The Sakura Quickie Glue Pen has been a game changer for me when it comes to sketching with my Silhouette Cameo. For months and months, I’ve been looking for something that would allow me to use the sketch pen function for heat embossing, but every heat embossing pen and marker that I tried just wasn’t giving me the results that I was looking for. This all changed when I found the Sakura Quickie Glue Pen, which was the solution that I was looking for to sketch and foil, too!

I love that this glue pen has a nice, fine tip, which creates thin and crisp sketched lines, so you’ll be able to get beautiful results even with more intricate and detailed sketch designs. It’s also still sticky for a while after it dries, which allows embossing powder to stick to it extremely well.

The embossing pens that I’ve used for testing this technique all have felt tips like markers, which makes it difficult to get consistent coverage across a sketch design because the ink flow isn’t as steady as it is with the glue pen. Plus, the ink can start to dry out, especially if it’s a larger design and takes more time to sketch. So, while embossing pens / markers are great for hand lettering and manually creating designs, the nature of the tips of these types of pens causes spotty coverage when you use them as sketch pens.

This technique should work with any digital die cutting machine that has a sketch pen option, so Cricut users, this tutorial is for you, too! If you are using a Cricut machine, I do recommend that you use the PNG (no border) version of this file and set it to Draw in Cricut Design Space.

Find out how to sketch and heat emboss (and see the results that I got with the embossing pens that I tried, too) in the video below:

Supplies Used in This Project

The following supply list contains affiliate links. I make a small commission if you purchase through these links, and I really appreciate it if you do!

– Interlocking Circles Sketch Pattern Files
– Silhouette Cameo
– Sakura Quickie Glue Pen
– Chomas Creations Adjustable Marker Holder for Silhouette
– Neenah Solar White 80lb. Cardstock
– EK Tools Powder Tool
– Zing! Opaque Embossing Powder, Aqua
– Darice Embossing Multi-Purpose Heat Tool
– wood craft sticks