Happy Birthday card

I found a tutorial on YouTube by SplitcoastStampers on the Embedded Embossing technique. I was intrigued so I gave it a try. All in all it's a fun technique, but for the work involved I think I would rather stick to stamping my images and then covering the entire image in clear embossing powder. I felt there was really no difference in the effect and found that I lost some of the crispness of the stamped image. Once I stamped over the clear and used black powder, I found that the image started to spread as the black powder melted. I noticed it in both the flowers and especially in the sentiment.
Here's the card:


I started with white cardstock and used Distress inks (Wild Honey, Dried Marigold, Barn Door) to create a sunset/sunrise effect. I put two layers of clear embossing powder on the card and once cooled stamped the flower (Stampin' Up) and sentiment (Ali Edwards/Technique Tuesday) with VersaMark. I used black detail embossing powder and heated it. At this point I lost the fine lines of the flower stems and sentiment. I have to admit its really cool to watch the black sink into the clear.


I wanted to machine stitch around the image with black thread so off I ran to my sewing machine. Lesson learned: my sewing machine does NOT like embossing. Instead of sewing it gummed up in the embossing and nearly ended up sawing through the bottom 1/4" of the card. Ooops! So I had to hide it. Ribbon would be too wide, so I dug through my collection of fibers and found this one. I wanted it to be secure along the length of the card but also discovered that Tombo Mono glue didn't really want to stick the fiber and embossed surface together so I ran my tape runner in spots on the fiber and finally had some success. For a little extra something I used my Tim Holtz Mini Attacher and stapled the ends of the fiber.
Once all of that was done, I used some Basic Grey paper on the front of my card and popped the embossed image up with dimensionals. Whew! Crafting is an adventure!
I think if I try this again I will stamp everything first and switch to UTEE for more depth. Simpler technique, but I think I would like the effect more.
On a side note, I have a strong desire to try some embroidery. I used to cross stitch as a kid, but I don't even know where my floss has ended up now, years later. I want to try something like the pillow I made from my kids handprints (I have a video up on YouTube), perhaps using my kids drawings as the pattern. I saw something like this in the current issue of Create With Me by Stampinton (I totally LOVE this publication!). I'll have to dig through their sketchbooks for something. :) I've been looking through YT videos (naturally) and Google for ideas. We'll see.