Embossing

This is one of my favourite card making methods! There's something amazing about how heat can transform ordinary-looking powder!

This technique does require some thought about safety as you will need to use a heat source (like a heat gun) in order to melt the special powder. The powders come in many forms - clear, black, colours, metallic, glitters.

The first heat source I used was a toaster! I don't recommend using a toaster as the paper can catch fire too easily. I proved that! Children will need supervision while trying this technique too, no matter what heat source you use.

You will need:

• Your rubber stamp
• Versamark ink
• Cardstock
• Embossing powder(EP) of choice
• A manila folder, folded piece of paper or tray to catch excess powder on
• A heat gun
• Tweezers
• A soft paintbrush

Here's what to do:

1. Plug in the heat gun and set it aside so it is ready

2. Ink up your stamp with Versamark Ink. Versamark is a sticky ink that takes awhile to dry, so you can catch the dry powder on it very easily. You can use other types of ink as well but they probably won't be quite as sticky so you may need to work faster with them.

3. Stamp your image onto your cardstock

4. Place your stamped image in the middle of the opened folder, folded paper or in the Powder Pal tray

5. Open the jar of powder and pour it all over the stamped image. The Versamark will be sticky and catch hold of the powder. (Be generous with the powder - you will get most of it back!)

   

6. Pick up the stamped image with the tweezers and pour the excess powder into the tray or onto the folder

7. Flick the image with your finger a few times to remove all of the excess powder, catching it on the folder or tray

8. Use the soft paintbrush (or your fingernail!) to brush away powder that has stuck to areas you don't want to be affected by the EP

9. Put the image aside for a minute (be careful not to touch it at this stage as it will easily smudge) and pour the left-over powder back into the jar, then cap the jar to avoid any unwanted spillage

   

10. This is the amazing part! Pick up the stamped image with your tweezers and apply heat to the image with the heat gun. Hold the gun about 2cms (1/2") away from the image

11. Keep heating the powder until it changes colour and starts to melt. Move the heat over the image until all of the powder is evenly melted

    I just love watching the powder melt!

    

12. Set the image aside to cool

Trim and use your raised image as desired.

Other things to try:

• Stamp your image with a coloured Versamark ink (or other type of ink) and use clear powder over the top. The ink colour will show through and be enhanced. I have done this with the pink image, for example

• Colour your image after you have heat set the powder using pastels, watercolour pencils, paint, etc

• Use metallic powders on dark cardstock and cut the finished image out to use as an embellishment

• Try using a solid image or sentiment to make a real statement

• Emboss the edges of cardstock by dragging the edge in Versamark and applying powder as above

• Try this technique on 3D items

• Try Dry Embossing either manually or with the Big Shot machine

If you have an example of how you have used heat embossing on your cards, please do share!

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