I wanted to make a series on heat embossing, and am starting at the beginning with the tools you’ll need and the basics of how to heat emboss.

The stamp set I used was from Fiskars, called Petals from Scratch

Tools:
First, you’ll need an anti-static tool to remove finger prints, oils and anything that powder might stick to (beside what it should be sticking to.)
Options:
1. Create your own with a couple of knee highs doubled over and filling the toe with corn starch or baby powder, then knotting it. Another option is sewing your own pouch with muslin made like a small pillow and filled with baby powder or corn starch.
2. Recollections (Michaels brand) $7.49 full price Anti-Static Bag
3. EK Success Powder Tool Applicator from Blitsy $3.91
4. Inkadinkado Embossing Magic (bag) Amazon $5.78
5. Another option–Keep a sealed small container with baby powder or corn starch inside. Use a soft clean paint brush and dip into the powder then wipe it over your paper surface.  Tap off any excess.
I really like the pouch I made, but will be doing an upcoming video to determine if one of the above options works better than the other, and if one works better on certain brands of paper.
Before heat embossing, wipe your surface with one of these tools and tap off any excess. This will make sure you don’t have to wipe a ton of stray powder off of your paper.

Inks I did not like:
I ruled out two at the beginning, as I did not like the results that they created.  Ink It Up $3.27 on Amazon, and Hampton Arts Tinted Embossing Pad $6.09 at Joanns (all prices I quote are full price, before using a coupon.) I demonstrated both and showed the issues I had with them.  Mainly, I could not get a good clean consistent image with either.

 

Ink Options:
1. Distress Embossing Ink: $5.99 Joanns or $3.49 for 1 x 1″ cube.. I recommend you getting the bigger size as the smaller cube probably won’t meet your needs.
2.  Versamark $9.49 Michaels –most popular brand for embossing
3.  Ranger Embosss It (Clear) $5.75 Amazon
4.  Stampendous Clear Embossing Ink (dauber) now called Boss Gloss $3.99 Scrapbooking Warehouse
All four brands of inks worked well for me, and I will be doing videos in future showing them being used on different brands of papers to determine if paper makes a difference when doing heat embossing.

Markers for small embossed images or to fix errors:
1. Ranger Inkssentials 2 pack black and clear embossing markers two pack $6.49 at Joanns. My black marker was dry when I bought them, so was disappointed in them.
2. Versamark Versamarker $3.49 Joanns

Powders:
I prefer Ranger embossing powders, but Hero Arts makes great powders as do many other companies. We’ll be doing a video on different techniques that you can do with different types of powder and with different brands.

Types of powder:
1. Fine detail–for thin sentiments and fine lined images $4,99 full price Joanns
2. Standard embossing powder–for all images that aren’t fine lined $4.99 Blitsy
3. Stampendous Deep Impressions Super Chunky for mixed media, molten looks, wax seal look. $6.49 Joanns
4. Ultra-Thick Embossing Powder $7.49 Joanns–for a very thick surface, use for paper beads, mixed media, stained glass window looks. (I ordered this but don’t have it yet and will be showing it in the technique video.)

You’ll need a fine angled brush for wiping away any excess powder.

Alternatives to buying a wide variety of colored powders:   When looking to determine if you need a lot of colors of embossing powder, if you use a die based ink, you’ll need a stamp positioner, ink with your favorite color die based ink, then re-stamp with an embossing ink, then add clear powder….This will save you from buying a lot of powder colors. and the results look the same.

Second alternative is to use pigment inks, as they dry slowly, then add clear powder over them to create your colored image.

Colors of powders you should consider buying:
1. Clear embossing powder (start with standard and then determine if you need to buy the ultra fine)
2. Metallics..I really like Ranger Princess Gold and Silver powders for a rich elegant look on card stock.
3. Versafine Onyx Black Ink–it’s a pigment ink, so it dries much slower and you can use this nice dark black ink with your clear embossing powder…no need to buy black embossing powder and you’ll avoid having any stray black powder… Black embossing powder is a nightmare to try to remove all strays from.
4. White–For colored card stock and want white..I’d buy the fine detail as I think you’ll use this more for sentiments.

Homemade stamp cleanser:  Pump bottle can be found in the nail department of most stores, or online. Here’s a link to one on Aliexpress. http://tinyurl.com/ycnzzlte
To make your own stamp cleanser, use 1 teaspoon baby shampoo to 10 teaspoons of water (distilled water works best). I put a small squirt of baby shampoo (from the Dollar Tree) and fill the bottle with water, then swirl it around to mix.) I keep baby bibs with velcro or snaps, on the arms of my chair, then when I need to clean stamps, pull a bib off and use the pump bottle to clean my stamps, works really well and is safe for stamps.

Heat Tools: Your hair drier will NOT work for this.
1. Ranger Heat it Craft Tool $19.57 Amazon…looks like a blow drier, but much hotter.
2. Darice Heat Tool $24.99 This is the one I use and I like it because the tip is plastic
3. Hero Arts Heat Gun–$45.99 Joanns, Very powerful, has a metal tip, so I have ruled this out for me because of the chance of burning myself.
Always pre-heat your tool before using it when you use it…5-10 seconds…wave it over your image…if you hold it in one spot, you’ll burn the paper or your embossed image will sink into the paper and no longer look shiny or raised.

The bottom line is that you will need to obtain the following to be able to heat emboss:
1. Anti-static tool of your choice
2. Brush to wipe away stray powder
3. Embossing ink of your choice
4. Embossing powder—start with clear as your first purchase.
5. Heat Tool–your blow drier will not melt these powders, sorry.

I hope this video helped you to understand heat embossing. It is the first in a series of videos I’ll be doing on which anti-static tools work best, which inks work best on different paper brands, which embossing powders work best on different paper brands, and ultimately different techniques you can do with heat embossing. I hope you’ll watch those videos and subscribe.

If you have any questions, please leave them in the comment section below the video.

I finished the video on heat embossing…It’s a really long one, but I think I got across all of the ideas that I had intended.  I think it will be at least a thirty minute video, but what can you do?  When I get on a roll, I just keep talking.

I need to make a video with a card that I’m really proud of, and lately, I haven’t been able to make anything that really screams my name.  Sometimes a technique seems like something I would want to make, but then when I try it, I don’t really love it.  When I say these things, I always wonder if other YouTubers have these kinds of problems, or if it’s just me….I would imagine that once you’ve been making videos for several years, you start to repeat things that worked well in the past.  I try not to duplicate, (if I can avoid it), but really do have some techniques that I enjoy.  I love layered paper techniques like a lot of Stampin’ Up representatives make, and I think I do my best work with those.  I also love different ink techniques, and here’s where I find that I struggle.  I’m not sure why, but ink techniques can be especially stressful, and I really need to work at them before I find ones that I’m good at.

I’m looking forward to making more embossing videos in my series.  Ones showing which papers emboss best with what inks, what anti-static tools work best on which papers, and then the really fun one, different techniques with embossing powders.  I’m looking forward to trying lots of different ideas.  This should give me some new ideas to fill my idea box.

I worked for hours on the embossing videos and finally realized that I was making it much too complicated.  I was trying to show six different inks but clearly, from the beginning, two of those inks were not effective, at all.  I had bought a really inexpensive brand called “Ink It Up” because I’d seen Lindsay use it on her videos.  The difference, though, was that Lindsay had been re-inking hers with glycerin and water, so if hers didn’t work well from the beginning, she knew what to do to fix it.  That’s not an option for everyone, so I should have explained the situation and eliminated it from the mix.  I also bought a colored ink from Hampton Arts, that in theory, is really great.  It’s a light green color whose color is supposed to disappear once you add the embossing powder and heat it.  Unfortunately, the embossing powder didn’t want to stick to it and it still maintained the greenish shade.  Again, I should have explained it and gotten rid of it.

I really wanted to show the problems you can have with black embossing powder…it’s so hard to get every single small spot of it from the areas around the embossed area.  It was a virtual nightmare, when trying to also decide if the inks and the anti-static pouches work.

I need to rethink the entire video and start from scratch.  I think the video was overly thought-out and way too much information, most of it not really necessary and over the top.  A new crafter would never want the information I was providing, so I’m going to re-make it.   Getting rid of hours of work is frustrating, but I’d rather have a video that actually helps people than make a video that’s so confusing that no one would enjoy it.

I do think that some of the paper I was using was much better for removing any powder that wasn’t where it should have been.  But it also could have been the powder I chose for that paper too.  I was trying to show white on black paper, black on white paper, etc., but that doesn’t really tell us if one paper is better than another, if it’s that particular powder used with that paper.  I need to be consistent, so all inks are the same, when used with the same powder, when used on different papers, thereby allowing the viewer to really know if the paper brand does make a difference.   This should be a stand-alone video, because a beginning crafter would have one brand, maybe two, of paper, so by showing a bunch of brands of paper will only confuse them.

I’ve got a general idea of how I’m going to make the first video, and the videos to follow will be for the more advanced embosser.  I really hope today goes a lot better than yesterday.  I have several two sided pieces of card stock with embossing covering everything.  And in the end, what did they tell the viewer?  I have too much time on my hands, clearly.

 

I started working on the embossing video that I’ve been collecting products for for a long time.  I wanted to show people how to heat emboss, but then I started looking at products and realized it’s not just about embossing, it’s about which products will work best.  So I’m doing a segment on paper prep and using three different tools to wipe the paper to see if one works better than the other.  I also decided that there’s probably a difference when you use other kinds of paper, so I am testing the system on four types of paper.  Some inexpensive, some not, so we know if Neenah makes a difference over Recollections, etc.  I love making these kinds of videos, because I learn so much along the way.

Then comes the tool you use to wipe off the “crumbs” that are left behind…So I’ll be testing different brushes to see which works best for that.  I think that’s where video one might end.

Then the second video will have to do with the ink itself, and I’m going to show five or six different inks for embossing to see if Versamark is the clear winner…Also doing that on different types of paper, again, because maybe it’s not the ink, maybe it’s the paper you are using.  These are things we all need to consider and are ways we all can improve our heat embossing and reduce frustration.

Then comes the different types of embossing powders.  I might talk about them in the first video so people know what’s what, but I’m going to demonstrate clear, white, metallics, fine detail and thick, so people know what products are used for what.  I might also show some techniques, stained glass windows, molten lava that you stamp into, etc.

I spent most of the evening writing notes on the products I’m using and creating grids to demonstrate the different products on.  It’s a lot of work, but definitely worth the effort.  I’m really looking forward to getting started on the videos, but am waiting until I’m clear headed so I can make the best videos possible.  Some days are better for these kinds of videos than others.

We all use dies can the scraps that result have lots of uses. This card shows you how to make a card from those scraps.

I used a heart die that covers the whole front of a standard size greeting card. I took only the remaining papers created from the die to make this card.

Start with a card base that is 5 1/2″ wide by 4 1/4″ tall, a standard A2 size card. I use Recollections heavy weight card stock from Michaels.

I die cut the heart die with a solid color Stampin’ Up paper and a matching patterned paper color. Using the hearts that fell out, I created a line of hearts by gluing the top right corner of each heart together and using a ruler, to make sure the line was straight. I made sure the line was at least 5 1/2″ long. I made two of these lines.

Then using the outside of the paper that was left behind after cutting the die, I cut out two strips of dotted paper that was 1/4″ wide, then cut the plain colored paper in a strip that was 1/2″ wide, and flipping over the dotted paper, I had a zig zag so cut two strips of that 3/4″ wide (all were 5 1/2″ long). Then using tear tape on the back of the thinnest strip, I laid a loop of washi tape on my work surface and laid the 1/2″ strip of plain paper on it to allow me to lay the thinner strip on it and make sure it was straight, by laying a ruler below it. I repeated this process with the zig zag paper. Once the three layers were together, I put foam tape under the zig zag paper and adhered it to the bottom and top of the card, leaving about a 1/8″ border below it at the bottom and above it at the top.

I ran a thinking of you die cut through my Xyron, then used an eraser to take the excess adhesive off, and then adhered it to the card below the top zig zag images. I lost the dots to the “i” in thinking of you, so used a hole punch and re-made the dots and adhered them with wet glue.

Took the strip of hearts and put wet glue behind them and applied them to the center of the card. Used one of the leftover hearts and laid it inside the card.

Took the other strip of hearts and adhered it to the flap of my envelope and stamped the back of the card with a stamp I had custom made for me from Stampanda. I used Groupon for a big discount with Stampanda , then used their square self inking stamps and made my own design. Hope that helps if you are interested in making one for yourself.

We were going to go to lunch today with friends and see the new house that they are in the process of building.  I was a little bit nervous about it when I saw we’d gotten a few inches of snow, and it’s still really cold, but we have a four-wheel drive car, so I relaxed a little.  As we were going out to the car, Rich mentioned that the four-wheel drive’s battery was dead, so we were going to take my car.  Great ride, but terrible in winter.  I was trying for my brave face, until we got on the road, and he said one of the tires was low and we needed to stop and put air in it.  That meant I was now on high-alert, because the roads were bad, it was freezing, we didn’t have the right car for the circumstances, and our tire was low.  We went to a convenience store, and while he was getting air in the tire, I was getting food and drink (even though we were going to lunch), in case we had issues on the highway.  The ride should normally take about an hour, but once we got on the highway, it got worse.  There were cars in the ditch, there were cars that had just had accidents and the police were just pulling up and the final straw, was a car in the passing lane that lost control and was swerving all over the road.  Luckily, the person must have known a little bit about driving on ice, as they didn’t put their foot on the brake….and eventually regained control.  By then Rich had decided we were going to turn around and I could not have been more relieved.  He asked me to put the hazard lights on, so other cars would slow down or avoid us, and found our way off of the major highway to take a two-lane road back home.

I’ve never been fond of driving in bad weather, but today was a combination of conditions that we should have known not to try to navigate..  We were only twenty miles from home, but the ride back seemed to take forever.  Rich was producing so much adrenalin from the near misses, that his mouth was dry and his hands were shaky.

We stopped at a grocery store, got some treats for ourselves and the dogs, and came home.  So date night begins, with us snug in our house, the heat cranked to high, a pizza and two movies to watch, and the dogs ready to rule the roost.  It just doesn’t get any better than that.

I made the Queen Anne’s Lace card the beginning of November, but had so many Christmas videos, that it never got uploaded.  I struggled making that card.  The tiny spot on the front made me absolutely crazy, and I knew I had to do something to correct it, so started with one crystal, and you know where it went from there.  Often when I make a mistake, it’s a great learning experience, and sometimes I’m just not sure what to do, and eventually, after trying numerous ideas, the project goes in the trash.  For most of us, that’s not a really big deal, but when you are doing a video, it’s highly discouraging.  So I try to make is a learning experience for everyone, and hope that you’ll consider it as such, and realize that all projects can’t be perfect.

My white inks have started arriving in the mail, and I’m really getting excited about trying them out, and deciding which ones will work best.  I love it when viewers make specific requests like this, because it shows they trust me enough to help them with their decision process.  I really take their trust seriously, and hope that others will appreciate the process as well.  There are a few videos already on YouTube comparing white inks, so I want to make sure mine is a little bit different and includes things like, does the paper make a difference?  I’ll try and use a few different black and colored card stocks to see if it does.

It’s snowing like crazy today and is really getting cold.  I talked to one blog reader, who said it was -22 degrees where she lives in Montana, and I have to be honest, I’m too much of a whimp for that kind of cold.  I feel so badly for the deer and birds when it gets this cold (around 0), and the deer are eating a lot more than usual.  We’re going through one 200 lb. bag of corn every two or three days.  That’s a lot of corn, and it’s probably the only thing keeping these deer alive as they can freeze to death in these frigid conditions.  I read articles that said that deer move during the day when it is warmer and bed down at night, but my deer are coming to eat all night long, especially after midnight.  My bedroom window looks out on where they eat, and there are usually at least two deer eating at any given time during the late night hours.  It definitely slows in the early morning hours, but at least I know they have a food source.  The article said they will eat tree bark when all food sources are depleted, but that would be extremely difficult, given these cold air conditions.  We’re finding the corn covered in ice and although, the deer eat the corn, they never consume the cobs.

I would bet when you read other blogs on paper crafts that others aren’t as concerned about the state of the wild deer and their empty stomachs, but it’s something that’s always bothered me.  I’m not sure why I feel the need to update you on my deer herd, but it’s something I spend a lot of time observing.  They are such magnificent animals, and watching them is so relaxing.

I’ve got some ideas that I want to experiment with in the craft room, so may be trying something with coloring embossing folders.  I guess we’ll see how the day goes.

This card was going to be relatively clean and simple, but once I had a small spot on the front that I couldn’t remove, I had to bling it up.
I started with Recollections 110 lb white card stock cut to 5 1/2″ x 4 1/4″ card front size. Then cut the Queen Anne’s Lace die out of it. I added a piece of 4 1/8″ wide by 5 1/2″ tall piece of More Mustard card stock from Stampin’ Up and glued it to the inside of the card front, so the circle would now have paper behind it. I laid the die back in place, and used washi tape to ensure it wouldn’t move, then used More Mustard ink from Stampin’ Up on a 1″ chip brush from Harbor Freight Liquidators to brush around the die. I decided it needed more color on the white card stock, so brushed the ink all over the card front. At this point, I ended up with a small splotch that I couldn’t figure out what to do with, so ended up gluing crystals from Hobby Lobby (Halloween collection) all over the front. I think I lost my mind, as I just glued those everywhere….I used tape runner from an ATG gun that stopped working, and laid the crystals on the tape then slid them off and it’s a great way to use up that tape and glue the crystals to the card front.
I used Impression Obsession Wishes and Concord and 9th Love You, Mean It stamp sets for my sentiments. And used Versafine Onyx Black ink and Ranger clear embossing powder with the Marvy Heat Tool (OK, that one died too, so I don’t recommend those tools, and am back to using my very inexpensive original blue model.)
On the envelope I used peg stamps from the Autumn Glory peg stamp set and also on the inside of the card to decorate it. You can find them at http://www.pegstamps.com. And Lindsay the Frugal Crafter almost always has a discount code on her latest peg stamps video, so check with her site to find the code.

I was feeling a little bit stir crazy today, as we really haven’t been out of the house for a few days.  So we went to Erie, PA, where they had 63 inches of snow on Christmas and shopped at the mall and Michaels, AC Moore and Hobby Lobby.  We found a few cute things and got some ideas for projects for next year, but we really wanted to see the snow.  I know it sounds dumb, I live where it snows all the time, but they had rolled a huge snowball in the parking lot of the mall, and I wanted to see it.  It was huge…I think it’s over twenty feet high.  Rich took photos of us standing by it with his phone, and I might put one of them on the facebook page, because I thought it was really funny.  I have no idea how they made that snowball, but it was completely awesome.  Huge and amazing and so much fun to see.  Now you know how bored I am, that I’m gushing about a snowball.
Meanwhile, they were using a crane to take the snow off of the roof of Lowe’s.  The weight was threatening to buckle the roof.  That’s not as much fun, but it’s the reality of getting that much snow so quickly.  We thought it was odd that Kohls decided to plow out enough parking space for twenty cars per lane of their parking lot, and then plowed shut the end, so once you pull into that lane of the parking lot, you have to turn around to get back out of it.  That was not the brightest idea, because the snow that’s falling off of cars is accumulating in the parking lot and trying to do a three-point-turn in it wasn’t easy.  Plus the cars pulling into that lane are not expecting you to try to turn around and get confused by that, so there’s a big log jam of cars not completely knowing how to park or leave the parking lot.
Let’s just say it was an interesting experience and I’m glad we’re home, where it’s still really cold, but the snow is minimal.  I really hope it stays that way too.  I need to find a video to give Rich, so we get a new one up tonight.  I hope I have one that won’t take a long time for him to edit. I have a tendency to make so many mistakes that he has to spend a long time correcting them…

I’ve been working on ways to use the scraps that come out of a die when you cut it, and today made a card with them.  The card is relatively simple, but I think has some good tips on how to do things more easily.  After finishing the card and the video, I thought I’d play with my Distress Oxides and some background stamps.  I’m still struggling with the Distress Oxides, I have to be honest.  I like the idea of using a pigment based ink, but don’t really like the look once it’s wet.  I know that’s the whole point of them, the “oxidization” look, but I’m just not comfortable with using them that way.  So I made a big background, stamped it with four different colors, and decided to let it marinate, while I decided if it was a keeper or not.

I often wonder how other YouTubers come up with their card ideas.  Do they go to Pinterest and find something they’d like to duplicate, or are the ideas completely their own?  I think I’ve said this before, but I don’t use Pinterest, other than to upload my video images to it.  I like to know exactly how to make something when I see a photo of it, so am a YouTube junkie.  I really like watching videos of fun fold cards, as I find them to be immensely satisfying to create.  And for some reason, I love watching the old Frugal Crafter videos…I mean the ones from the days when she used a desk and had her camcorder pointed from angle so you can’t see what she is creating very well.  Still, I really enjoy watching them, as they are relaxing, and you can tell she’s doing it because she loves the act of creating.

I need to find other crafters whose videos make me feel like Lindsay’s, as one channel just isn’t enough.