embossing vellum?

[twenty6colors.livejournal.com]

sooo.... i'm hosting a bridal shower soon and i was farting around with invitation ideas tonight.
i was trying to emboss vellum.
i've never used vellum, and i've never embossed anything anyway, so the whole thing was a hit or miss scenario.
needless to say, i missed it.... by a long shot.

well, i went to joanne's and i bought a "perfect pens" embossing pen, for use with "perfect pearls" pigments. however, the only perfect pearls powder they sold was a pack of a bunch of colors for something like $15. i only need purple, so rather than spending the $15, i thought i'd see if it worked with another brand of powder. so i got "joann craft essentials" embossing powder, in purple. i wrote what i needed to with the pen, then brushed on the powder.. and it brushed right off. it's not sticking to the ink.

so... what am i doing wrong? am i doing something wrong? or is it just the vellum? i was using translucent vellum paper.


long story short, i printed what i needed for the invitations on plain white paper, traced over it on the vellum with a gel-pen, tied the vellum to the card stock with coordinating ribbon, and the finished product is neat enough. just wondering about the embossing....