I wasted time looking around the internet for some thin rubber matting to act as the mirror for the template I wanted to practice with on my sidekick--finally went back to the Indigo Inklings website that was recommended to me and re-read a little more carefully...it said some had success with mouse pads or fun foam...a mouse pad seemed a bit too thick (and I didn't have any to cut up anyway) but I do have tons of fun foam around for Maya's arts and crafts so I thought, what the hey? Wouldn't hurt to try. So I did. :-)
After a few tries, it worked! :-)
This is what I did. Bearing in mind the advice that the sidekick might curl a template I bought a clearance one at HL yesterday. Got a piece of foam and trimmed a piece slightly smaller than the template. Made a template 'sandwich' in this pattern: clear plastic doodad for sizzlits, template, cardstock cut to size, the foam piece, then the other clear plastic doodad. Experimented a few minutes with some cardboard shims til there was a bit of hardness to rolling the sidekick's handle (not too hard, though, I didn't want to break my new sidekick right off the bat!), rolled that bad boy through, and viola!! An embossed piece of cardstock! :-)
I tried to take a couple pictures, without embellishing the embossing, it's kind of hard to see, so I took some pictures with the flash, and without.
Looks like the foam will only last a time or two before being flattened too much, but that stuff is pretty cheap so it shouldn't be a problem. The rubber/polymer mat might last longer, but it sure was a lot more expensive! ($18 or so for a 12X12 sheet).
Thanks again to everyone who gave me advice for this! Now I'm actually looking forward to using more embossed features in my layouts! :-)
Carolyne in TX