Different Embossing Looks

I think one of my favorite ways to accent a card is to heat emboss. I just love the gloss and/or sparkle you can get from it. It can be super subtle or really catch the eye! Today's cards features a couple different looks from embossing.

I started by arranging the Winter Animals stamps on a piece of cardstock, and once I got them arranged the way I wanted, I added them to the clear block. This way I could ink them all at once, instead of doing each individually. It also helps the ombre look more, well, ombre. ;)

I wanted to add some clear Sparkle embossing powder, but I also wanted the ombre color. So that I didn't have to stamp twice, I inked the stamps up first with Versamark, and then with Mermaid Ombre. This gives me the stickiness of Versamark (for adding embossing powder) and the color of the ombre, while allowing me to get them all stamped in one fell swoop!

I then heat embossed the images with the sparkle powder - I love how it looks with the ombre! Almost Northern Lights-esque! 

The rest of the card is also pretty quick - I heat embossed a sentiment from Winter Time Fun in White on Black cardstock, then die cut with using a Circle Infinity die.

For the bottom border, I stamped Candy Stripe Bold Prints in Versamark on Black cardstock, and then heat embossed with Black Detail Powder. There's so many different values of black, that it's fun to play around with tone-on-tone. 

For the slightest bit more detail, I used the Nesting Postage Stamp Infinity dies to die cut the top portion of the strip, and then adhered it, along with the sentiment, on the embossed panel. The panel was then adhered to the card base.

From the strong contrast of the heat embossed sentiment, to the subtle shimmer and shine on the animals and stripes, heat embossing is my go-to technique for almost every card! What about you? What's your favorite technique?

Thanks so much for stopping in and God bless!