Heat Embossing
	You may achieve color when embossing in two ways: emboss with clear ink and colored embossing powder, or emboss with colored ink and clear embossing powder. You may experiement with many combinations for different effects. You generally must use a pigment ink, which stays wet long enough for the embossing powder to stick to it, but when working on glossy surfaces (vellum paper, glossy paper) you can sometimes stamp with a dye ink and emboss, if you do it quickly. This is due to the extra drying time required for any ink on the slicker surfaces.
	Supplies:
	paper or cardstock to stamp on stamps embossing pad, Versa Mark pad, or pigment ink pad embossing powder heat gun Tidy Tray or scrap paper to catch the extra embossing powder (see Preparation) Embossing Buddy, optional embossing board (see Preparation), optional
	Preparation:
	Tidy Tray substitute: If you do not have a tidy tray, you can fold a piece of paper in half, crease it, and open it back up flat. Put your piece on top of this paper when pouring embossing powder, so you can easily pour the excess powder back in the jar.   fold paper in half and open back up Embossing board: It is helpful to put your piece on an embossing board to keep from burning your fingers. Take a piece of sturdy cardboard, approx 12" x 12", cover it with foil, and use a couple of clothes pins to hold your work in place while embossing. Your piece will not buckle as much with a flat surface behind it and it the foil will reflect the heat, so it embosses better.
	Step 1:
	Optional: Wipe the Embossing Buddy across your paper. This helps to eliminate static so the embossing powder won't cling to the paper where it's not supposed to. It may leave a slight residue of powder behind; this is fine. You'll wipe it off when you're done.
	Step 2:
	Stamp your image with embossing ink, pigment ink, or Versa Mark ink. If you use embossing ink or Versa Mark, the image will be very light, depending on the darkness of the paper you are stamping on.
	stamp with colored, pigment ink stamp with Versa Mark or embossing ink, difficult to see the image
	Step 3:
	Pour embossing powder over stamped image. Pour off excess. Tap edge of cardstock to get excess to fall off if it's clinging to the paper. Pour excess powder back into the jar and put the lid on.
	pour embossing powder on pour excess off pour excess back in jar
	Step 4:
	Place your piece on the embossing board; attach it with a clothes pin. Heat image with heat gun, holding gun approx 4" away. Move the gun slowly around the image until the entire image is embossed. You can see how the powder changes to a glossy look as it melts.