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 …

What you need

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 stamping ink that stays wet for long enough can be used to heat emboss with your stamps. Inks with a slow drying time are for example pigment inks, hybrid inks or specialised embossing inks. This last type is transparent (or has a light tint to it) and stays wet quite long, giving you time to add your embossing powder. Embossing ink can also be found in special embossing pens. This allows for freehand designs, accents on an existing image or to make small and precise fixes.

Double sided adhesive

Check your own products to be sure, but a lot of double sided tapes are heat resistant and thus can be used for heat embossing.

Water

If you work fast enough and only heat from the back of the paper, you can even use water splatters or droplets to heat emboss.

Applying and melting the embossing powder

If you're using glitter embossing powder, shake the jar first.

1. Take a sheet of (scrap) printer paper, and put your piece of paper (or other item that you're trying to heat emboss) on top of it.
2. Pour the embossing powder over the piece of paper
3. Lift the piece of paper and gently tap it (on the edge, for example) to remove any excess powder. Don't flick the paper, because this might remove too much powder and/or glitters that might be present in the powder
4. Let your heat gun warm up for about 10 to 20 seconds (depending on the tool). Just make sure it's very hot.
5. Carefully heat your paper, alternating between heating from the back of the paper and from the front. Make sure you don't blow away any embossing powder. Don't keep your heat gun in the same spot for too long, otherwise the powder (or the paper) may get burnt.
6. Keep heating and melting the powder until all grains of the powder are melted into one smooth surface

Cleaning up

The scrap piece of printer paper that holds the excess of the powder can be used to put the powder back in the jar: carefully lift the piece of paper and fold/bend it in the middle, creating a funnel. If you're planning on using this piece of paper again for the same purpose but with a different kind or color of embossing powder, remove any leftovers of powder with a brush or (static) cleaning cloth.

Storage

The jars that embossing powder comes in are treated to not be static, so it's a good option to keep the powders in the jars they came in. However, it might be easier, especially for powders you use very often, to transfer the powder into a bigger container. That way you don't have to use the extra piece of paper and you can simply hold your paper above the container and scoop the powder onto it. The powder will then simply fall back into the container, so no other cleanup is needed.

Swatching

Another benefit of keeping the original jars, is that you can add a circle (or other shape) of embossed paper on top of the jar. You will be able to quickly see what's in the jar. Alternatively you can create a swatch book or cards that list all your powders. This will show you a more true result of using the powder, since it can look quite different in powder form versus melted onto a piece of paper.

Tips and other things to know about heat embossing

• You can always reheat and remelt the powder. If you missed a spot or you have an indentation of where you were holding on to your paper shape with tweezers, reheating will even out the final result.
• 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.

If you're fast enough (but it's not a challenge) you can apply the next layer of powder while the previous layer is still warm and has not yet fully set.