June 10, 2012

Breaking The Creative Block – June Issue of My Molds!



My Molds Newsletter
News that Inspires Imagination!



Dear Subscribers,
Have you been playing with your molds lately? Weather you consider molding play time or work time you will be pleased to know that we are here to help you out. If you ever need inspiration check out our gallery page, which is just full of ideas. Even if you have seen the pictures before, another look will surprise you of what you missed. As your skills and experience grows so does your options and your outlook on things, even if they are the same as the last time you saw them. I often find this true as our website has developed in the past seven years. There’s always something to improve on as you learn new tetchiness and practice with trial and error. The most important thing to remember is that if you’re having fun you’re not wasting your time, and as you improve your skills new ideas will flow.

If you still need some inspiration read this month’s article below for more ideas to Break The Creative Block!
Please take the time to sit back and enjoy this issue of My Molds!
Until next time,
Marjorie with Mad About Molds
Be your own kind of beautiful.


As always, we thank you for your time, you’re wonderful comments and your generous support! We enjoy sharing what we do and we love to hear what you think!
June 2012 Issue





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FEATURED MOLDS

Everything 's coming up Roses at Mad About Molds!

Sometimes you just have to stop and smell the rose’s right? We make it easy for you to pick them. Shown below is our favorite rose molds for you to choose from. June is a big month for roses, as they are perfect for wedding and graduation decorations, embellishments, cake and candy forms and much more. We want you to come to us for all your molding needs!

All of our rose molds can be found on this page.






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 near the water. July will be here soon and 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.

  • SPEED:
We’re constantly working on improving the performance and speed of our store. We strongly believe that fast page loading is a big advantage for our customers. The average speed of our store was improved by 15%. We were able to further optimize our store so the initial loading of a page takes 40% less time now. This all helps you have a better shopping experience with us.
  • SOCIAL TOOLS:
Social networks, such as Facebook, have proven to be a great feature for customers. People love to share new things with their friends, so we’ve improved our social sharing options – it’s now easier and faster than ever. We already have the most popular button: Facebook’s “Like”. Now it also has these additional share buttons. Twitter, Google+, Pinterest’s “Pin it”, VK button and the Tumblr button. To view these buttons be sure to hover your curser over the “share link” under the “Add to Bag” button.



  • NAVIGATION LINKS:
We now display special “Previous / Next Product” links on the product details page, so you can browse your items quickly, efficiently and more conveniently. (See the navigation arrows above the SKU number in the image below.)


Now you can easily press the “Next product” link and the next product is loaded instantly. We wanted to create the fastest experience as possible. Actually when a customer presses the link, the next product is already loaded and ready to be shown, so it is displayed instantly. But this is not all. If you’re a keyboard ninja and love keyboard shortcuts, you can use them to browse your catalog. Use “Ctrl + →” and “Ctrl + ←” to browse products and “Ctrl + ↑” to go one level up.

As one of our users who tested this feature, said: “Ah that is really awesome… I was just messing with it in the test store. It’s kind of addicting, getting you to click through the whole catalog.

  • COMMENT AREA AT CHECKOUT:
Now we offer a tool that allows you for additional information during checkout. You can add information for your order including any specific information or considerations that you would like to attach to your order.

We’d like to thank all our customers who have enjoyed our website and we are happy to make improvements such as these as they become available. Feel free to use and enjoy these new features. If you have any questions, we’ll be glad to assist you.





THIS MONTH 'S
ARTICLE

Breaking The Creative Block

Sometimes, as an artist & crafter, the sheer volume of possible projects and opportunities to create can be intensely overwhelming.  Instead of churning out dozens of clever and useful items during a marathon crafting session, I often end up with a table bursting with unfolded fabric & unpacked trims - and not much else.  When I get into a creative overload like this, I use these tried-and-true techniques to break out of the cycle and get back to crafting.

  1. Recognize a creative block for what it is.  Don’t fight against the block, flow with it.  Creative blocks are the brains way of saying it is overloaded and isn’t in the mood to do whatever it is you are asking. Creativity can’t be forced, it has to flow naturally; so resist the urge to force yourself to be creative when your brain is telling you no.

  1. Cut something. I always have a backlog of scraps or yards of fabric just waiting to be cut.  You don’t have to cut things for any particular project; if you have a system of cutting up scraps to use in various projects, or you plan to do a string quilt one day, go ahead and cut up the fabric.  It doesn’t have to have a purpose that is set in stone - just cut something!

  1. Work on a "no brainer" project.  Do something that doesn’t require your brain to decide, consolidate, process, or think.  Work on something you could do in your sleep if it didn’t pose a threat of injury.  Sewing quilt bindings or hand-piecing projects are great for this type of activity.  Go through your back issues of magazines & cut out the articles you want to keep to re-read again.   Fold your fabric into neat, 6" wide stacks.

  1. Make a list.  Are too many ideas running through your head? Grab a pen and paper and write them all down. This way, you won’t forget them, and your brain won’t feel it necessary to keep broadcasting your brilliance to you while you are trying to work on something.

  1. Take a crafting sabbatical.  Tell yourself that you won’t touch any of your crafting materials for a week.  Heck, make it two weeks.  Then, stick to it.  Go for walks.  Do something else with your time.  If you give yourself permission to take a break, you are more able to come back to crafting when creativity strikes.  By the end of the two weeks, you’ll probably be itching to get back to creating, and hopefully sooner!
Creative Blocks!




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