Like a….n Embossing Powder

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Here’s a cute thing I put together last night. It’s now a pin and will be available at 13GEARS.

Believe it or not, the wings are made of wire frames filled with embossing powder, over fabric. A bit tool/supply, a bit technique, I’m going to cover embossing powder (some) today.

Obviously a tool or supply more familiar to scrapbookers or card makers, embossing powder found its way into my arsenal years ago. I decided to make bottlecap necklaces and pins and didn’t want to mess with resin… so started exploring other possible options.

Before you get an idea there, clear embossing powder does NOT work well for that purpose. It gets cloudy, looks a bit yellow, and is too messy. I was disappointed and tried three other options (fyi, Glossy Accents is the way to go if you don’t want to do resin) and embossing powder joined my “now what” supplies.

Through the years I read various tutorials on using it and hit gold recently with a fairy wing tutorial. Organza fabric became almost glass-like with embossing powder baked onto it, but was slightly flexible and safer, like plastic. That’s what I did for my wings above. (275F for 8min)

Also, as you might notice, it can hold inclusions, as I did in the holes along the body. In this case I poured embossing powder and microbeads in and baked it. You can make some lovely earring with that technique.

Embossing powder can create lovely textures on anything bakeable and if you don’t like the result, you can melt it off again with a heat gun. If you put glitter into it, be sure to use glass or metal. Plastic glitter will melt with the powder and give you a different result than intended! (Maybe you’ll like it?)

It can also be used as a sort of glue, while we’re discussing unusual uses. Coat things you want to adhere together in it in the oven, then reheat the sections to be attached with a heat gun and press them together.

Also, while it didn’t work well for my bottlecaps, you can use embossing powder to cast things. Your molds need to be safe to 300F, and I haven’t explored that much. Just throwing it out there.

I think that’s about it for my little spiel on embossing powder. I have a bottle of clear stuff myself, but it would certainly work to use colors or iridescent. Like everything, try it and see what works for you!  

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