Heat embossing is what drew me into making cards to begin with! I was in a Paper Source store and one of the sales associates there showed me how to heat emboss. It was, indeed, like magic! The rest, as they say, is history! So I thoroughly enjoyed the videos for the class and trying out a technique I had not previously tried.
For this project, I decided to try the layered heat embossing using the Stunning Cosmos Flower stamps. I had done some layering with embossing powders before, but not with flowers. I thought that the dark outer part of the petals would look really nice with layered heat embossing. I used several different kinds and brands of embossing powders, which interestingly, "behave" differently. I used a light blue and a teal blue color for the larger, open flower, and a coral and cerulean powder for the smaller flower. For both, I needed to put down at least a couple of layers of the embossing powder for the base layer of the flower in order to get good coverage. Even still, with the light blue, there is some unevenness, but I think it adds to the character of the flower. I embossed the central part of the larger flower as well by using Distress embossing glaze in Rusty Hinge. The stems were added using the stamp for the lower flower, and with a VersaMark pen for the larger flower.
Because everything is heat embossed, it allowed me to do some ink blending over the top of these images for the background. The more central part of the floral panel uses Salvaged Patina Distress ink and the outer edges uses a blue (Summer Sky from Hero Arts) ink. While I didn't intend on the blotches from the Salvaged Patina (it's a new ink pad and didn't go down as smoothly as I thought it would!) I actually kind of like the variation in color intensity for the background. Sometimes our mistakes turn out to make the end product better (or at least not so bad!). Studio Katia droplets are added for more dimension and interest.
I mounted the floral panel onto 2 layers of 120# cardstock and then onto a slightly larger panel of coral pearlized paper. The whole thing has 2 more layers of thick cardstock under it. This panel is affixed to an ivory piece of cardstock that was stamped with a floral pattern background stamp and heat embossed using Ranger Vintage Pearl powder.
The sentiment (which comes from the Hero Arts/Altenew collaboration stamp set - to be quite honest, I bought this set because of that sentiment!) was heat embossed onto pearlized vellum. I then fussy cut around the sentiment, ran it through my Xyron sticker maker and attached it to the floral panel.
Heat embossing drew me into card making and still hasn't lost it's magical appeal. Nearly EVERYTHING on this card was heat embossed, and it was great fun to make!