turn up the heat

Hello everyone!

I thought it was about time I put together another B2B for you all.

How about we do one on...

Heat Embossing!

Now, I know for many of you, this is old school, but, for those of you who haven't been stamping as long, this is a basic that you will want to know!

What you will need:

Embossing ink

Embossing powder

stamp

paper

Step 1: Ink your stamp with the embossing ink. You want to make sure your stamp is completely covered with ink.

Step 2: Stamp your image onto your paper. Many embossing inks are clear, so you will only be able to see the image slightly, but that is fine.

Step 3: Cover your stamped image with embossing powder. No need to be skimpy. All extra powder is reusable! I like to do this step over a scrap paper for easy clean up.

Step 4: Shake off all extra powder. *this step is VERY important, unless you want to make a HUGE mess....yes, I have heard of this happening before... hence the b2b posts...:)* You can give your paper a nice flick or two if you want. You may need to take a fine tipped paint brush to clean up any stray powder.

Step 5: Return all extra powder to the jar. If you have been working over a scratch paper, it will be a lot easier!

Step 6: Heat your image using an embossing heat gun. Keep the gun in motion to avoid burning you paper.

As the embossing powder melts, It will become shiny and more solid looking. Watch your image closely... you don't want to over heat it.

You can also emboss with pigment ink. It is important you use PIGMENT ink though, because it has a slower drying time which allows the embossing powder to stick. *side note: you can also use Tim Holtz Distress ink as it is made to allow embossing.* If you are embossing with pigment ink, use clear embossing powder to let the color of the ink show through.

*so, notice how the image above has pink and a purple color.... yeah, that's cuz I didn't clean the black ink off it very well from the last time I stamped with it... I don't mind the look here, but if you don't want color contamination on your project, you might want to do a test on a scrap paper...*

For this project, I used:

Paper: DCWV, plain white card stock

Ink: Martha Stewart pigment ink

Stamp: Sassafras "Freshly Picked"

Other: Fiskar edger, clear embossing powder, brads

Have a stampin' great day!

PS: don't forget to stop over at the CI blog and enter to win some blog truffles!!!