Weddingbee Blog

So when we last looked in on our heroine, she had just gotten the idea of embossing lodged in her head…

Right. So that may sound insane. And I admit, it was a bit overly ambitious for someone who didn’t even own a rubber stamp until all of this started. But there it was. And so I went off to Michaels to procure embossing materials. I already had slow-drying ink, so I just needed embossing powder and a heat tool. The first thing I learned is that embossing powder can be difficult to locate in the craft store. The second thing I learned is that is doesn’t seem to come in hot pink, which was my desired color. So I bought some kind of glittery embossing powder and begged the kind lady at Michaels to help me find the (very expensive) heat tool. Confused and slightly lighter in the pocketbook, we finally headed for home.

The first time I tried, I refused to take a picture of the outcome because it was so full of fail. I wasn’t happy with the ink color, and the embossing powder didn’t seem to have stuck to the entire surface of the stamp—possibly because I was having issues tapping the excess powder off of the paper, and it didn’t seem to be going well. So I tried to blow the powder off of the paper and into the container…the container full of embossing powder…glittery embossing powder. In roughly 0.6 seconds the dining room table, the floor, my jeans, and the cat were entirely covered in glitter. And there sat the heat tool like a smoking gun. Literally. Because it was smoking. And I declared the project a fail.

But there is something you may have already figured out about me. In addition to being covered in glitter, I am also incredibly stubborn. And I was going to be damned if a project that seemed this simple was going to get the best of me! So I went to Hobby Lobby to look for a brighter pink stamp ink, better embossing powder, and something to put on the very lonely backs of these envelopes. Well, one out of three isn’t bad. I got stamps for the back of the envelopes. I bought another stamp pad, but I only managed to get a larger pad area; it was the same color. And the embossing powder hunt proved to me that I already had the best stuff.

So I went home and dumped the embossing powder into a small bowl with a larger mouth than the bottle. I spread a towel out on the dining room table. And I changed into the jeans that were already covered in glitter. (The cat was on her own. Every creature for itself in Casa Lox!) Here is the result:

My workspace was all neatly laid out with every possible necessary supply. Yes, the Coke Zero is necessary.

First, I inked up the stamp and got it onto the envelope. PS: Didn’t the monogram turn into a lovely stamp? I was impressed.

Then I covered the whole stamp in way too much embossing powder.

Then I tapped (not blew) the excess powder back into the little bowl of embossing powder.

Finally, I used the heat tool to melt the embossing powder and finish this process off. Sorry, I can’t hold hot items and take pictures at the same time. Uncoordinated is me.

After I had done the front of 38 envelopes, I addressed them all and flipped them over to finish off the backs. I’ll spare you all the steps…here’s the finished product:

The finished product from the front, with unartistic smudging from me to protect the guilty

And the finished product from the back

So what was inside the envelopes? That, my friends, is a tale for another day.

Have you ever tried embossing? If not, would you?

All pictures courtesy of yours truly, inartistic smudging and all