I realized I wasn't doing anything wrong with faux embossing!  (I know; I was surprised, too!)  It's a very simple technique, but you kind of have to have the right stamp set and the right color card stock to make it work.  The first one I tried was on Night of Navy; too dark.  I also used Holy Triptych, but I think you need more of a solid image.  You can see my Holy Triptych one here.  I like it, but it's not totally what I was going for.  (Yes, I know this isn't Night of Navy.  This one uses Ballet Blue, Almost Amethyst and Lavender Lace.  You don't get to see the Night of Navy one.)

Here's my final one from this morning.  Out of all the samples I've seen, the True Friend flower looks the best.

It's a "double faux" embossing, because I used two faux dry embossing techniques. 

The first one (on the flower, and also used with the Holy Triptych, Batman…oops, I mean "Holy Triptych" card) goes like this –
Stamp your image in Whisper White or Very Vanilla craft ink.  Let dry.
Use the Stamp-a-ma-jig to position the image just to the side and below the original and stamp again in the same ink color as the card stock.  That's it.

For the background, I just punched a bunch of Boho Blossoms out of Tangerine Tango and layered them to a Tangerine Tango card.  The embellishment is a clear button over a stamped/punched "True Friend" flower.

 

Here's another technique.  It looks awesome with "Upsy Daisy" or other solid stamps, but I like it with Lovely as a Tree, too.

Instead of inking a stamp with a stamp pad, you sponge ink on the stamp with a sponge dauber.  I used Summer Sun, Really Rust, Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive, and Close to Cocoa for the tree.  That's a little pewter "Build a Brad" on the tab.

I did the leaves a little differently.  I inked them with Old Olive, then sponged Really Rust over the edges.  Kind of like "Rock and Roll," but with a sponge.  What's that?  What's Rock & Roll?  Besides great music, it's another fun technique.  But that's for another day.

Have a wonderful Labor Day weekend!  Maybe I'll do a Rock & Roll tomorrow. Check in later for a list of my retired stamp sets.  For the month of September, for every $1.00 you spend on retired sets, you can spend $.50 on new catalog products.  (So if you buy $50 worth of retired sets, you'll get $25 in your choice of product from the Fall/Winter catalog.*)  I'll have more details later.

*plus shipping/tax