Guest Author - Carol Taller

Ultra thick embossing enamel (UTEE) is a very large granule embossing powder. Each granule is about the size of a large granule of sea salt. The larger granule size makes the embossing more versatile and leaves you open for more creativity. But the best part of UTEE is that you mess up! Reheating your UTEE and starting again can fix any mistakes!

For traditional heat embossing you will need the same tools as regular heat embossing other than the fact that you must use a heating tool. For this technique you cannot use a toaster or a toaster oven. So you will need rubber stamps, any slow drying ink or embossing ink such as Versa Mark, UTEE, and a heat embossing tool. The procedure is similar to regular heat embossing. First you stamp your rubber stamp with the embossing ink, and then you stamp the paper. To use UTEE successfully, you must now heat it from below the paper. If you heat from above the granules will blow away. Be careful not to touch the UTEE. It melts at a very high temperature, and the burns really hurt!

Now try something different with the UTEE. Take your image, and spread the clear embossing ink over all of it. Pour the granules on and heat from below (you will probably need a tweezers to hold your artwork so that you don’t burn yourself) until there is a thin layer covering the entire image. You can repeat this procedure three or four times until you get the thickness of embossing that you like. Now you can place the image in the freezer for about five minutes. When you take it out you can bend the image a little, until it cracks. The will give the image the look of cracked glass. If you would like to make the cracks look more dramatic, you can rub some ink in the cracks.

UTEE can be melted and poured, and this technique opens up a large variety of possibilities. A pot, called the melting pot, can plug in and heat to the exact temperature needed for melting UTEE. It has handles to prevent burns, and inserts so that the pot can also be used for melting candles, soaps, chocolates, etc. It also has a spout that works well for pouring.

So now lets imagine you’ve melted your UTEE . You can add dyes, Pearl Ex, or other embossing powders to add color. You can add small beads for embellishment. And you can pour the liquid creation into a silicone mold, or you can pour the UTEE on a silicone mat and let it cool free form. I found silicone ice cube molds at IKEA in the shape of puzzle pieces, and silicone heart shape cupcake molds at the Christmas Tree Shops. I put jewelry pin backings in the UTEE right after pouring it into the mold and made wonderful pins. You could also take rubber stamp and dip it into the UTEE mix while just after pouring, and as the liquid cools the rubber stamp will come out of the UTEE unharmed! It will create the stamp image, and look pretty cool. The UTEE can be cut while it is cooling, but don’t wait too long. If you cut it when it is fully cooled it can crack easily.

You can also use a CD, and make wonderful altered CD art with UTEE. First cut the CD into a shape that you would feel comfortable wearing as a pin or necklace charm. (Heating the CD first will make cutting easier.) You can stamp permanent ink directly onto the CD and color it as you want and then dip it directly into the melting pot.

There is a lot to experiment with. Just a few tips:

UTEE burns will blister! They hurt! Be very careful.

If the UTEE burns too hot as you are melting it, it will change color, so try to keep it at the right temperature. (The melting pot has an arrow that should keep the temperature accurate.)

Anything that you don’t use can be put back into the pot and reheated. There is little UTEE wasted.