ouch
 

Anybody have a good idea to save my fingers when heat embossing? I use an old eyelash tweezer, and don't want to buy the full crafter's kit yet. Any ideas? I'm doing a small piece of cardstock, and even with my tweezers, my thumb is burning! And I'm doing 50 of these cards! I wouldn't be surprised if it blisters by the end...any ideas? Thanks,

Laura

Have you tried using a clothespin to hold the piece?

Sue

won't it burn? I'm hoping for something a little longer as a clothespin is the same length as my tweezers. And I don't think I ever have any :eek: but I do hang my clothes on a dryer rack :D

I sometimes use my Pampered Chef bamboo tongs to hold a corner of the paper. They are longer than a clothespin and easy to grip. HTH!

Have you tried using a long chopstick or wooden BBQ skewer to hold the piece in place? I use an old wooden chopstick to hold my pieces to the table (and a piece of teflon under it!) and heat away. It also works for the shrink plastic stuff my daughter loves to do. Hope that helps!
Lisa

This is exactly what I use. I have been using it for about 3 years now to do my heat embossing and it works great! I actually have several PC items that I use in my crafting. I.E. I use the bar board for my eyelets and I use the tool turn about for all my supplies such as scissors and such.

You can buy just the tweezers at Mike's for like $3. Well worth the investment.

I use clothes pins that have a tongue depressor glued to one of the sides. The tongue depressor extends your reach from the actual heat source and works like a charm.

Another solution is to use a clip board to hold your cardstock.

I've used a little clip to hold the CS to a foil-wrapped piece of cardboard then use the heating tool.

Wanda

I've been known to use my kitchen tongs -- metal with plastic-coated handles, about 8" long or so.

I use a clip board covered with foil. The foil seems to heat the item quicker.

LG

Instead of holding the piece, put it down on a cookie sheet and use a chopstick or skewer to hold it on place. Because you have the metal behind you, the embossing will happen quicker!

I use a clipboard, put the item under the clip and then hold at the bottom--my fingers never get hot, plus it works nicely with littlier pieces

I have a tin foil pan that I lay the piece in then just hold it down with a folk, knife, or spoon. What ever is handy. I don't buy everything. I always try to figure a way to use something I already have. This just made sense to me.
Shelley :)

That's exactly how I do it, too!

Vera

Needlenose pliers! They work great and most people have them in their tool chest!

Carmen

I always lay it down on the counter and use the bone folder to keep it from blowing away. I'm gonna have to try the foil thing - sounds like a great tip!

That's what i do except i place my pieces in a shoebox... Works great.

You can also, depending on where the embossing is on the piece, clip it to a clipboard.

When I was helping a friend make her graduation party favors, we used needle nose pliers to hold the cardstock. It worked great. I hadn't thought about using my wooden tongs from Pampered Chef, that would be a great alternative.

folded a 1/2" hem UP in a big piece of tinfoil.
then I folded the sides DOWN and BACK around an old safe shelf
that makes an instant clip/shallow pocket fre embossing stuff.
Especially for multiples!

HTH! GL!

I use a grease splatter screen (round screen with a handle used to keep grease from splattering when cooking on the stove). I have found that using metal or foil can help to burn the paper if you aren't careful.

Fun to see all the creative ideas!!

I use a paint stick (the one used to mix the paint) and glue a clothespin on the end. It works great! These are super cheap to make......you can get the paint sticks for free at your local hardware store and clothespins at the dollar store.

I use a piece of cardboard and wrap aluminum foil around it. When embossing I use 1 or 2 clothes pins to clip the card stock down. This works great and I don't burn my fingers. My customers love this idea.

Ouch
 

Hi Laura,

I use a pinch wooden clothes pin to hold the card stock while I heat emboss and it works great. Hope this will solve your problem.

Patti

I use the lid of a shoebox to put the piece to be embossed in. Just try not to blow it around too much. Works awesome.

HA! Great minds think alike! I also use the bar board for the same purpose!! And I use the little scrapers that come with the stones in place of a bone folder. Who knew PC could be so stamper friendly?!?

I am totally lost, but I am also blonde, so take it from there! What is a bar board and what are the "scrapers with stones". Just wondered!

The bar board is a small cutting board used in kitchens that are made out of that hard plastic material. The PC one is 6x8 inches.

The scrapers come with the cooking stones. These little scrapers are maybe a two or three in square and are very flat. Used to scrape food off of the stones. And you can buy them in a set of three I think if you don't want to buy a stone.

Check around, you can probably easily find someone who sells PChef.

THANK YOU! I know exactly what you are talking about, and I also have those. Good idea!!

I think the clip board is a great idea. Also the tin foil folded up to make a pocket - you could mount it somewhere. I was always told to hold the embossing tool either horizontal or up and never to hold it down as the heat from it would travel back into the tool and cause early burn out - so I would hesitate to use anything that caused me to emboss pointing the tool down.

I use a clipboard...Not the plastic type, the partical board type...You just put the corner of your cardstock under the clip and emboss away. NO BURNS ON YOUR FINGERS!!! I get them at a large chain store in Canada 2 for $2.99. I would imagine you could find them for a reasonable price just about anywhere. Hope this helps!!!

These are all fabulous ideas...find what works for you and go with it!

Wow! My sister is a PC rep and she would LOVE to hear all of this. She has a list of PC stuff that can be used for crafting but I'll bet she hasn't heard of using the stone for eyelet-setting.

For little bits of embossing I use some hemostats I have leftover from a lab job. I also use a piece of cardboard wrapped in foil when I have something I can lay down. I found that when I'm embossing on fragile stuff like vellum it won't curl so much because it evens the heat distribution.

HTH!
Dj

hahaha...I just re-read the post and it's NOT the STONES for eyelet setting. Color me embarrassed!

Dj

I just turn my brush from the powder pal set upside down and use the end of the brush to hold my paper down since I always have it out anyway. I have used my needlenose pliers to hold my silver brads when embossing them to make copper or colored brads. Hope that helps.

I use a clipboard - just clip a corner of the cs under the clip and heat away. It has to be a chipboard clipboard though -no a plastic. - works great

If I am doing a large amount of embossed cards (invitations, etc), I stamp, apply EP to half a dozen, lay them on a cookie sheet and place in 450 degree oven for about a minute. Don't leave the cards in the oven very long. Embosses perfectly!
Lynn

Yeah these tips are awesome! I usually just burn my fingertip off and deal with it! ;)

no more burned fingers
 

This is my solution: Take a small box with a cover - like the box from greeting cards, the kind that your checks come in or something similar. Take off the cover and that is what you will use - you could even use a shoe box cover. Or, if you don't have a box with a cover, you could use anything from a mac & cheese box to a small cereal box, etc. In that case, cut off the front of the box so you have the back and the four sides (so that what you are left with is shaped like the cover of a box). Then, line the inside with aluminum foil. Don't worry about being too neat. Place the cs piece that you need to heat emboss in the box - I usually place it close to one of the corners, rather than right in the middle. Then, just make sure to lower your heatgun directly down towards the cs - not from the side - so your piece doesn't flip over. If you can't get the hang of this, you could always put a small piece of removable adhesive down in the box to hold the cs in place. The two sides that make up the corner of the box will hold it in place pretty well - and the aluminum foil reflects the heat so that the whole process goes pretty quickly. I've been doing this for year and it works great for me - hope that it is a good solution for you as well!

All great ideas! I simply use a new, unsharpened pencil's eraser to keep whatever I am embossing still. the long pencil keeps my hands from getting too hot!