a plastic that you are able to print on using a standard home or office Inkjet or Laser printer.

There is Inkjet Teslin, and Laser Teslin. The only thing to concern yourself with when picking out your Teslin sheets is to use the correct grade for your printer.

These sheets have perforations in place so that after you print on them you can easily remove the ID card insert.

Butterfly pouch laminates are simply a laminating pouch that is a single piece of plastic which has a score line to allow it to fold over the Teslin.

This is as opposed to most laminating pouches you’ll see at office supply stores which are made of 2 pieces of plastic which are heat-fused together on one edge.

Because of this design you can laminate a Teslin punch-out with very minimal signs of an edge.

Equipment

Materials

Learn

Steps

1. Launch the ID Maker.
2. Design your card template.
3. Print the cards on perforated Teslin paper.
4. Pop the cards out.
5. Laminate each card with a butterfly pouch.

Designing

You can design a card template from scratch or choose one of 100+ templates from various industries.

Printing

The ID Maker will generate a Printable for you at the end, and provide directions for how to print it.

Articles

Read the articles in our knowledge base to learn more.

Pro Tips

Choosing the right sheet

Brainstorm ID has 3 layouts of perforated Teslin available:

  • 4" x 6" 1-Up (1 card per sheet)
  • 4" x 6" 2-Up (2 card per sheet, only available for Inkjet Teslin)
  • 8.5" x 11" (US Letter Size) 8-Up (8 cards per sheet)

When ordering, please keep in mind that after printing/removing a card from the sheet - you can not run it through your printer again. For this reason, we recommend that most customers choose the 1-Up or 2-Up sheets.

8-Up sheets are great when printing many ID cards at a time. Many customers find that they need to print many ID cards the first time, or one time per year, then they use 1-Up sheets for printing one-off ID cards throughout the year.

Choosing the right butterfly pouch

A typical credit card is between 26 and 30 mil thick. Butterfly pouches come in many thicknesses, but the most common are 7 and 10 mil.

A pouch's advertised thickness is the thickness of just one side of the laminate, so when using a 7 mil laminate for instance, with 10 mil Teslin, you will end up with a 24 mil thick ID card.

For most applications a 7 mil pouch with 10 mil Teslin will be more than sufficient. If you require a much more rigid card, then 10 mil laminates should be considered.

A "mil" is a thousandth of an inch (0.001", or 0.0254mm), so one side of 7 mil pouch would be 0.007" (0.1778mm), but in total it would be 14 mil which would be 0.014" (0.3556mm).

Cost per card

Using 8-Up sheets

50 cards 100 cards 250 cards 500 cards
I have all the equipment: $0.49 $0.40 $0.39 $0.38
Add laminator: $1.49 $0.90 $0.59 $0.48
Add printer & laminator: $3.49 $1.90 $0.99 $0.68
Cost was calculated using Inkjet 8-Up Teslin sheets.
Cost per card includes ink. Laminator: $50. Printer: $100.

Using 1-Up sheets

50 cards 100 cards 250 cards 500 cards
I have all the equipment: $0.86 $0.66 $0.64 $0.62
Add laminator: $1.86 $1.16 $0.84 $0.72
Add printer & laminator: $3.86 $2.16 $1.24 $0.92
Cost was calculated using Inkjet 1-Up Teslin sheets.
Cost per card includes ink. Laminator: $50. Printer: $100.

Videos

Printing a card, step by step.

Gloss vs. matte laminate

The different thicknesses of laminates

Other Resources