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Has anyone tried the technique where you heat emboss a stamped design with white embossing powder on kraft paper and then color in the open spaces using watercolors or Inktense pencils, etc.? I'm trying to practice the Jennifer McGuire project using a Hero Arts floral background stamp with a lot of detail and solid areas.
I am having the hardest time getting a smooth emboss -- a lot of pitting and areas that look like the embossing powder has melted into the paper. I'm careful to warm my heat gun up away from the paper, but it just might not be powerful enough to melt this whole background stamp quickly enough.
I don't know if it's the paper (Neenah Desert Storm smooth) the embossing powder I'm using (WOW Ultra Fine White), or my technique (quite likely ).
Has anyone ever tried this, or have tips to share?
Either your ink pad is too old and not wet enough or possible you embossing powder is too old. For a dry pad all you need is a reinker but if you have had embossing powder for a really long time it may not be usable anymore. Evidently they do "go bad" over time.
I've recently been doing resist embossing using Wow white EP, as it was the best white I could find, and it works fine, so it does sound more likely to be the Versamark pad. A quick re-inking should solve the problem. Btw, it does not have to be Versamark- any clear embossing inkpad will do the job.
OP, when I had the problem that you describe, it turned out that my embossing powder (which was old) was no longer any good. Hope you are able to figure this out and get a nice emboss. I recently watched the technique that you're taking about on a Gina K YouTube video (Gina used markers for the coloring) and I'm getting ready to try it for an SCS card swap card:
__________________ "May your mind whirl joyful cartwheels of creativity." - Jonathan Lockwood Huie.
OP, when I had the problem that you describe, it turned out that my embossing powder (which was old) ...on a Gina K YouTube video
Yes, thank you, I saw Gina's video too and loved it! Her stamp design is quite a bit finer than the one I'm trying to use, but I do notice in this close-up still from the video that her embossing doesn't look perfectly smooth and even either :cool: My embossing powder is new but I've ordered a VersaMark reinker, so I'll keep trying. Would love to see yours!
I suspect the powder 'going bad' may have something to do with humidity? I suggest this, as living in the UK, high humidity is not something we suffer from, lol, and I have Ep's that are at least 10 years old that still work fine.
I think you're on to something with the humidity theory � I live in a very humid southern state in the US and these powders must go through a lot of temperature changes to get to us. My latest jar is new, though, and it is winter, so I'm hoping for at least a few good months with it!
There was a thread on here a while back concerning Ep 'clumping' in jars. Someone suggested that adding something like the silica gel packets you find in trainers etc might help. Another thought too- don't know if this idea is used over there, but in the UK, grains of rice are often added to salt shakers to absorb moisture- maybe a few added to pots of EP might help?
Help with heat embossing/ coloring project
