So I've begun embossing one corner of the invitation wording sheets. When I say embossing, I mean stamping the corner with my chosen stamp, using slow-drying ink, then sprinkling embossing powder over the image, sliding the excess powder off, and then using the embossing heater tool to melt the powder on the paper to create a raised image. It's pretty cool! Unfortunately, I messed up a lot of sheets. :-(
I didn't mess up terribly to the point where the sheets are unusable, but they don't look "near-perfect." What I mean is that some of the pages had stray dots from stray embossing powders that somehow stayed stuck to the page. Or I over-melted the powder and the image didn't look as crisp as I would like it to be. After messing up several sheets, I came up with the following tips for better, if not near-perfect results:
- wipe the paper with a sheet of fabric softener to prevent static cling. Static cling helps stray embossing powder to stay stuck to the page, creating unwanted stray dots.
- ink the stamp by placing the stamp facing up and pressing the ink pad down onto the image, rather than pressing the stamp into the ink pad. This helps prevent over-inking, which creates smudges and non-crisp images.
- press the stamp onto the page, but not too hard or risk smudging the image.
- after covering the image with embossing powder and sliding the excess off, tap the paper gently several times to remove any stuck excess grains.
- warm up the embossing heater tool and run it over the image, side to side, from the top down. I prefer a slightly grainy rather than smooth effect so as soon as the powder melts, I move the tool to a different part. If you want a smoother image, keep heating the powder until it melts all the way and the image smoothes out.
That's all I got right now when it comes to my embossing experience. Currently, I'm using a silver stamp with pearly embossing powder. I love the effect when it comes out just right. My biggest pet peeve is the stray dots, which despite all my above efforts, I still get from time to time. I've become a bit obsessed with wiping down all surfaces ever few sheets to prevent stray grains from sticking on, which does help, but definitely slows the process down. Good thing I still have lots of time to get these done!
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