Welcome back to a second installment of “In Detail: Product Reviews & News,” a new feature here in the CLASSroom. Today, I’m reviewing metallic embossing powders from manufacturers Hero Arts and Ranger – Ranger Super Fine Detail Gold powder, Ranger Super Fine Detail Silver powder, Hero Arts Gold powder, Hero Arts Silver powder, and Ranger Queen’s Gold powder.
For all of the embossing shown, I prepped my cardstock surface with an embossing “magic bag” to eliminate static cling, stamped with Versamark ink and heat set the powders with the Hero Arts heat gun. I used a compact Fiskars stamp press to stamp the images.
For my first “test,” I heat embossed a sentiment tag stamp on white cardstock. I chose the stamp because it contains some detailed letters.
In terms of color, the Ranger Queen’s Gold powder provides a gold color that is less “green” than the gold of either the Ranger Super Fine Gold or Hero Arts Gold. However, the Ranger Queen’s Gold powder does not provide the same detail as the Ranger Super Fine Detail powders. The Ranger Super Fine powders and the Hero Arts powders are similar color-wise. (If you are looking for other shades of gold embossing powders, Ranger manufacturers a line of Ancient Golds™ Embossing Powders that include Antique Gold and Tarnished Gold.)
In terms of detail, the Super Fine Detail powders performed better than the Hero Arts powders.
Continuing to investigate the powders in terms of detail, I heat embossed a less intricate sentiment with the Ranger Super Fine Silver powder and the Hero Arts Silver powder on colored cardstock.
For this particular sentiment, there was no appreciable difference between the two powders.
For my next test, I heat embossed a solid image stamp with the original five powders.
For this case, the coverage by the powders is similar and not readily noticeable. If I scrutinize the images under strong light, I can detect a slight difference, with the Ranger Super Fine Detail providing better coverage.
Finally, I heat embossed a detailed, rubber cling-background stamp with the Ranger Super Fine gold powder and the Hero Arts gold powder. In this example, the difference between the two powders was fairly noticeable. The Super Fine did a better job with the details – the scallops and dots were more distinct.
In terms of “ease of use,” the products were essentially the same. For example, none of the embossing powders left significant residue on the paper. The Hero Arts powders appeared to heat emboss somewhat more quickly than the Ranger powders.
After playing with the fun stamps from the Hero Arts Basic Grey RSVP collection, I decided to create a card using stamped images from Sweet Wishes and patterned papers from the collection. I chose the Ranger Super Fine Detail Silver powder to emboss the sentiment. I stamped the cupcake image with Mama Elephant Bubblegum ink (these inks were reviewed in this In Detail article) and heat embossed it with Hero Arts Sparkle powder, which adds a subtle touch of sparkle to an image stamped with a pigment ink.
To recap, the Ranger Super Fine Detail powders provide greater detail than the Hero Arts powders, although many stamped images do not require that level of detail. In terms of color, the gold and silver Ranger Super Fine Detail powders are similar to the Hero Arts powders. Ranger Queen’s Gold powder provides a unique shade of gold, but does not have the same detail as the Ranger Super Fine Detail powders.
-Jean