Weddingbee boards

I'm not sure what type of paper your invites are made of, but I was able to print right from my inkjet printer (on the highest photo quality) onto my metallic scrapbook paper (i used Cool and Arctic Metallic Snow by The Paper Company and cut it in half -- 6x12), and sprinkled embossing powder over it right off the printer! I got the idea after I realized you can do this with vellum...and it worked! The trick is to literally have the powder waiting at the other end of the printer (and only print one copy at a time).

 If you feel more comfortable with stamps, then I'd recommend the clear stamps so that you can see right through the block and line it up to the exact spot you want to stamp (and use a versamark pad....its colorless but the embossing powder will stick to it). Best of luck!

I actually did do it (like you) for the first time on our invites. It was something I read about on weddingbee in the middle of designing my invites and figured it was easy enough to do. It is and it isn't... I would use a design that you don't really have to line up perfect. As you can see in the picture, I just cut it off in the middle because I know I have no talent when it comes to keeping things from being crooked.

Anyway, you have to let go of all hopes of it being perfect everytime. I ruined a few invites (i had extra of course) and not every time you stamp it will stamp right or emboss right. Be prepared for that... but the end result is beautiful! I wasted a lot of money experimenting and having issues with the stamp not fully coming through on the paper. NOTE: If you use stardream (metallic) paper like I did, the best stamp ink was versapad. I went through 3 different ones! I bought a black one and clear powder (generic) and it worked great. It's easy, but can be time consuming. I added a picture of my invite for reference. Good Luck!

Woot! I just finished the bulk of my invitations this weekend, full of embossing.  I do think it was worth it, but it can be tricky at times.  A few points...

1. It took waaay longer to do than I imagined.  I definitely recommend having a second person man the embossing powder and heat gun.  I am a type-A personality who went solo, so it took for.ev.er.  2.  You will need extras.  You will mess up.  *sigh* C'est la vie.  In order to produce 65 invites, I probably had 10-12 that didn't make the cut.  3. If you switch to a brand new ink pad, do a couple of tests.  In switching to a new pad but using the same technique, I ended up with too much ink and a globby mess.  I needed to adjust how I loaded the stamp and what kind of pressure to use.  4.  About positioning the stamp, about 30-40 minutes into the project, you realize that close is good enough. But to help, I did draw guidelines on the back of the wooden stamp. 5. Clear powder with color ink is definitely the way to go.

Mine definitely aren't perfect, but in my mind, it emphasizes the fact that they are hand-crafted (or at least that's what I'm telling myself) :D   Good luck with yours!!