ThePowerOfACard: Joseph's Coat Technique

Tuesday, July 21, 2026

Joseph's Coat Technique

Joseph's Coat is a fun heat embossing technique. I suppose it got it's name from the Bible story of Joseph and his coat of many colors. When you emboss a stamped pattern with clear embossing powder over a colorful background, those colors get trapped beneath the embossing. Then when you add a dark color over the rest of the paper, the patterns really pop off the paper! Most of the time, you see black ink used for this technique, but most of my samples show other colors just to illustrate how versatile and varied this technique is.

I am not assembling any cards today, and instead, am focusing on the teaching the technique. My first sample uses a background that is ink blended with three shades of green. As an alternative to creating your own background, you can use Designer Series Paper (DSP). This is certainly faster, but is a little more challenging to see where you've stamped with Verasamark ink (as you can see in the video!). My samples have a variety of styles, colors and patterns and one of them features our new Stampin' Hot Foil System! It's my favorite card. Which is your favorite?

Gather your supplies:

Cardstock: Basic White 4-1/4" x 5-1/2" (quarter sheet)
Stamp: Fern & Flora
Inks: Lemon Lime Twist, Granny Apple Green, Garden Green, Pretty Peacock, Versamark
Embossing Powder: Basics Wow! Embossing Powder
Tools: Blending Brush, Embossing Additions Tool Kit, Heat Tool

I like to start out with a larger piece of paper for my ink blending so that afterwards, I can cut it down to size and still have a little strip to use on the inside of the card. When adding the greens, start with the lightest color and work to the darker shades. Your blending doesn't need to be great since most of the paper gets colored with a darker color of ink - so quick and easy blending for this!

Get out your embossing buddy and really give the paper a good coating. I added a lot of ink to this paper and the extra coating will prevent powder from sticking where we don't want, particularly with the clear powder which is super fine. Next, start stamping the fern with Versamark ink. This ink stays wet a long time and is sticky to hold the powder. It's a bit difficult to see where you've stamped - move the paper around to catch the light so you can know where to stamp more ferns. You may want to pause partially through the stamping to add and melt your powder (which is what I did). Continue stamping, adding powder and melting until you have the coverage you want.

The next step is where the magic happens. Take your dark ink pad (I used Pretty Peacock) and do "direct to paper" to add color all over the background paper. You might get some edge lines, but just keep adding color to even it out until you get the depth of coverage you want. Then take a paper towel or microfiber cloth to run over the surface of the panel. This will remove the excess ink that is sitting on top of the clear embossed parts and make the design really stand out.

For my finished card, I cut the panel down to 3-3/4" x 5", which left me a strip to use on the inside. Before matting it with Lemon Lime Twist, I stamped the frame, sentiment and moths, then die cut them out (a great way to be conservative with your paper!).

The next way to do this technique is by using DSP instead of ink blending your own paper. There are so many papers with either a small pattern or swatches of color to use! The process is the same - stamp with Versamark ink and emboss with clear. It is a little more difficult to see where you've stamped since the color is printed rather than inked. Just heat more frequently so you can see the shiny images. The paper I chose in the video is from Beautiful Ordinary Life, so after stamping my stars and inking with Pretty Peacock, I ended up with a festive background with lots of colored stars. My original sample was made using the Garden Party DSP, which has less variation in coloring and inked with Blackberry Bliss. For both, I used the Balloon Festoon bundle to finish them. Which is your favorite between them?

https://ThePowerOfACard.blogspot.com Karen Sliwinski Stampin’ Up!®

This card started with a background inked in a triad of primary colors - Melon Mambo, Daffodil Delight and Azure Afternoon. The benefit of using those three colors is the beautiful blending between them to make orange, green and purple! I chose the words from You're the Best for my clear embossing, and while I liked that, it did leave some large open spaces. Since there are no do dads in this stamp set, I grabbed a small flower from Springtime Scenes set as a filler. Once these were added, I did the traditional inking of the rest in black ink. I think this turned out so happy and know it will be a perfect graduation card!

I cannot lie. This next one is my absolute favorite. Stampin' Up!® recently introduced their Stampin' Hot Foil System - I got it and some of the new stamps/dies. The large leaf design is one of the stamps and it has a coordinating leaf that can be foiled over it. I wasn't sure the leaf design was ideal for this technique but decided to give it a try. After inking on my background (the same colors as my first sample), I embossed and colored the rest with Secret Sea. I love the choice of the dark blue - it's close to black, but just a bit warmer and richer. After adding the gold foiled leaves, I was blown away! I added just a little sentiment (also foiled) from the Sweetly Sentimental set and a Get Well from Classic Greetings on the inside. I have a dear friend who's having bypass surgery at the end of the month and this special card is headed his way.

Lastly, I created a fall card using the Simply Leaves stamp set. My inked background was done in Crushed Curry, Pumpkin Pie and Cherry Cobbler and then stamped with the two smallest leaves. After embossing, I inked the background in Pecan pie. Then to change up the look, I used two of the dies from the Flourish & Frames bundle to cut the label. My initial intent was to use the middle part (the space between the two frames) on the inside, but decided it was too big. So I just attached them to a piece of Two Tone Pecan Pie (the light side) cardstock before matting in Basic White and putting on a Pecan Pie card base. The fall colors look so inviting on that cozy brown base!

What are you going to try? Generally, stamps with bolder patterns work best, but sometimes, line stamps (like the fern) work great if there is a lot of line work. The possibilities are endless because you can create the underlying colors as you desire! Experiment and have fun.

Karen

ThePowerOfACard@gmail.com

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