Easy Gel Press + Heat Embossing

Hey, crafty friends! Amber here with easy gel press plus heat embossing cards. I share 16 gel press prints and 6 cards in this post and video so let’s get to it.

All the details to create 16 easy mini Gel Press prints and 6 cards are in this short card making video tutorial. Watch here or in HD on YouTube. While you’re there subscribe to the WOW! channel and hit the bell with notifications on so you don’t miss any new inspiration.

Easy Gel Press Prints

The Petite Gel Press set is perfect for card makers. The set I own includes a 3-inch circle, triangle, and square. Additional shapes are available in several other sets. If you are new to Gel Press printing starting with a smaller size press like these is approachable and less overwhelming. 

I placed the Gel Press directly on my glass mat, but I imagine you could mount it to an acrylic block if you preferred to stamp with it rather than pulling prints. Though I’m not sure because I haven’t tried it, so if you try it, please let me know if it works. 

Next, I put a few drops of craft grade acrylic paint on the press and spread it around with a brayer. Try not to completely mix the colors together as prints are more interesting with contrasting colors vs. solid colors. 

After spreading the paint on the press, I plopped down a stencil to add a pattern to the print. If the stencil has wide open spaces, pull a print with the stencil sitting on the gel press. If the stencil has small spaces, you’ll need to remove the stencil before pulling the print. See video. Two prints were pulled from each application of paint. 

Easy Gel Press Print Heat Embossing

These gel press prints were so easy, I made 16 of them! As they were piling up I decided they needed some heat embossing. The paint had already dried on all of the prints except the one you see above.

Heat Emboss Wet Acrylic Paint

The best way to add embossing powder is to sprinkle it on the wet paint, especially if there is some bulk to the paint like in the “lovely” card above. The built-up paint adds an extra dimension to the heat embossing and I love this look. 

Heat Emboss with an Embossing Pen

However, don’t despair if your paint is already dry like mine was. There are a number of ways you can heat emboss your dry panels! For the card above, I added the embossing powder with the WOW! Embossing Pen. The pen was the ideal method for outlining a few of the flowing drops.

Embossing powder was sprinkled directly over wet paint in the Hello, my sweet friend card above. As you can see this technique adds the most dimension. It almost creates a puffy appearance. 

Heat Emboss with a Brayer

Lastly, you can also add embossing powder with the WOW! Mixed Media Embossing Brush and directly to cardstock with a brayer as you can see in the last two card samples below.

Roll a clean brayer over your WOW! Embossing Pad and then lightly over your card panel. Sprinkle your desired embossing powder. If there is too much coverage with the embossing powder, knock some off with a dry paintbrush before melting with your heat tool. 

Stardream Metallic Gold Cardstock is my favorite gold paper and it coordinates perfectly with Gold Pearl embossing powder. It has a lovely sheen and the color isn’t too brassy.

I’ve also used Curious Metallic Electric Blue cardstock for the Thanks die-cut. Generally, I use this metallic cardstock for die-cut sentiments and layer dies so I purchase them in 5×7 sheets on the $1.99 page over at CutCardStock.com.

Here’s another brayer panel. These panels were created by rolling the leftover ink on the brayer over a blank card panel, then doing the same with embossing ink.

Another way to add embossing ink is to draw or fill in areas with the WOW! Embossing Ink Refill, Conditioner, and Freestyle Tool. I hope you enjoyed these techniques today and will give them a try. This just scratches the surface of what you can do with the Gel Press and heat embossing. Have a play and experiment and see what you come up with!

Thanks so much for stopping by! I love to see and share what you’re creating so tag me @notableink and your project may be featured in my Instagram stories.

MORE GEL PRESS INSPO

Nee a little more Gel Press inspiration? Check out this post/video using one panel to create two cards.

Featuring Altenew Wild Ferns stamped on metallic cardstock and Feathered Leaves Stencil.

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