What I Want - Heat Embossing

In last weeks "What I Want Wednesday" post I showed you the Cricut Cuttlebug and talked about its ability to die cut and emboss.  What the Cuttlebug does is actually called DRY embossing.  There is another type of embossing called HEAT embossing.  Both techniques give you somewhat similar results in the end, in that your paper is embossed with an image, however there are some differences that make having the ability to dry AND heat emboss ideal.

To do heat embossing you need a few tools.  You need some sort of an embossing medium, usually in the form of either an "ink" pad (a lot of people call it ink, but in my mind it's not really ink because, when I think of ink I think of color, and it usually stamps clear) or in a pen (which is the exact same stuff as what's on the pad, just in pen form).  In my travels, I've mostly seen the brand VersaMark used, however I'm sure there are other brands out there.

You also need some embossing powder.  The powder comes in many colors and will dictate what color your image is when it's set.

Again, this is just one brand of powder.  There are many other brands of embossing powders out there in lots of colors and textures.  Some are matte and some are very sparkly.  It just depends on what look you are trying to achieve.

The last thing you need to heat emboss...is the heat!  You need a handy dandy little tool that looks somewhat similar to a hair dryer, just a different shape.  Actually there are certain versions of them that do look exactly like those little hair dryers that you usually find attached to the wall in a hotel bathroom because, again, there are several brands to chose from.

Once you have all of these, relatively inexpensive tools, you're ready to start heat embossing!  The only other thing you really need are some rubber or acrylic stamps of images that you want to emboss on your projects.  Someday when I have the ability to heat emboss I'll probably do a video demonstration and add it to my blog, but until then you can search for videos on YouTube to see just how easy it is.  Then you will know why I want to be able to heat emboss!  It adds a lot of "specialness" to your projects with very little effort.

Happy crafting!

Bridget