Weddingbee Blog

Embossing has been covered all over the ’bee. Any of these ladies can show you how. I’ve read all of the embossing tutorials, so when I saw all the tools at Michaels I decided to go for it.

Your tools: embossing heat thing, ink, embossing powder, stamps.

I had the idea to emboss name cards that would go around mason jars. These will double as place cards and message cards for our tanabata wishing tree. Since I only had to do 35 of them, I figured I could buy individual letters to form names.

The package of letters said that they were “sticky” letters and that they would “stick” to a blank stamper to make customized word stamps. First mistake: I didn’t buy the blank stamper.

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Pfffft. $10 for some blocks of plastic? Puhhhhlease, I thought to myself. I could make my own stamping device for the individual letter stamps and save myself some cash.

Negative. Spend the $10. Stick the letters on it. Save yourself hours of headache. What follows is how to make personal name cards without a stamping device.

1) Using the lid of an ink pad or whatever is around that will give you some height, lay your letters down backwards. Make sure to lay the word down backwards too, so that it appears correctly on the card.

2) Ink the letter stamps using the ink pad like a paint brush because, you know, you refused to lay down the $10 for the stamping device.

3) Put the card on top of the letters to stamp. Make sure to press hard on all the letters so all the ink gets on there.

See what I mean? If I would have bought the stupid block thing the letters would’ve stuck to it, and it would’ve gone 1) lay the letters down backwards to form a word and, 2) stamp the card. Just pay the $10.

Anywho,

5) Cover the word in embossing powder, then shake the excess powder back into the container.

Use the heat tool to melt the embossing powder which creates that embossed look. In the name of the ’bee, I wondered if I could just use a hair dryer to achieve the same thing. That would save another $20! Well, you can’t. The powder won’t melt and all the excess powder lying around will fly up comically in your face. Ahhh, I live, I learn.

So my cheap-ass way of doing things turned out alright, eh?

Not really. As time wore on, I got sloppy. I got frustrated with all the mistakes - the backwards letters, wayward ink blots rubbing onto the cards, weak ink spots.

I suggest several glasses of wine. It really does help.

So with all the ink, the heat tool, the several packs of cards (Mr. G came by and asked why the reject pile was higher than the finished pile…), the clear sticky stamp letters, and the embossing powder my total came to $60. I had to justify the cost of the damn stamps somehow, so I decided to stamp the white frames around our table names.

Mr. G made the table name posters. While I would have done something a little less literal and a little more design-y, I like that he contributed!

We decided to run with a Beatles theme for these, despite the fact that our table names are places we used to hang out in around Tokyo. Again, looking okay, right?

D’oh. My last tip for learning from my mistakes? Clean your hands all the time. And clean the improvised stamping tool, too. I’m so sloppy. Suggestions on covering those inky spots up welcomed!

Did you have any DIY projects that were too much trouble?