Embossing Powder

Shaker card using Red Tinsel Embossing Powder for the sentiment.

Red Tinsel Z4251

I’ve been experimenting with heat embossing again. (See my post, Embossing on Wood ) I just got a jar of Red Tinsel Embossing Powder from Close To My Heart. I love the cheery red color. This stuff is shimmery, bright, and sparkly.  I had fun playing with it and found out a couple things that might help you too.

Anti-static pouch A4220

 The first is, don’t forget to use an anti-static pouch. If you’ve never used one, this is a great tool that you wipe across your paper before you stamp and pour on the embossing powder. It helps keep the embossing powder from sticking where you don’t want it to stick. I forgot to use it on my first attempt and had extraneous little red sparkles all over my card. It’s not very expensive and it’s a must have for your tool box.

  

Second is, don’t thump the back of your card to get rid of excess embossing powder. Instead, use a gentle shake and a light tap. I’m not sure why, but when I thumped my card a lot of the powder fell off and I had to reapply it. I use Versa Mark when I’m embossing because it holds the powder really well, but for some reason the tinsel didn’t hold as well. Maybe it’s heavier.

  Third, you may need to run the heat embosser over the powder a little longer than normal for the embossing powder to melt. I had a difficult time telling if the embossing powder was melting because I don’t have adequate lighting in my craft room and the powder is sparkly to start with, so I had a hard time seeing if the embossing powder melted or fused or whatever the magic is that it does.  

  Forth, wait a minute or two before wiping or rubbing your hand across the embossed area. It needs that minute or so to setup and if you wipe to soon the powder wipes off too. The good news is, if you have some stray specks you may be able to wipe them away before it sets up or drys.

As I used the tinsel powder it got me thinking about other mediums I could use to emboss with. I have mostly white, stardust, the red tinsel and a clear embossing powder. But what if I wanted another color or less of a sparkle effect? I’ve heard people say that they sometimes use pigment inks to emboss with because they don’t dry quite as quickly as water based inks do. So I thought what the heck! I’ll try both and see which works best.   I used a pigment ink I had on hand called Check Me Out Red, by Megan Elizabeth. (I don't believe it is available any longer.) Then I tried a water-based dye ink, Candy Apple a true red by CTMH. You can see the results below. I first stamped my sentiment on a circle of cardstock, and then I quickly poured clear embossing powder over the ink while it was still wet. I shook off the excess powder and using my heat tool heated the embossing powder. It melted quickly on both inks and left a nice shiny red surface. The pigment ink is a little smoother, but I like the water-based ink the best. It seemed to give a more crisp image and the slight bumps gives it a more textured look.

 

  I thought I'd enter my card in the CardzTV-anything goes challenge #73