Embossing DIY

Last year for my birthday, one of my best friends bought me an embossing set. This included a stamp pad and a pen that have a special kind of sticky ink, embossing powder, and a heat gun that melts the powder. I had a few rubber stamps already, but when I get a new toy I go all out! So I needed more stamps and instead of spending a bunch of money on new ones (they can get expensive), I decided to reach out and see if any of my friends had any they were looking to get rid of. I posted on Facebook that I was in search of stamps and got lucky! When you grow up in a crafty family like I did, you have a lot of crafty friends… and most of us creative types have the tendency to be pack rats. One of my camp friends happened to be one of those pack rats and had TONS of stamps laying around that she wasn’t using. So I bought all of these stamps off of her and finally got to practice with my embossing tool.

**Before I explain to you how to emboss with a heat gun, I am going to put a general warning that you should read ALL directions on the machine. It does get HOT and can be dangerous if not used correctly.**

To watch a video I made on embossing, check out my TikTok post: https://vm.tiktok.com/Jdw9nYw/

Embossing is actually very simple. You put the stamp on the ink pad and then onto your paper like a normal stamp. The ink will stay tacky so you can sprinkle your embossing powder on top and it will stick like glitter to glue. Make sure the entire stamped image is covered and shake off the excess. Tap the back of the paper or tap it against the table to make sure all the excess is all off of the card. Next, take your heat gun out and aim it at a 45 degree angle towards your paper about 3 inches from your embossing powder covered image – make sure that you don’t aim it towards yourself! It can burn you!! CAREFULLY turn it on and gently move the heat gun back and forth until you start to see the powder melting. If it isn’t melting, play around with the angle or get a little closer and it eventually will. Once it’s melted, you’re done! Turn off the heat gun and unplug it (never leave it plugged in and unattended). Most have a metal bar attached to rest it on until it cools down. While it’s cooling, clean off your stamps with a damp cloth.

If you want to make an embossed image that you don’t have a stamp for, that’s where the embossing pen comes in. You can use the pen to trace a shape and it will leave a tacky line for your embossing powder to stick to. Then you can continue just like you did with the stamped image.

The cool thing about embossing is that it’s a slightly raised version of the stamp. You can use it to make your signature pop or add a statement image to a piece you’re working on. You can see some of the pieces I’ve used my embossing tool for on here. I have so many more ideas like mixing the powder colors and making bigger pieces. The options are endless with a tool like this! I can’t wait to see what all you guys come up with 😊 Make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss out on all the DIY fun to come!