HI Stampers! This week I tested 7 different methods of keeping your embossing powders where we want them to be. Isn’t it SO annoying when you put the finishing touch on a project by embossing a greeting and you get those little dots scattered around. One of my stamping friends says that it just looks like fairy dust but I might not want leave that much happiness and joy on each and every card!
First of all, stampers know we aren’t supposed to over-handle our cards with our fingers.  Lotions, potions or just every day DNA can make the embossing powder stick to places on your card that you didn’t intend. So for our experiment, I handled them more than usual to put the methods to the test.
Secondly, I used Night of Navy card stock and silver detail embossing powder, which is the worst offender in my opinion for stepping outside of the lines. It is a true rebel, wanting to venture out to every corner on the card instead of stay on it’s intended Versamark track.
Upon an exhaustive Google search for embossing methods, I tested these “myths”:
1. Stampin’ Up Embossing Buddy (currently available from your SU demonstrator for 4.95).
2. Pledge dusting sheets
3. Un-used Dryer Sheets
4. Used Dryer Sheets
5. Wax paper direct to paper rub
6. Static is a huge factor also, so I tested a method using wax paper to rock the powder back and forth to help de-magnetize the silver. (Try not to emboss while in a carpeted room, some say…)
7. Â Swiffer Sheets
My results were surprising! Watch the video and see which one actually worked the best. My goal was an embossed image without the silvery haze, speckles or spots on the Navy card stock.
Here is the video!
**I received a few emails from some of you who are on dial up and can’t watch the video. The winner, hands down, was the SU Embossing Buddy! I was surprised how much better it worked than any of them. The Swiffer cloth was a 2nd runner up.
Have ideas for next week’s Stampbusters? Drop me an email!
Linda Heller
Linda these are such informative videos. Thank you for taking the time to make these. I personally use the puff static away made by Suze Weinberg which is just like the embossing buddy.
Linda-
I’m not sure if it’s just my computer, but I was unable to watch the end of the video. It stopped playing just after you try to demagnatize the ep on the wax paper.
Also, did you read anything about cornstarch helping with embossing? I feel like I read/ heard that it helps, but haven’t tried it myself yet. I really enjoy your blog. Thank you for taking the time to test the different myths.
Tiffany
Another great one! I’m surprised that some of the home remedies didn’t work better, although I’ve never tried any of them myself. I’m sticking (no pun intended) to my Embossing Buddy!
Awesome video! I love your blog. This is a great idea.
Linda, I just found your blog a week ago. I just love your myth busters! Thank you so much for taking the time to share this terrific info with us.
cindyb
Wow, Stampbuster – you rock! Embossing buddy it is.
I enjoy your website so very much and love the stampbusters episodes. However, I would love to be able to read the tests and results since I cannot get the videos you post for us. We only have “dial-up” in the area where I live – Please let me know if you can post the results from this embossing episode. This has been a problem with me as well. Thank you, Jucith Fuqua judithff@yahoo.com PS. I do not have a website of my own….
Hi Linda,
A couple of ideas for future StampBusters — Stampin Mist vs. baby wipes vs. other cleaners for cleaning your stamps; also StazOn Cleaner vs. other cleaners.
Thanks for doing these — informative and fun to watch! You are the Stamping Video QUEEN!! 🙂
Incredible! I always wondered about the various methods of removing the static that is embossing power’s enemy and now I know I made the right choice. BTW I got my “embossing buddy” at Michael’s and as it looks like Stampin Up’s I assume it is the same. I can’t wait for the next Stampbusters!! TFS!!
it was so nice to be able to see all these methods in one place. I have an embossing bag (not SU) that I use and wondered if there was a cheaper alternative. Now I know, thanks to you, that is the best method. Happy Thanksgiving.
I love my Embossing Buddy…when I remember to use it! thanks for all the work you’ve done on this!
Love the results! LOL
I love it! Just goes to show that Stampin Up! sells a superior product! Thanks for making these videos… I look for them every week.
Really LOVE your website. I still am having trouble getting the technique of embossing but thanks for finding the best method!
My suggestions for a new trial is craft inks. Not sure if there are different types/brands but for the life of me I can’t get it to work.
Thanks for al your investigations!
Janet
Thank you so much for the videos! I had no idea that it was me touching my cardstcok so much that was giving me grief! I will definitely get me an ebossing buddy but thanks for the heads up on not touching my cardstock! 🙂
Thanks for the video! I laughed along with you. I have heard that Embossing Buddy and the Perfect Crafting Pouch may have Fuller’s Earth (a kind of negatively charged natural clay) inside. It was used in the old days to remove lanolin from wool and fabric (to make it “fuller”) and is still used for removing grease, in cat litter, in drilling mud, cosmetics and has thousands of other applications. I bought a pound at mountainroseherbs and am going to try to make my own pouches for embossing, printing, and general crafting. A pound would make a whole bucket full of pouches!
It will cost more than just buying a ready-made pouch, but I’m stubborn (I guess) about wanting to make my own.
I’ve also heard of people using cornstarch (or baby powder made form cornstarch) in a pouch. Although it might absorb the hand oils, it does not have a negative or positive charge as best as I can tell from online research.
Thanks again!
Patty P