Heat embossing is a great way to trap colour in your card designs, and if you’ve not tried it before it is so much fun! Today’s cards feature three slightly different ways to achieve this, so hopefully, you’ll find at least one technique you can do for your next paper crafting projects. Whatsmore, you can do this with any colour or colour scheme so the possibilities are endless! So if you’ve not tried colour trapping with heat embossing a go, now’s the time!
All three techniques are fun ways to trap colour within your papercrafts, and the colour combinations are endless. There is no doubt that I had fun with this colour scheme and I can’t decided which is my favourite. If you’ve got a favourite, let me know in the comments below!
PRODUCED AS PART OF MY DESIGN-TEAM WORK FOR WOW! Embossing powder - SEE END OF POST FOR MORE DETAILS
Trapping Coloured cardstock with heat embossing
For the first technique, we are going to trap the colour of the cardstock we are heat embossing on. The first card uses the Hearts & Twine stamp set from WOW! Embossing powder and uses the large heart stamp from the set.
Start off by placing a piece of Gina K Innocent pink cardstock into a MISTI stamping platform and ink the stamp up with WOW! Clear ultra slow drying embossing ink before stamping this offset to one side on the card. Reposition the stamp and stamp this twice more, creating a trio of three hearts down the left-hand side. Next, cover this in WOW! Clear Gloss embossing powder.
The powder will create a gloss look to your stamping and the gloss will slightly darken the colour underneath. Now we have trapped this colour under the heat embossing we can add further colour around and the emboss will resist this.
For the ink blending, use Catherine pooler inks in Party Dress, Sangria, Juniper Mist with a blending tool to create a gradient ink blend. As you add the colour the heat embossing will resist the ink. But as we used clear gloss, we can still see the pink of the card shining through.
After the ink blending is complete, use a dry cloth just to buff over the embossing to wipe away any excess ink.
This card uses the Birch Press Designs Big Hello Sugar script die, die-cutting the hello three times out of Gina K Slate cardstock and layering this up on the white shadow die-cut piece. The card panel was trimmed down and added to a white card base with a sentiment from the Altenew Sentiment Strips 2 stamp set.
Trapping Coloured inking with heat embossing
For the second technique, we are going to trap coloured ink. This card uses the Round & Round Stamp from WOW! Embossing powder. Using the same three ink colours and ink the stamp up with Juniper Mist one end and Party Dress the other end. To add Sangria ink and to create a smooth transition from each colour, apply the Sangria ink with a blending tool. This will blend the ink into the inks either side already on the stamp reducing any harsh lines. As you can see once it is stamp you have a nice colour gradient in your stamping.
Now to trap this colour, stamp it once more in clear ultra slow drying embossing ink and cover this with clear gloss embossing powder. As with the previous technique, the clear gloss powder will as it melts trap the colour of ink beneath it. So, we have now trapped the gradient ink stamping we created with the three colours.
Continue to repeat this to fill the card panel up, moving the stamped design over to the side each time and aligning the ink colours up to carry on the gradient ink stamping.
Again, using a blending tool, blend the same colours of ink from right to left in the opposite gradient to that we stamped in. The heat embossing resists the ink as we blend over it, so the trapped ink colours beneath shine through. Once all the ink blending is complete, use a dry cloth to again buff the heat embossing to remove any excess ink.
A die-cut a stitched heart out of white cardstock was foam mounted onto the panel offset to one side. A layered ‘love’ die-cut from Birch Press Designs added to the front along with a heat embossed sentiment from the Round & Round stamp set was positioned underneath.
Trapping Coloured inking with pearl heat embossing
For the last technique, we are going to trap colour but instead of using clear gloss we are going heat emboss with White Pearl Embossing powder. For this card, use the Lush Vines background stamp from Pink Fresh Studio.
Stamp this several with a gradient colour scheme in the same way the second card was created, applying the same ink colours to either end and use a blending tool to add the middle colour.
After the background has been stamped in colour, repeat stamping it one last time but this time in embossing ink. This time, instead of using clear gloss embossing powder, cover it with White Pearl embossing powder. White pearl embossing powder will take on the colour beneath it. So, as we are trapping the colour ink, we will then be turning it into a pearl colour with the embossing powder.
Pearl embossing powder will also work with emboss resist, so using a blending tool to add Catherine Pooler Black Jack ink over the top. The pearl embossing powder catches the light and pearl colour pops against the grey background.
Layer up the Altenew Fancy Thanks die-cut three times to create dimension. To add a little more interest, ink blend some Party Dress ink to the bottom and fading this out. Die-cut a large stitched heart out of the heat embossed background and then foam mounted this onto a white card base, trimming of the excess that hangs over the edge. Another sentiment from the Sentiment strips 2 stamp set was then added to the card to finish the sentiment off.
Adding the finishing touch
All three cards were finished off with a selection of sequins from Lucy’s card from a Sequin Mix called Aurora Borealis.
(click to enlarge images)
Sub heading
Supplies
Affiliate links used at no extra cost to you at these shops: Altenew (ALT), Scrapbook.com (SB), Hero Arts (HA), Picket Fence Studios (PF), My Favourite Things (MFT), and Craft Stash UK/US (CS UK/US).
All other shops are not affiliated links: Bumbleberry Papercrafts (BP) and WOW! UK/US (WOW UK/US).
 Sentiment Strips 2 – Altenew Shop at: ALT | SB | BP |  Lush Vines – PinkFresh Studio Shop at: SB | BP |  Round & Round – WOW! Shop at: CS (UK) | CS (US) | WOW (UK) | WOW (US) |
 Hearts & Twine – WOW! Shop at: WOW (UK) |  Fancy Thanks – Altenew Shop at: ALT | SB | BP |  Big Hello Sugar Script – Birch Press Designs Shop at: BP |
 Love Sugar Script – Birch Press Designs Shop at: BP |  Juniper Mist Ink – Catherine Pooler Designs Shop at: SB | CPD |  Juniper Mist Reinker – Catherine Pooler Designs Shop at: SB | CPD |
 Juniper Mist Bundle – Cathering Pooler Designs Shop at: CPD |  Party Dress – Catherine Pooler Designs Shop at: SB | CPD |  Party Dress Reinker – Catherine Pooler Designs Shop at: SB | CPD |
 Party Dress Bundle – Catherine Pooler Designs Shop at: CPD |  Sangria Ink – Catherine Pooler Designs Shop at: SB | CPD |  Sangria Reinker – Catherine pooler Designs Shop at: SB | CPD |
 Sangria Ink Bundle – Catherine Pooler Designs Shop at: CPD |  Black Jack Ink – Catherine Pooler Designs Shop at: SB | CPD |  WOW! Clear ultra slow drying embossing ink pad Shop at: CS (UK) | CS (US) | WOW (UK) | WOW (US) |
 WOW! Clear ultra slow drying embossing ink refill Shop at: CS (UK) | CS (US) | WOW (UK) | WOW (US) |  WOW! Clear ultra slow drying embossing ink pad & refill Shop at: CS (UK) | CS (US) | WOW (UK) |  Opaque Bright White -WOW! Embossing Powder Shop at: CS (UK) | CS (US) | WOW (UK) | WOW (US) |
 Clear Gloss – WOW! Embossing Powder Shop at: CS (UK) | WOW (UK) | WOW (US) |  White Pearl – WOW! Embossing Powder Shop at: CS (UK) | WOW (UK) | WOW (US) |  Innocent Pink Heavy Weight Cardstock – Gina K Designs Shop at: BP |
 WOW! Dual Speed Heat Gun (UK version) Shop at: CS (UK) | WOW (UK) | WOW! Dual Speed Heat Gun (US version) Shop at: WOW (US) |  Mini Ink Blending Tool – Ranger Tim Holtz Shop at: SB | CS (UK) | CS (US) | BP |
 Mini Ink Blending foam replacements – Ranger Tim Holtz Shop at: SB | CS (UK) | CS (US) | BP |  Teflon Bone Folder – Lawn Fawn Shop at: BP |  Tim Holtz 8.5 Inches Comfort Trimmer – Tonic Studios Shop at: SB | CS (UK) | CS (US) |
 Trim and Score Board – We R Memory Keepers Shop at: SB | CS (UK) | CS (US) |  QuickStik – We R Memory Keepers Shop at: SB | CS (UK) | CS (US) |
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DISCLOSURE
This post was produced as part of my design team work for WOW! Embossing Powders have not been paid to make this post, but I am given supplies from WOW! Embossing Powder to use. However, I create projects with creative control and produce projects I am proud of and with products that I love. The information provided is based on my own personal experience – I am not an expert.
5 thoughts on “Colour Trapping with Heat embossing”
Your cards are gorgeous!! I love your colors that you used and this totally FUN technique!!
Thanks Noral, it is a fun technique for sure!
I think I like the first one best, but they are all pretty. ? Clare x
Thanks Claire. I think I like the last card the most but enjoyed the ink blending on the first one making the hearts pop!