Tip: Creating a Heating Area (for Heat Embossing & Shrink Plastic)

Although I don’t use my heat gun a lot… except for melting and burning things… but my friend Sue gave me a neat little tip, which I’ve been using for a while and works so well I thought I’d pass it on.

Creating a dedicating ‘heating area’:

What you’ll need:

• an old glossy magazine
• some aluminium foil (enough to cover the magazine on both sides)
• a clipboard slightly bigger than the magazine

Directions:

• Cover the magazine with the foil, shiny side out. Use a bit of tape on the backside if you need.
• Clip the covered magazine onto the clipboard.
• Find something to heat emboss or grab some shrink plastic.

Right, so why have you just created this? It gives you a dedicated space for heating, but more than that it will make it easier to use your heat gun. The principle is fairly simple, the foil reflects the heat back and heats the underside of the piece, which means you’ll be able to emboss or shrink your piece quicker and more effectively. Not only that, but because heat will be coming from both directions your paper, and to some effect your shrink plastic, will curl less. The clipboard simply gives you a ‘cool area’ to touch, as you won’t want to touch the foil because it does get quite hot.

If you use one of those self-healing mats, having a dedicated heating surface will also save your mat, as embossing on the self-healing mats will actually warp them.