I wanted to show you a couple of uses for that clothes iron we never seem to use any more.
The first is to iron heat embossing to flatten the embossed surface so that it’s invisible and makes the image look seamless.
The stamps I used are from MFT, All Occasions and Simon Says Stamp, Floral Bliss. Neither are newer sets, so you should be able to find them second hand on Ebay or Splitcoast Stampers website.  Links are at the bottom for your reference.
I started with a piece of white card stock that is 4 5/8″ x 6 5/8″ as I’m going to put a second layer under it for a 5 x 7″ card.  I used a green layer that is 4 3/4 x 6 3/4″ then a gold base that is 5 x 7″.  I rubbed baby powder over the cardstock in a brush decanter I found at a garage sale and filled with baby powder. You can use corn starch as well, and can put it into two doubled knee highs, knot them and cut off the excess knee high.  I’ve used the knee high system for years and it works fine. Unfortunately, I couldn’t locate it to show it in the video. The reason you do that, is to remove any static or finger prints from your paper, as embossing powder sticks to anything, and this will make your process so much simpler, as you need to wipe off any excess powder or it will ruin your design.
Once it’s been covered with baby powder, I like to blow off any excess. I put the Floral Bliss primary stamp into the bottom of a Stamp Perfect from Hampton Arts.
I stamped the image with Versamark ink and made sure that it’s well inked, then turned the paper around and stamped it on the opposite edge. If you have hand or wrist issues, use your forearm to push on your stamp tool to get a better impression. After stamping both images I decided I wanted to add another stamp that looks like a pussy willow branch, so stamped the big design on a piece of copy paper. I used removable Glue Dots to ensure I could hold the image in place and not worry about it moving. These work well and are easy to remove. To make a mask, simply stamp the image and cut close to the outline, better inside the lines, rather than outside, so you won’t get a gap when you stamp over it. The mask makes sure that the image under it is the closest image and the item you put on top of the mask will be below the masked image once you remove the mask. Keep your mask, as it’s reusable.
After stamping the pussy willows and removing the masks on both sides of my image, I used clear embossing powder and heat set the entire sheet after removing any excess powder with a paint brush.
I used Touch Five alcohol markers for my coloring. The numbers of the colors I used are on the screen. After coloring, I laid a dish towel under my project and two pieces of copy paper, then put my image down, and put another piece of typing paper on top and ironed on a non-spray medium setting. It removes the shiny, raised embossed look.
The second use for the iron is to adhere a napkin to card stock for a box card I’ll be making in an upcoming video. Take a piece of washi tape and apply it to the edge of the underneath of your napkin and pull the top away from the washi and it makes separating napkins really easy. I cut out the lined portions of my napkin and made sure there wasn’t any writing on the pieces I used. I used the same format for layering under the napkin and ironed each napkin piece so they are completely flat, then laid the card stock on my dish towel then put a layer of basic plastic wrap from the kitchen, then laid my napkins on top and put copy paper and an excess napkin to ensure I didn’t get any plastic wrap attached to my iron.  Rub the iron over it until the edges are well adhered and keep checking to make sure you are getting it all ironed down.  All that’s left to do, is trim out the areas that don’t have napkin on it and you’ve made your own decorative paper with a napkin.
Back to the card…I added Glossy Accents to some of my images and let it sit over night, as I added a lot to ensure a 3-d look. I changed my mind about my greeting and in the end, used a light green card stock with green ink and cut it into a banner and put foam tape under it and laid it in the center of the card. Before doing that, I thought it would be fun to fill in the rest of the card with small purple flowers from the same SSS stamp set. I added a small branch with leaves from pegstamps.com in Always Artichoke from Stampin’ Up. Here are similar branches that pegstamps.com has available that would also work. http://tinyurl.com/ybol6usr

Here are the links to the stamp sets I used: These are full price sites, and I recommend you checking others for a lower price, but I wanted you to see the sets. (I make no money for anything you link to…I only do it as a reference point for you.)
SSS Floral Bliss http://tinyurl.com/yd8nfr4p
MFT All Occasions http://tinyurl.com/ydxx3u7u

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