Stampendous Melt Media Embossing

I saw this gorgeous creation on the Stampendous blog:

Amazing, right? So I read the tutorial, watched the video and tried to adapt it.  I wanted to make a title for my beach album.  I bought all the stuff: embossing powders, the teflon craft sheet, deep impressions embossing enamel....

I cut out BEACH using the Life's a Beach cartridge.  I had a little trouble using a thicker chipboard and it took several tries and adjustments but I managed to cut them at 3.25.  I stamped them with versamark...:

sprinkled them with the embossing enamel (my grandfather was a dumpster diver, and he saved all sorts of useful things from the trash.  I have over a hundred of these plastic take out covers and they make great, disposable trays for messy projects)....

I placed them on the teflon sheet in a frying pan and covered them, as I'd seen Fran do...

they liquified beautifully! I sprinkled on the colored embossing powders from the beach pack and tried to smear and blend and then it all fell apart.  Getting them off was so hard, they stuck to each other and as I tried to pull, the embossing powders were sliding out of place.

I was able to warm them back up and get separate letters but they were no where near as nice as I had been hoping for.  In the process, I burnt myself twice, once touching the pan and once when a blob of hot embossing powder stuck to my finger.

I saved the scraps and some of them blended the way I wanted my letters to blend.  The big pieces peeled easily off the teflon mat and I scraped the little ones off with a Pampered Chef scraper.

A little blob of enamel melted on the teflon sheet and I think it'd make a great dew drop on some future project.

So it was time for trial number two.  I figured my problem was I had too many edges, as the tutorial was done with one big, round piece.  So I used my Gypsy and linked the letters in BEACH to form a connected word.  I made them a little bigger, too, about 4 inches, and used a lighter chipboard and they cut nicely.

I inked them up with the versamark and sprinkled with the embossing enamel and found a new problem...

they didn't quite fit in my frying pan!  I had to angle it to get it in my electric fry pan.  I repeated the embossing process and added some of my scraps, was a little more generous with the blending and swirling.

I even added extra sand and didn't blend it all the way for a more realistic, sandy beach look.  It's not perfect but I think it'll make a great title for my beach album.

So for next time, I will not try to do letters!   I will not be afraid to blend.  I will add in more leftover pieces that melt nicely on the teflon mat.  And I will be careful not to burn myself!