July 11, 2012

Little Pretties for Summer Time – July Issue of My Molds!

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headerMy Molds Newsletter
News that Inspires Imagination!



Dear Subscribers,
I hope this newsletter finds my customers and friends in full swing of SUMMER! We hope you are enjoying time in the sun at the beach, the backyard or wherever you spend your time during the summer.  And we also hope you still have some time for creative time. We are excited to show you some ideas to inspire you.

We know crafters need to think ahead to be ready when the holidays are here. So be sure to check our holiday pages so you don’t miss any crafting opportunities.

You can help Mad About Molds continue bringing you the best in craft ideas and assistance by forwarding this newsletter to your crafty friends.

New readers, Click here to Subscribe.

Drop me a line if you want to talk anything molds… We would love to take care of all your molding needs.

If you have a business and your need some inspiration read this month’s article below for great ideas to grow in your business. “Do you work “On” or “In” you’re Business?”
Please take the time to sit back and enjoy this issue of My Molds!

All the best,
Marjorie with Mad About Molds
To Imagine Is Everything!
July 2012 Issue

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FEATURED MOLDS

Little Pretties at Mad About Molds!

Turn summer bursts of creativity into beautiful works of art that you can wear.

We normally use acrylic craft paints to achieve the metallic finish on our castings. Many of our descriptions show samples of items made with our molds as a thumbnail that can be enlarged next to the item descriptions. All of these pictures our Gallery pages. You can also learn how to achieve these beautiful metal finishes by using Precious Metal Clay on this page of our website.

When thinking about the finish you would like to achieve when making castings from your molds there are about four main types for you to consider.

1. The best results for a rich deep metallic finish would be PMC (Precious Metal Clay) It comes in both silver and gold, and you use it the same as you would clay, except in the way that you cure it. Be sure to remove your casting from your mold before curing it.

2. Another way would be to add a gold-leaf finish over a baked clay casting. Golf-leaf can be found in many metallic colors and can have a beautiful finish.

3. The easiest way to achieve a colored finish from neon, pearl or metallic would be to use a colored clay to make your casting. No other step would be needed unless you wish to add a clear coat sealer or an antiquing medium.

4. And our last option is how most of our samples are made in our gallery photos. White clay painted with acrylic paints. We like to add many finishes over the paint to give a prettier effect such as pearl or sparkle sealer or a antiquing finish. Don't feel intimidated by painting castings as they are surprisingly easy to get nice results. Just think of it as painting from the bottom up. First a apply a thin base color over the entire casting, then paint the details on top with desired colors and finish with a top coat of the techniques mentioned above.

I hope this helps you out, and if you take the time to check out these techniques you should be able to get wonderful results with our molds.

Good luck with your projects and we hope this helps you out. Have fun creating!





SUMMER MOLDS


Just Like Summer Time!
When it hot outside it’s nice to be inside making things that remind you of summer all year around. These molds will give you a few ideas of memories spent at the lake, beach or anywhere in the sun. Now is the time to get ready for some fun molding with new Summer inspiration!


All of our Marine & Nautical Molds can be found on this page.




ANNOUNCMENTS

 Useful Geeky Information

So with any website store there’s always things going on in the background that you may not notice unless someone points it out to you. All of this information is not required to order from us, but some of it might help you appreciate everything we have to offer you.

         Ecwid now has 42 storefront translations! If this helps you out we are happy to offer it.

         Sale and promotional prices! Everyone love’s discounts and deals. Now when we put a product on sale you will see will be shown a “struck out” to demonstrate how much the current price is better. We think it is a great tool and we hope you will like it too.

 


         Share your purchase!  Almost everybody around us has accounts in social networks. People use such accounts to showcase their personalities. To show who you are! For example if you “like” Facebook pages not just to get the status updates in your news feed, but to express yourself via liking particular brands. I.e. you don’t like Converse just because you like their shoes, but because this brand represents a special life style that you want to follow. People love to share pages and links, as it expresses yourself. Not many of us will admit this, though, but our shares are always highly influenced by our image we want to show to our friends.

 

         Faster checkout for Google Chrome users!  Our website now supports experimental Google Chrome feature that allows Chrome users to fill checkout forms in much faster, easier and smarter: literally in a single click. So now any Chrome user who stored his personal information in Chrome can fill a checkout forms in a single click. You just start to fill in any field of the form, select a stored address and all fields in the form are filled in properly. Very convenient and fast, no more boring typing of the same text again and again.


         Improved behavior for the zero-total orders! People love free things. So we offer free intangible goods, such as monograms, vintage tags and labels, free decorative fonts and more! They can all be found here!

Before we couldn’t allow orders with zero total, unless our customer choose payment method "Personal check" so no charges would be made to your account. But now you can order these free items anyway you wish. Item will also be sent immediately without any wait times for approval.

This feature makes the ability to get these freebies much more efficient and convenient for you.


Thank you all for your support, ideas and suggestions and stay tuned for more great features coming soon.





THIS MONTH’S
ARTICLE
Do you work “On” or “In” you’re Business?

Do you work on your business or in your business? We can’t grow our business if we spend all our time doing the work in the business; i.e., being the technicians or doers. We have to learn and utilize management and entrepreneurial skills to build the business. Your goal should be to have your business work for you, not you working for it.
So, is all your time spent “doing” the business?
Here are four ways to strive toward working on your business:
1.      Develop a clear vision about the path your company will take. This clarity is critical for you and for any people that you hire, whether full-time or on a project basis.
2.      Take time to work on your business. I’ve heard from numerous people in business – that you need to spend two-to three hours marketing your business for every hour you spend fabricating your art. The best approach here is to set aside the time that works for you to do this. It could be three hours every morning or it could be every Monday and Tuesday. And sometimes you need to try working on your business in a different surrounding. I have a friend who goes to the local cafĂ© each week to work on her business. The goal is set a time consistently to do it.
3.      Look for ways to create systems in your business. This could be anything from a system to contact potential buyers to a system to process orders. Systems make a difference in how much time you don’t spend as a technician or doer.
4.      Work on yourself. In addition to spending time working on your business, you need to work on yourself. “Work harder on yourself than you do on your job. The major value in life is not what you get. The major value in life is what you become.” And, who you become as a person spills over into your business.





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Copyright © 2012  |  Mad About Molds, 624 3rd Ave.,  Brewster  MN  56119


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