Hello, crafty friends! Marie here again from
Marie Nicole Designs. I am sharing a Christmas card (never too early for Christmas!) and I will be walking you through step-by-step on how I used a Better Press plate to heat emboss with. Heat embossing with Better Press plates is not really hard at all, and it gives more technique options for using your plates.

Let’s get started!
PREP YOUR CARD FRONT

Decide what cardstock you want to use for your card front. I embossed a frame onto this cardstock using one of the Spellbinders
embossing folders. There is a perfect spot in the middle of this frame for our sentiment to be the focal point.
BETTER PRESS IT

Grab
Season’s Greeting Upright Italic press plate and place it on your
Better Press platform. Make sure to align the plate with your cardstock so that it will be pressed into so that it is centered the way you prefer.

Once the
Season’s Greetings plate is on the Better Press platform, add some embossing ink to it. Since embossing ink is clear, you may not see it on the plate, but trust me, it's there.

Add the clear plate with your cardstock onto the Better Press platform and run through your machine. Since the
Better Press doesn’t press as hard as a die would in order to cut, you can have a sentiment imprint without ruining your frame that was embossed with a folder.

Remove the card front from the platform, and you should now see the sentiment imprinted into the cardstock. The embossing ink will still be wet so be careful not to touch or smear it.
HEAT EMBOSS

Using your preferred embossing powder (I used gold), sprinkle it onto the sentiment and tap off the extra. You may even use a dry paintbrush to clean up and embossing powder hanging onto areas you don't want it.

Hit the embossing powder with your heat tool to melt the powder and set your sentiment.
After the heat embossing is finished, use a pair of scissors and carefully cut out the embossed frame around the outside edges.
WORK ON THE BACKGROUND
[gallery type="rectangular" columns="2" link="file" size="large" ids="marie-heiderscheit-2026-upright-italic-step-by-step-9-scaled.webp,marie-heiderscheit-2026-upright-italic-step-by-step-10-scaled.webp"]
Since the framed sentiment is slightly smaller than the full card size, you will need a background to mount it on. Grab a piece of white cardstock and ink blend a color. I chose a lighter red and then layered a darker red over it to get just the right Christmas-y hue I was looking for.
ADD SENTIMENT WITH FOAM ADHESIVE

Apply foam adhesive generously to the back of your sentiment frame. Remove the foam backing paper and then center and stick to the ink-blended background.
ADD DETAILS AND EMBELLISHMENTS
[gallery type="rectangular" columns="2" link="file" size="large" ids="marie-heiderscheit-2026-upright-italic-step-by-step-13-scaled.webp,marie-heiderscheit-2026-upright-italic-step-by-step-14-scaled.webp"]
I wanted to add some detail to the frame, so I grabbed a paint marker and colored the middle embossed strip around the frame gold. I love how the gold sentiment and the gold paint both shine so nicely.

Go ahead and add an embellishment or two from your stash. I used this little poinsettia from a previous Spellbinders set, and then added a few gold pearls.
The card’s focal point is mostly the sentiment, but I love how Christmas-y it turned out.

Thank you so much for stopping by the blog today to see the Upright Italic Season’s Greetings on this card! I hope you’ve gathered some ideas and inspiration for your own crafting.
Until next time,
Marie Nicole
[spellbinders-supplies]BP-371,E3D-179,PE-104,BP-001,250-S#GLD[/spellbinders-supplies]
Other supplies
Embossing ink, embossing heat tool, embossing powder, cardstock, colored ink and ink blending tool, scissors, foam adhesive, liquid adhesive, poinsettia dies, gold pearls