Easy to Emboss
One of the things I love to do when making cards or gift tags is to use embossing powder and a heat gun for almost-instant texture and glitz. It is a fairly simple process, but gives professional results. If you are a crafter, you may already know how, or have heard of Embossing. Here is a quick tutorial on how to do it.
First, gather your materials.
- The paper or tag that you want to stamp on
- Heat Gun (this is different than a hair dryer, more concentrated heat. Don't use on hair!)
- Embossing Powder (I like gold best, but it comes in tons of colors)
- Ink Pad
*Optional- Small clean paint brush
Ink up your stamp and get ready! Pigment inks dry slower and give you more time to work. Plus, they come in the best colors. I like to practice a few times to get the right pressure down.
Stamp on your paper or tag and get ready for the powder. Don't worry if the ink is not 100% perfect, the powder will even it out. That being said, if there is not enough ink, there is nothing for the powder to stick to. That's why I like to practice.
Pour on the embossing powder of your choice. Tap off the excess. I like to keep a sheet of copy paper underneath so I can tap off the excess and pour back in to the jar. If you go pro, they even make little trays for pouring the excess. Make sure all of your stamped image is covered with the powder. If you want to be really fussy, you can use a small paint brush to dust off any extra grains of powder that are sticking where they shouldn't.
This is a closeup of the grains on the ink. See those few wanderers? Dust them off with your brush.
Here is peek at what it looks like when the powder melts. You can see the gold almost liquify when the heat gun is applied. So cool!
Ta Da!! Finished! The embossing adds a beautiful texture, a rich metallic look that cannot be achieved with stamping alone. Also, this is a great technique for stamping on to dark papers.
Here is a sample of black ink with gold ink. Still a little hard to read. Not a real solid gold.
After embossing!! Dang! That envelope is going to stand out in the mail! Have fun stamping and embossing!