The Difference in Embossing Powders

I find that sentiments stamps tend to have fine lines that require a finely ground embossing powder. Embossing powders marked “Detail” are ideal for sentiments. A dull shine works well for the fine lines, but large chunky powders with glitter-like pieces don’t work as they clog the fine lines.

My favorite gold sentiment powder currently is the gold embossing powder from the Musical Paper Discovery Box 9 from the Papercraft Society. Because I don’t know what brand it is (I suspect WOW, but I haven’t been able to get this confirmed), I have tried other brands. My current favorite is Ranger’s Gold Embossing powder EPJ37354 © 2013.

Different brands refer to their embossing powders that include holographic material by different names such as Sparkle, Shimmer and Holographic. Embossing powders with glitter material in them can go by names such as Tinsel, Glisten, and Glitter.

The holographic powders have a slightly smoother finish when heated while the glitter powders tend to be chunkier.

In the photo below a holographic powder was used on the left envelope flap and you can see some sparkle in it. On the right is a glitter powder that looks flatter but does have some bumps of glittery shine.

The best time to use these types of embossing powders are for decorative thick or solid images.

I accidentally did a ghost stamping or stamping again without re-inking the stamp on the envelope and got a fun effect that I only noticed once I had heated the embossing powder.