A few days before Valentine's Day I showed how I was making my Valentine card to Danny on my Instagram Stories using embossing powder. I had so many people wanting to learn how to do it that I thought I'd make up a quick little tutorial for you! I looooove my heat gun and embossing powder - it's probably one of my most used craft item. When I deliver my prints and products to my clients I package them up in a photo box and use my embossing powder to draw my logo on the lid. Follow along as I show you how easy it is to use! 

The hardest part (seriously) is gathering all your supplies. Danny got me everything for one Christmas at a combo of Michaels and Hobby Lobby - but they also have kits on Amazon too. 

You'll Need: 

1. Heat Gun
2. Embossing Pen (I'm using black ink, but I also have clear if I'm doing something on glass)
3. Junk brush (aka a brush that you don't mind ruining)
4. Embossing Powder (This is usually found in the stamping aisle)
5. Whatever You're embossing - in this case, a 5x7 picture box
6. Piece of paper to catch excess powder

First, pull out what you're embossing as well as your embossing pen. Make sure your surface is clean.

Write or draw whatever design you want embossed. Luckily I designed my own logo so I can replicate it easily. (They also sell embossing stamp pads! Someday I'll get around to having my logo made onto a stamp to help with production time.)

Poor your embossing powder directly onto the freshly drawn ink. Make sure to work quickly once the ink has been laid out - this will help with your powder sticking to the ink better. 

Once it's all dumped onto your design it should look like a pile of glitter - aka the worst type of craft to do around toddlers. I recommend waiting until they're busy playing or napping and not going to bother you. You do not want to have to clean this stuff up! 

Place your scrap paper underneath your project and carefully dump the excess into the middle. It helps to tap from the back. 

Now you should be able to poor the excess powder back into the container to save for more projects!

Using your junk brush, remove any loose or excess powder from your project. Depending on what you're embossing you'll either have a lot of clean up, or a little. Whenever I emboss glass, there are so many stray clumps of powder that it takes me a good chunk of time. Failure to do so will result in embossed, unplanned specks all over your project. Luckily in most paper cases, there is hardly much clean up required. 

Now is the fun part! Plug in your heat gun and hold it about 3-4 inches away from your project. Move it back and forth like you would if you were blowdrying your hair. The powder will start to bubble and then transform before your eyes. Just like with a blowdryer, don't hold your heat gun in one place or it will burn. You can see the difference of textures between the two pictures from the left to the right. 

And there you have it! A quick, simple way to elevate any project. Be forewarned though, if you decide to emboss glass, it is not dishwasher safe! I learned that the hard way when the "O" and part of an "L" melted off my "Hello" mug in the dishwasher. Not the effect I was going for, but pretty funny when I unloaded!