Scrapbook & Cards Today Blog: 3T Tuesday! Dry Embossing Techniques with Aly Dosdall!

Good morning! Dry embossing adds a special touch to any scrapbook page, card, or paper craft project. It’s a subtle way to add texture and visual interest. And while plain dry embossing looks great, there are a couple of fun techniques I’d like to share with you that take your project to the next level. Check out this dry embossed Valentine’s Day card I made:

Supplies: cardstock (We R Memory Keepers), patterned paper (Echo Park Paper Co), cardstock stickers (Echo Park Paper Co), washi tape (We R Memory Keepers), color mist (Studio Calico), embossing folders and Cuttlebug machine (Provo Craft)

The newsprint patterned paper I wanted to emboss had a little too much pattern to allow the embossing pattern really show through, so I sprayed the paper with opaque white color mist before embossing to tone down the pattern while still allowing enough to show through to add some interest.

Once the color mist was completely dry, I added a few cardstock stickers along the right side of the paper. Then I placed my paper in the embossing folder, and created my “sandwich” placing the folder in between the plates.

Then I ran the “sandwich” through my Cuttlebug machine. I love that when you open the flaps to use the machine, it suctions to your work surface—so convenient and helpful!

The cardstock stickers now appear embedded in the embossed design, adding more texture and visual interest to the subtle embossed background.

Here is another example of embedding shapes into a dry embossed design using some of my favorite Anna Griffin products. For this card, I punched out some butterfly shapes from some patterned paper, adhered them to the background before placing it in the embossing folder, and then ran it through the machine.