Heat Embossing Tutorial

My lovely friend Roochita's birthday is this weekend, and I wanted to make her something as a token of the special day.

Roochita owns an online evening purse/clutch store called Auzora. I've been wanting to support her entreprenurial efforts, and remembered how nice it is to receive prettily packaged merchandise from stores like etsy when I bought my aprons. I thus decided to make "thank you for your purchase" tags so that she can slip them inside the clutches or tie them to the handles of the purses when she packages them for shipping.

I loved the hot pink background and electric blue details on the Auzora website and rummaged through my paper supply. Lo and behold! - I actually had those colors on hand!

I decided to heat emboss a chandelier on the tags. Heat embossing basically involves melting a plastic-based powder onto paper so that it creates a three-dimensional image. For those of you interested in how to create that raised, shiny, textured image, listen up! (Mom, that means you!) Below is a step-by-step tutorial on how I made the tags, including how to heat emboss.

STEP 1: Design template on computer and print out on cardstock.

Tip: Print out the template on plain paper so that you can really see it and adjust the format on the computer, if necessary. It took me a few tries to get the spacing exactly the way I wanted.

STEP 2: The basic tools for heat embossing are:

- Cardstock. I like at least 80 lb weight cardstock since the intense heat from the embossing gun can "curl" or "ripple" lighter-weighted paper.

- Rubber stamp. Heat embossing usually comes out better if you use an image that is not too detailed or intricate. Clear, simple, bold images are best.

- Pigmented ink. Dye/water-based inks do not work well when heat embossing. Pigmented ink stays wetter longer than water-based inks and are thus better.

- Embossing powder. A very small jar goes a looooooooong way.

- Heat embossing gun. (Yes, I know what it looks like; get your mind out of the gutter.)

Once you make sure you have all the tools on hand, stamp the image of your choice on the cardstock of your choice.


STEP 3: Quickly, before the ink dries (you will have a little while but not hours!), pour a generous amount of embossing powder over the stamped image. Do not be stingy with the powder; you can pour it all back in your jar when you're finished, don't worry.


Now carefully shake off the excess powder onto another sheet of paper; you can pour it back in the container. Tap the paper with the stamped image lightly so that all the excess powder comes off. When you're done, the image should be fully covered with the power, like this:


STEP 4: Turn on your heat embossing vibrator (*ahem* I mean tool) and let it heat up. Thirty seconds does the trick. When it is ready to go, point the tip of the tool about 2-3 inches above the powdered image. Move the tool back and forth over the image. You’ll be able to see the powder melt and go from grainy to super glossy.


The air coming from the heat tool is HOT. It will burn the paper (and/or your fingers!!), so keep it moving. If you linger too long on one spot, the paper will winkle up... or catch fire. Trust.

Here is a close-up comparison of a half-embossed image. The left side is embossed; the right side is still just the powdered image.


And here is the finished product! See how the embossed chandelier image is raised and glossy, while the text is just normally printed?




Tied to a clutch!


Once you get the hang of embossing, you can get creative and create gorgeous things like the below:






Arrgh! So many images I want to emboss, and so little time!