A method of embossing an absorbent web with a machine direction undulatory structure is described. The web has a plurality of ridges extending in its machine direction occurring at a frequency, F, across the web and the method includes providing the web to an embossing station where the web is embossed between a first and second embossing roll, each of which rolls may be provided with a plurality of embossing elements configured to define a plurality of embossing nips. At least a portion of the embossing nips are substantially oriented in a cross-machine direction with respect to the web and have a cross direction length, L. The product F.times.L is from about 0.1 to about 5.