Heat embossing

Heat embossing is creating an embossed effect by heating powder until it's melted after which it will cool again and hardens as a slightly raised area. Embossing powders are available in a number of different colors, metallic effects, glitter, transparant …

Tools

To be able to heat emboss, you will need:

• a surface to heat emboss:
  • paper
  • vellum
  • heat resistant acetate
  • …
• embossing powder
• something for the powder to stick to
  • double sided adhesive
  • stamping ink that stays wet for a long time:
    • embossing ink (can also be applied with a pen)
    • pigment ink
    • hybrid ink
  • water
• a heat gun (not a hair dryer)
• something to prepare your paper so the powder will stick only where you want it to:
  • anti-static powder bag or tool
  • baby powder
  • kitchen flour
  • …

How to heat emboss

Prepare your surface

Heat embossing can be applied to a lot of surfaces, as long as that surface can take the heat. In card making, paper is of course a popular material, but also acetate (if it's heat resistant), yupo (carefully) and vellum can be used with heat embossing. In any case, you'll have to make sure the embossing powder only sticks to the areas you want it to stick. To make sure of that, it's advised to add a layer of thin "anti-static" powder or flour/starch to your surface. You can do this with a pouch/bag, a special tool (that has a reservoir for the powder and bristles at the top), some kitchen flour/starch you can apply with a brush … There's no need to remove any excess powder at this point.

Creating an area for the embossing powder to stick to

Embossing powder is quite fine, so it will easily stick to any area that is wet or sticky:

Wet/sticky ink

Any ink that stays wet for long enough can be used for heat embossing, for example pigment inks, hybrid inks or specialised embossing ink. This last type is transparent and stays wet quite long, giving you time to add your embossing powder. Embossing ink can also be found in pens. This allows for freehand designs, accents on an existing image or to make small and precise fixes.

Tips and other things to know about heat embossing

• You can always re-heat the powder. If you missed a spot or you have an indentation of where you were holding on to your paper shape with tweezers, you can always re-heat (and re-melt) the powder to even it out.
• You can layer embossing powders. Try adding multiple layers of different colors, or adding a layer of clear glitter embossing powder over another color. The more layers you add, the thicker the result will be. Try adding multiple layers of metallic or colored embossing powders for the look of a bold embellishment.