Embossing paste
Embossing paste (or texture paste) is a medium that comes in a jar. It is spreadable and will harden when it dries. It is mainly used with stencils, but can also be used straight onto the paper for a more distressed look.
Embossing paste is available in white, black, or transparent and can have a glossy or matte finish, a grainy texture or smooth, with or without glitters …
How to apply embossing paste
- Place a stencil onto your paper. (Tape down the stencil with some tape, hold it down with magnets or apply some low tack adhesive spray on the back to prevent it from sliding around. If it's a small design, you can also just hold it in place with your hand.)
- Using a palette knife, take some embossing paste out of the jar
- Put some paste on top of the stencil, and while holding the palette knife at an angle, scrape the embossing paste through the stencil. Depending on how much you scrape off (and how thick your stencil is), the result might be a thicker or thinner layer of paste.
- Put the scraped off paste back into the jar, assuming it's not contaminated with glitter, colored paste or some other mediums
- Close the jar. Putting a piece of cling wrap or tacky plastic wrap might prevent your paste from drying out faster, although not using plastic does not guarantee your paste will dry out.
- Carefully remove the stencil
- If you're not planning on cutting down your piece of paper, you might want to run your finger over the sides of the paper at this point, when the paste is still wet.
- Clean palette knife and stencil right away with water. Alternatively, have a dish or tray with some water nearby, so you can place your stencil in water as soon as you've removed it from your project. This will prevent the paste from drying onto your stencil, which is something you do not want to happen since it will be very hard if not impossible to remove the dried and hardened paste.
- Let your project dry completely. The drying time varies depending on the type of paste used, the humidity, temperature … Some pastes will change their color when dried completely. Transparent pastes are usually white when liquid, but will turn transparent when dry.
Some pastes can be dried with a heat gun, others will start to bubble up a bit. If that's the look you're going for, using a heat tool is an option.
Things to add to your embossing paste
To get more out of your supplies, you can add things to your embossing paste for different results and effects:
- pigment powder: Mix in different quantities or different colors to create gradient effects.
- glitter
Keep in mind to:
- Mix the additives into one or more different piles before applying it to your project
- Clean off your palette knife in between mixing and applying to not contaminate the different piles
- Don't add embossing paste back into the jar if you've added something to it, as to not contaminate the whole jar
If you want to add embossing powder to your paste, you can do that after you've applied the paste to your paper. Pour the embossing powder over the wet project, let it dry, and then melt the powder with your heat tool.
