Heat it Up!!

Hello and welcome to another Tuesday mid-week Little Extra. Friday’s challenge set by Jane is still ongoing and we hope you're all enjoying finding ways to use those pipe-cleaners. Keep those fabulous cards coming!

It's Vanessa here and for the Little Extra, I want to share one of my favourite techniques which is stamping into Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel (UTEE). Its been around for a while I know, but its a great way to create embellishments for your cards. Here is my example :-


As you can see I've altered three squares (using thin chipboard) to create the embellishments. You can easily use card/chipboard/mountboard for this technique, paper is not really suitable as its too thin and will probably bevel, the sturdier the base, the better.

Firstly, you will need a versamark inkpad or pigment inkpad to ink up your chipboard piece(s).

Then, sprinkle the clear ultra thick embossing powder (UTEE) over the top – shake off the excess and pour back into your jar.

Take your heat gun and place the piece(s) onto a heat resistant and non-stick surface. Heat with the heat gun, moving slowly along whilst the powder melts.

You will need to repeat these two steps approximately three or four times to give a nice thick coating. I’ve used four coats as I love the enamel splurging over the side when I stamp into the final layer.

Next, re-ink your pieces with some clear pigment ink/versamark ink and sprinkle a final layer of coloured embossing powder – I’ve used two colours, gold and green. Shake off the excess. If you're quick enough, you won't need to do the re-inking bit and just sprinkle the final layers of powder onto the hot molten enamel.

Before heating this final layer, ink up a patterned stamp that will cover the whole of your chipboard piece and put to one side. Then, melt the final layer until the powder is molten and immediately place the stamp on top of the molten enamel - don’t press, just leave it to sit on top for about 30-40 seconds and then remove. Your piece should have a lovely imprinted enamelled design.

Finally, adhere your piece(s) to your card!

I really hope you’ve enjoyed this little extra, it’s not a new technique by any means, but a really enjoyable one that can have very different results each time you do it.

We would all love to see what you make using this technique so if you do decide to have a go, please leave a link in the comment section.

Thanks for looking , Vanessa. :)