DIY Wedding Forum

Embossing Tips?

I'm thinking about doing DIY invitations.  I had planned on just printing them on cardstock and then embossing some type of design - like a flower or something for color.  Does anyone have experience doing emboss work?  I read somewhere that you have to use pigment ink and that it's better to ink in color and emboss in clear?  Is any of this true? 

Re: Embossing Tips?

  • I'm doing something similar! It's pretty easy, just stamp the invitation with a stamp pressed in embossing ink, dust on the embossing glitter (it's not really glitter, but basically a similar process if you've ever put glue down and dusted glitter on top), get rid of the excess powder, and use the embosser. It's kind of like a more focused blow dryer. AC Moore/Michaels I'm pretty sure have classes where you can learn how to use them if you really feel like you need that, but I'm sure there are youtubes. Just practice a few times on scrap paper and you'll get it. The hardest part is figuring out what stamps you want to use to emboss and not getting the corners!! 

    As for your question, I've never used a color embossing ink, just clear. I'd imagine they relatively show up, but not too much since the idea is that the powder is embossed into the paper, so that's the dominant color. I've never noticed anything under my pigment dust after embossing. 

    Hope that helps!
  • I'm making my Save the Dates and Invitations.  They'll be on a navy-ish cardstock with gold stamped letting and a gold peacock feather (also stamped on.)

    I was experimenting with a spray fixative and with embossing this week.  I read a few blogs that said you could hold the paper up to an iron in lieu of a heating tool.  I tried with the iron as I haven't received my heating tool yet. (I'm using a gold pigment ink and clear embossing powder.)  I found that the iron worked, but there were a couple parts that "burned."  I think the embossing powder got heated too much in some parts and it went from gold to black.  The paper was almost touching the iron, but I never let it sit still.  I moved the paper in quick little circles because I didn't want to burn the paper itself.

    Embossing seems easy enough, I'm just worried about how much wiggle room I have for error.
  • edited March 2015
    I prefer clear ink and metallic powder. Do a few test runs first to get the timing down. With metallic you'll see the wave of melty shininess sweep across and be able to see when you're done. The trick is really in getting a good process down, which will come with repetition. ETA I always use the heat gun that looks like a blow dryer.

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  • @kcharleton0513
    I haven't heard about subbing an iron in, but i have heard you can try a blow dryer on low if it gets hot enough. I haven't tried it but i'd imaging it would be more focused and not burn. 



    Does anyone have any suggestions on stamps/designs they've used? I really can't decide what I want to emboss yet!! 
  • Kate71421 said:

    @kcharleton0513

    I haven't heard about subbing an iron in, but i have heard you can try a blow dryer on low if it gets hot enough. I haven't tried it but i'd imaging it would be more focused and not burn. 



    Does anyone have any suggestions on stamps/designs they've used? I really can't decide what I want to emboss yet!! 
    A blow dryer definitely wouldn't work. It would blow the powder away before it melted it. Any dryer that gets that hot doesn't belong anywhere near your head. I've done this A LOT.

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  • @lolo883 -
    fair enough, thanks for disproving! just heard it was something you could try but since I have an embosser I've never cared enough to! 
  • I have embossed and it is really easy. The stuff I used was from Stampin' Up.  The heat gun on their site is only $30.

    When I embossed, I always used Versamark.  It was from Stampin' Up, and it was off-white and was wet and kind of sticky/gluey. Then colored powder was poured over it.  I have never tried using ink with clear powder.  I think embossing with colored powder looked really nice.

    It's really easy to to see when you're done. The powder will just be sitting there and then it will suddenly start melting and turn shiny.

    Be really careful and always keep the gun moving.  Also, don't get too much in a hurry. The closer to the paper you hold the gun, the faster the powder will melt.  However, it's really easy for the paper to wind up warped if there's too much heat for too long.  You may have to make extras or do a few to practice.
  • edited April 2015
    We embossed our invitations and our response card. We used blue ink with gold embossing powder. You can use any ink and powder combination you want. 

    I got the gun from Michael's with a 50% off coupon, and I got the stamp and ink from PaperSource with a 20% off coupon. 
  • sbe0984sbe0984 member
    First Anniversary First Comment
    edited April 2015
    I embossed our STDs and will be doing our invitations, inserts, welcome bag items, and thank you notes.

    I used bronze powder and clear ink on aqua and white paper.  My stamps are three different sizes of the same starfish.  Got them off Ebay.

    I bought the heating gun from Martha Stewart at Michaels and used a 40% off coupon on it.
    After a couple of trial runs I tried using my heat gun from behind the paper.  I found that more of the embossing powder stays on and there's no chance of it getting blown anywhere from where i stamped.  I was also having the corner issue a little.  I used a knife and trimmed my stamp down on the edges so that the only thing that could possible get stamped was my design.  

    The quickest way I found to get them done was to do a handful of the stamping and powder applying then do all the heat gunning.

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