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I agree with everything above. I emboss all the time, I think it gives the card something extra. I use a ziplock plastic container and keep my clear embossing powder in it and I can hold my card over it and use a spoon and cover the area and tap off the excess that way you don't have to worry about the tray or paper. Look on youtube for some GREAT ideas and videos! I have lots of colors but I usually use the clear and if I use flowers on my cards I'll go with one of the colors I use to stamp with or I just emboss the middle of the flower with yellow. Use tweezers when you hold the paper when you heat it because it will burn your fingers! Watch what you are heating on... something plastic will bow up like a self healing mat.
I just got the colored embossing powders from SU and that renewed my interest in heat embossing. I tried some different things I had not done before like embossing buttons and ribbon, making an impression, and embossing on metal. I find heat embossing to be a fairly cheap way to get a big wow. You can do a lot of embossing with one jar of powder. Here is a link to the projects I did: Kitty Stamp: Colored Embossing Powder Techniques
Two things to add --- A drop or two of SU Whisper White craft ink mixed with any classic SU reinker will hold clear EP and match your cardstock. Apply to your stamp with a small piece of cosmetic sponge or daubber. The second essential is a spring type clothes pin to hold small pieces when heating. The clothes pin won't get hot like tweezers might from the heating. I find that I can see the melting EP better if I hold the item up rather than having it flat on the table and have burned my fingers more than once before I got smart enough to use a clothespin. If you are using UTEE ou might leave a little "ear" on your image piece to clip into the clothespin. Then just trim it away.
If you want to inexpensively try heat embossing, all you need is clear detail embossing powder. You can use any pigment ink, as it remains 'wet' long enough to hold the EP. You can emboss in any color that way. An iron can be used to melt the EP. Preheat your iron on cotton setting & holding it upside down, slide your cardstock (EP side up) over bottom of iron, moving it around as necessary to melt EP in all areas. If iron is hot enough, it will melt very quickly.
You can use black pigment ink with clear EP to emboss in black (no stray black EP to deal with), & white pigment ink if you want to try the resist technqiues. Gold detail EP is a must though for really elegant embossing.
For me, the essentials for embossing are: heat gun, detail clear ep, coffee filter and a very fine paint brush. I purchased my heat gun at M's and have had no problems at all. I have a spare piece of laminated shelf that I keep handy in my kitchen and pull it out when I'm embossing. Whichever surface you are embossing on, be very careful to not hold the heat gun in place for very long. As a previous poster mentioned, I aim the gun towards the floor for 30+ seconds for it to heat up, then bring it to my project. Although the laminate shelf does get damaged (you wouldn't want to use one that you actually intended to use as a shelf), it remains usable.
I have purchased many eps (I haven't found one that's better than another, although I really don't like black to work with) but starting out I would recommend the clear. My next choices would be silver then gold. However many ink colours you have, can all be used with the clear. If you have gold and silver inks then add the clear, that can create the result you want too. You can also stamp the versamark on any card stock and it looks like that colour of ink (embossed or not).
I would confirm that embossing is not a fad but like anything, try it out to see if you use it before investing in a bunch of extras. I have done a few projects recently using the UTEE. I bought it quite awhile ago and have really just taken a liking to it. For this and any of my embossing projects, I use the end of a paintbrush to hold my paper in place if the heat gun is moving it around - it's not metal and keeps my fingers far away from the heat. I prefer my project to be lieing flat.
As you can see, everyone has their preferred way of doing things. You will find the way that works best for you! Good luck and have lots of fun! Embossing can achieve some absolutely gorgeous results!
Another use for your heat gun is drying out your watercolors before stamping images. I grequently do backgound of sky, grass, etc. on watercolor paper, dry it with my heat gun then do the stamping. Much better images and much quicker than waiting for it to just air dry. Also I use a Milwaukee heat gun from Home Depot which I had before I started stamping eight years ago. It does get really hot but I have learned to control it. I really like it when I emboss on vellum as it melts the ep fast before the paper scorches. I love the look I get with the embossed vellum
I've just got my first gun- one called Johnson's. I cant find any review on it anywhere. Was just wondering if anyone knew anything abt this gun- ie any tips when using it?
I think it's taiwanese - prolly sold more in Asia. I found one post on another board where a lady had it and she complained it was too strong/hot. I tried mine out last night and it did warp the card slightly but it prolly cos I used cheap, thin card to test- also must've held the nozzle too close.
I also noticed that my cutting mat got quite hot- will need to get some heat resistant surface to work on.. :s
