Description
Embossing powders come in a variety of colors and textures. They add subtle dimension and shine to your card. They’re a great way to finish a card.
Embossing powders are essential tiny particles of plastic. You use a “wet” ink to stamp an image or sentiment and then just pour some embossing powder over it. The powder sticks to just your inked impression. When you run a heat gun over it, the powder melts to form a slightly raised impression. A blow drying doesn’t get hot enough, so you really need a heat gun. One little pot of embossing powder lasts a LONG time, so you get a lot of bang for you buck on this one.
I use VersaMark ink most of the time to make the stamped impression. This is a clear sticky ink perfect for embossing. You could also use it alone to give a slightly darkened color of the cardstock behind it. You can also use pigment inks (like VersaFine) since they stay on top of the paper and remain wet longer than a dye ink (which is absorbed into the paper).
Some powders I keep on hand at all times are:
- Clear – this is great because it makes your stamped impression raised and glossy. It’s perfect for using over pigment inks and I’ll often use it over a VersaFine-stamped sentiment to make that stand out a little.
- White – this comes in handy when you want to stamp on a dark cardstock (e.g. a white sentiment on a black strip). Often, white stamps aren’t a clean, opaque white, but white embossing powder is perfectly crisp and clear.
- Gold & Silver – Metallic embossing powders come in a variety of colors but I keep gold & silver in stock since they go with a lot of styles/designs so easily. Instead of foiling, metallic embossing powders are a great way to add that extra sparkle.
- Sticky – I’ve started to use sticky embossing powder. This is a great way to add metallic foil to your stamped impression. It’s easier than using a two-way glue like Tombow’s multi-purpose liquid glue. Some people use regular embossing powder and then run it through a laminator, but with the sticky embossing powder, you just need to rub the foil over it — no laminator needed! It’s easier to stamp an impression than the liquid glue and I find glue still leaves a tacky residue that I have to brush baby powder over to remove.
There are so many more embossing powders to play with — from a variety of colors to specialty finishes like glow in the dark or textured finishes like glitter, sand and snow.
One thing to note – when you are shopping for embossing powders, you’ll see some listed as “super fine detail” versus “regular”. This is a distinction in the size of the plastic particles. The smaller the particles, the better able the powder is to capture fine line details in your stamp.
Often, an embossing powder tool can be helpful to remove moisture and static on the card before you make your stamped impression. This helps ensure the embossing powder only stick to where you stamp. I’ve linked to one but I just put some baby powder in a portion cup and use a cheap paint brush to brush on some baby powder.
