How do you heat emboss?
 

Alright, so I bought everything to do heat embossing, a whole bunch of colours, I love the look of it, but I have a little problem. Every time I try heat embossing the ends of my paper curl up, it's driving me nuts! Am I doing something wrong, or am I just destined to never heat emboss in the future? I'm hoping to emboss some Christmas cards next week for family/friends so I would love some help with this.

Thanks,
Heather

Try holding the heat gun a little further from the paper. It might take longer for the powder to melt. You can also rotate heating from top and then bottom until the powder melts. This reduces the curling as well. The thickness of your paper also makes a difference.

heat embossing usually pulls moisture out of cardstock causing some warping.

the trick is to be very quick, keep the heat gun as far away from the paper as possible.

that said, I rarely heat emboss a one layer card because my paper always warps a bit. I emboss and then use it as a layer so that i can adhere it in a way that doesn't show the warping.

Using Ranger's Heat It gun helps a bit, but not completely. Also, heavier cardstock, such as Gina K 120 lb also helps.

I use a SU! heat gun and that seems to work much faster and more evenly distributes the hot air than the one I got from M's. I equate it to finding a good hair dryer. Some worker better than others. :D

Also, don't hold the gun too close to the paper and what I like to do is make small circular motions with the heat gun. This keeps the hot air from concentrating too long on one spot and helps prevent warping and scorching.

HTH!

I use Stampin up embossing powder and ink or SU powder and versamark. I also use Stampin Up paper and a heat gun from Hobby Lobby. I've never had a problem.
Is it possible your paper is too light weight or your embossing powder melts at
a higher temp?

All the tips are good and I can only think of one to add ... after melting the embossing powder briefly heat the reverse side of the cardstock. I read this a long ago and the thinking is that doing the same application to both sides evens out any warps. It seems to help but I rarely emboss one layer cards so i can "fix" it when adhering to another layer.

Here's some tips (PaperFriendly: WORTHY OF MENTION) I posted on my blog ages ago...I've been using these tips for a long, long time.

If your paper is curling a lot, there's a good chance moisture is the problem. Quickly heat both sides of the paper (use your heat gun) to ensure the paper is bone dry before stamping the image.

Thank you for the information, Nancy. Never hurts to learn more.

The commercials that came up on your website were of donuts, and I am so hungry now. lol.

PS I love your blog and have bookmarked it; I should put it into my RSS feed.
thanks.

I put aluminum foil on a clipboard with the shiny side out. I then clip the image on the board. That holds one end down, and I hold the other end with a long needle tool or something. I use all the other tips mentioned and with all that I get minimal curling. The aluminum foil reflects some of the heat to the back of the paper.

Great tips. Never knew about the aluminum foil trick. Nancy, great Blog. Just signed up to receive updates.

a great tip that I have is, once you've heated the image, to turn the paper upside down and heat the reverse - this makes the paper curl back the way it came!!

Made On The Farm

This does help a lot. I did it when I was using watercolors, and the paper dried pretty flat. It wasn't perfect, but it was much better than it was before I heated the back.

Thanks for all the tips everyone, I tried to do some heat embossing on the weekend and NO CURLING!

I kept it a little higher than I normally would, and kept the heat moving around the image. After it was done, I blasted the back for a second or two, and any curls that were left originally were all gone.

Me and my Christmas cards thank you for the help!

the tips i've picked up re heat embossing are as follows:

- let your heat gun warm up before trying to melt the powder.
- keep the heat gun about 1" from the card and concentrate on pne area until it melts. as it melts, move the heat gun to the next area. don't waft the heat gun over the image.
- if you want a smooth finish to a silhouette image, heat from the underside

hth

In addition to using a foil covered mini clip board, here are a couple of other things I do to prevent curling:

� Aim the heat gun at the underside of the paper as the gun is heating up. When the paper begins to curl downward & the EP just begins to melt, switch to heating from the top. Then the paper will curl the opposite way & flatten out. If you heat the underside after you finish embossing, you risk overheating your EP & scorching your paper.

� When you turn your heat gun on, aim it away from your paper & count to 10 to let it get hot enough to melt the EP before you even aim it at your paper. EP will then melt much quicker, less moisture will be removed from paper & less curling will occur. I do this especially when I'm embossing vellum, in addition to holding the gun farther away.

If you're doing a lot of cards...let your oven do the work! Cover a cookie sheet with parchment paper, heat the oven to 275, place the cards on the parchment paper so they're not touching, put the sheet in the oven...Bingo! Doesn't take long for the powder to melt, so keep an eye on the cards. Allow to cool before removing from the sheet.

And...when using a gun, DO hold it at one spot until that powder is melted before moving it slowing to an adjacent area. Swinging the gun back and forth over the powder only slows things up.

***

I do those same things. I like heating it underneath first because it keeps the powder from blowing further off the top.