Tuesday Tips - Heat Embossing Chocolate Baroque

Heat embossing is what makes this card so stunning.

Here's what you'll need to make this card:
cs: Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa, Very Vanilla or Whisper White
inks: Chocolate Chip
other: Clear Embossing Powder, Heat Tool, 5/8" Chocolate Chip Grosgrain Ribbon, Pretties Kit half pearl, Crystal Effects, decorative blade scissors or a decorative border punch such as the Eyelet Border Punch or Scalloped Border Punch

If you haven't tried heat embossing, this is a fun technique to try. Here's how:

Before stamping, rub the cs with an embossing buddy. This step is optional, although your image will be much clearer & there won't be any extra flecks of embossing powder melted where you don't want it.

Stamp the image from the Baroque Motifs stamp set with Chocolate Chip ink onto the Close to Cocoa cs. I suggest you do one image at a time. Craft ink or VM are the inks that work best for heat embossing. Sometimes classic dye-based ink can be used for heat embossing, through you will need to work rather quickly. The reason craft ink works best for heat embossing is because it doesn't dry as fast, which gives you plenty of time to get your heat embossing done. The ink must stay wet through the entire process.

With that being said, sprinkle clear EP over the top of the stamped images as soon as you stamp them. Tap off excess powder & funnel it back ino the EP jar to save for another day. The powder sticks to wherever the ink is on the paper. If it doesn't stick, that means that either you are using the wrong type of inkpad or you are not working quickly enough. Heat the powdered image with a heat tool by holding it several inches away until the powdered image turns shiny. You can actually see a change as you heat it. Once you see an area "melt" into a shiny liquid, that area is done & you can move on to other areas that still need "melting". When you're all done, the images should be raised & shiny & pretty.

Create a decorative edge on the Close to Cocoa large cs & tie ribbon around it. Now layer everything on the card front as shown. The half pearl can be adhered with a dot of Crystal Effects.

Linda :)