Melting Moments

It has been a long time.  It is Tuesday already and I have only just done my Sunday Stampers thing.  Slipping a bit I know.

This week the challenge involves Embossing Powders.  See the blog post HERE.

Heat embossing differs from just embossing when we are in the realm of crafting.  For those who don't know, embossing (single word) means that a piece of paper, metal or other such material has been pressed to produce a raised pattern. It also leaves an indentation on the reverse side.  Think about Braille.  It is a pattern of raised dots on paper which can be felt.  The main characteristic of embossing is that it is a pattern created 'in' the paper.

Now heat embossing gives an end result of raised texture again but this time the embossed image or pattern is added to the surface of the paper by applying a powder to a sticky 'ink'.  This leaves the back of the paper flat.  An example would be those posh wedding invites where it looks as if the ink is liquid gold.  The beauty of this type of embossing is you can use any of your rubber stamps for the design and any colour of embossing powder you can get your hands on.

And then there is the technique which involves a LOT of embossing powder and a rubber stamp which you use to press into the melted powder and leave a de-bossed image.  

Confused?  Don't be.  All becomes clear when you see my tag and heart which I shall be entering into the Sunday Stampers Challenge #259.

The Tag

The tag is about 5cm x 8cm and is made of wood.  I first applied about 4 layers of plain turquoise embossing powder.  I then heated it until it was melted again and sprinkled different colours of embossing powder on while the base layers were still hot.  This does 2 things, first it sticks the new grains on enough to prevent them from being blown away and secondly it gives that marble look to the piece.  Once I was happy with the result I inked up a rubber stamp with black Stazon and heated the tag again to the point where the entire surface was liquid. 

4 important points here:-

• Make sure you don't burn the embossing powder with the constant reheating,
• Make sure you don't touch it, it is molten plastic and gets very hot
• ONLY use rubber stamps (I worry that the polymer ones may get damaged) 
• Ink up the stamp to help with the release, use clear embossing ink

Can you see the impressed pattern?

Once the powder had fully melted I then plunged the inked stamp onto the tag and held it firmly in place until the embossing powder had set again.  Now you can wait for the thing to go completely cold or if you are impatient like me you can tease the stamp away sooner.  Of course if this process goes wrong then all you need to do is reheat the embossing powder.  You might need to add more powders to disguise the ink left behind but this sometimes adds to the pattern.

I then did a heart using the same technique as above.  This was also made from wood, in fact it was a Christmas decoration which I bought in the sales. It was originally red with a festive pattern on it. This process of covering things with embossing powder is great for any heat proof embellishment that is not quite the right colour as you can alter it to match your project.  I like to call it the Cinderella technique.  Dull to start with but pretty and glamorous once this fairy Godmother has worked her magic on it. 

Not a Wooden Heart Now.

This time instead of inking the stamp with a colour I just used a clear embossing ink to allow for a good release and then lightly rubbed over the raised bits with black ink to highlight the impressed image and stuck on some gems. 

So there we have it.  My take on embossing powders. 

If you visit me then please be kind enough to leave a comment, thank you.

Have a great time crafting, I know I will.

Kim xx