Heat Embossing with a Press Plate - Stretch Your Supplies -

Hi friends! Today I’m sharing a new way to use your press plates. I’m sure this has been done before but I’m proud of myself for thinking about how to stretch my supplies. My process video is linked at the end of this post so make sure you check it out. Press plates are fantastic. You can use the BetterPress as well as the Glimmer machine and get great results. If you’re searching for other ways to use them, try heat embossing! I just took the Impressive Heat Embossing class with Altenew and it is PACKED with embossing techniques. If you’re new to heat embossing, I highly recommend that class because you’ll leave with lots of techniques to try. It got me thinking about heat embossing techniques I’ve never tried. I tend to use a lot of the same techniques over and over so this was a fun twist for me.

I have a process video linked at the end of this post but I’ll walk you through how I created this card. First I grabbed my Rustling Leaves Press Plate bundle. This bundle has a leaf image press plate along with sentiments plus dies to cut them out. There’s also a stencil that will color in the leaves. I used all three items on this card. In order to get a really good pressed image, I used the Spellbinders Porcelain A2 Cotton Cardstock panels which gives the best pressed image. I arranged my press plate images onto my BetterPress platform using the A2 line guides to ensure I got them placed correctly for my card panel. Then I prepped my card panel with my anti-static powder tool and inked my press plates with Versamark embossing ink. I placed the platform with my cardstock onto the BetterPress platform and ran that through my die cutting machine. After the first run, I inked up my plates again and ran it through a second time to ensure I got enough embossing ink to grab my embossing powder. Then I applied Brutus Monroe Penny Embossing Powder to the card panel and then heated with my heat tool.

Then I went through my stash to find some flower dies and I chose the Craft-a-Flower Southern Magnolia die set. I die cut all the pieces from Neenah Classic Crest Solar White 80lb cardstock but didn’t end up using the leaves in the end. I used Altenew Fresh Dye inks to apply color to my die cuts. For both flowers, I ink blended first with Orange Cream and then Autumn Blaze to make the centers of the flowers a bit darker. The flower centers are Sunray with Honey Drizzle on the tips. This is a keyhole die set meaning there are key holes in each die cut to help you with lining up the layers and it’s fantastic. There’s no guessing. Each die has a number embossed in it as well to let you know what order to layer them. Just genius!

Back to my heat embossed panel. I was originally going to leave it as is but then I decided it would look better if the leaves had some color. So I grabbed my Swamp Green and Oak Moss Fresh Dye inks and the stencil included with the Rustling Leaves bundle. I went over the whole stencil with Swamp Green and then added Oak Moss just to the bottom most portion of each leaf to create some shading. Then I trimmed my panel down to 5 1/4 x 4 inches so I could mat it on a piece of dark green cardstock. For my cardstock mat, I used a piece of Mossy Meadow cardstock from Stampin’ Up. Anyone else have an insane amount of cardstock they need to use up? Moss cardstock from Altenew would be a perfect alternative. I grabbed my Organic Linen embossing folder from Altenew and embossed a piece of that green cardstock. I trimmed that to fit my A2 to-folding card base and then used my Altenew Crafter’s Essential Scoring Board to adhere my embossed panel perfectly.

With my panel adhered, I placed my die cut flowers and adhered down with liquid glue. Then I needed to choose a sentiment. I pulled two from the same press plate bundle. One would go on the front and the other on the inside. I used my BetterPress system to press the sentiments with BetterPress Black ink and then die cut using the coordinating dies. For my front sentiment, I die cut three other layers and adhered those to the back of my sentiment for stability. I placed that onto my card front with liquid glue and then it was time to add some embellishments. Once again, I used some embellishments from Trinity Stamps. This time I chose Espresso Grounds Confetti Embellishment Mix because they have a kind of dark copper look that went well with my embossing.

For the inside of my card, I had a bit of a moment. At first, I just adhered a leftover piece of embossed green cardstock to the bottom of the inside and placed a simple sentiment. The next day I decided that looked very boring and I set out to redo the inside. I grabbed another piece of the cotton cardstock cut to 5 1/4 x 4 inches and the larger of the leaves press plates. I placed the leaves in the bottom right of my panel and ran that through my BetterPress system with Sand Dunes Fresh Dye ink. Then I adhered my other pressed sentiment with liquid glue. I adhered that to the inside of my card on top of the embossed green cardstock and I liked that much better.

That completed my card and marks a successful first attempt at heat embossing with a press plate. Let me know what you think! This was a great way to stretch my supplies and get new use out of my press plate. I’m telling you, press plates are so versatile. If you want to see more about how I pulled this card together, check out my video below. All the products and supplies I used are linked are at the end of this post. As always, thanks for stopping by today. Now go get crafty!