Heat 'n Stick tutorial (or how to make the sparkly tree)

Due to popular demand (well, Christine and Maree wanted to know, anyway!) I've made a step by step tutorial on how to use Heat 'n Stick powder.        

Here is what you will need:

• Heat Gun
• Versamark
• Ink colour of your choice
• Dazzling Diamonds Glitter
• Heat n Stick Powder
• small paint brush
• Powder Pal
• Embossing Buddy
• Cardstock
• Stamp

Step One:

Give your cardstock and the powder pal (scrap cardstock may be substituted if you don't have a powder pal) a vigourous rub over with the embossing buddy.  Don't worry if you see little bits of powder from the embossing buddy on your cardstock; they will easily brush away at the end.  This will help stop any stray bits of embossing powder (if you were embossing) or heat n stick powder from sticking to the places you don't want them to go.

Step Two:  

Ink up your stamp with Versamark.  Versamark is a clear "sticky" ink that can be used alone to create a lovely watermark effect (tone on tone) or can be used to heat emboss with coloured dye inks or coloured embossing powder.  It is a must-have in any stamper's arsenal of supplies, in my opinion

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Step Three

Next ink your stamp into your dye ink of choice (here I've used Wild Wasabi):

And here's what it should look like:

Step Four: 

Next, working quickly while the ink is still wet, pour some Heat n Stick Powder over your image.  Tap off any excess and return it to the jar (it can be used many times over).  Here's where the Powder Pal comes in handy (and now you see why I rubbed it over with the embossing buddy:  static cling makes the fine powder stick even to the powder pal).

 

Step Five

Now heat up the image with your heat gun until you see the powder go shiny:

 

Step Six

While the image is sticky, dump on your glitter, and tap off any excess:

   

I store my glitter (and the embossing powders I use most) in these handy Glad containers,  much easier for clean up.

Step Seven

Then give it a quick (and I mean only for a couple of seconds) blast with your heat gun again to set.  It is frustratingly easy to burn your image if you overheat it - so you might need to do a few practice runs with this.

Step Eight

Allow image to cool, then using a paintbrush, or in my case, an old makeup brush, remove any stray glitter from your image.

  

And voila!  Your lovely, glittery tree is ready to be added to your project.  Click on the image to see more detail.  The other great thing about this technique (apart from the bling!) is that because the glitter is "set" with the heat gun, it won't rub off your project.