We have NEW Molds! Mar. Issue of My Molds Newsletter 2014

News that Inspires Imagination! The Preferred Place for Clay Push Molds. Mar. 2014 Issue of My Molds Newsletter.

News that Inspires Imagination by Mad About Molds!      New Molds!!!    We did it!!! We finally got a whole bunch of new molds listed this month and we are sure you will love them! Since we have 1,000 molds to choose from we are pretty selective when choosing new molds. We have to make sure they aren't too similar to molds we already have, and for each new mold we post we have to discontinue a less popular mold. This makes it challenging to find new designs, but that's what it takes to keep our mold choices fresh and the best selection available. We hope you are happy with our choices this month.   More new molds! NEW MOLDS HERE    Clearance Sale!    As a valued fan of this page you have first dibs on our clearance items just posted!Click here to go to our sale!  Featured Molds  Since Spring is only a few days away, here's a few molds to get you thinking about upcoming projects. Holiday Molds   Here’s an Idea For You! Did you know that you can use Hot Glue in our Molds? Well, Yes, you can!   Have you heard of “Mod Podge Mod Melts by Plaid?” Well if you haven’t, it’s a relatively new craft product on the market in which you can use in your hot glue gun to fill molds with. Do you want to hear a Secret? They are almost identical to using hot glue gun sticks! We didn’t think it would be fair to not tell you that hot glue works just as good! If not better! So why is this Big News? Because Hot Glue is cheaper, and our molds work as well as the Mod Melt Brand, plus we have a LOT more to choose from! We have 1,000 molds to choose from. Don’t make what everyone else is making, create something that’s unique. Let’s get started! FILLING MOLDS First things first:  Both our flexible and hard molds work with Mod Melts or Hot Glue. Both Mod Melts or Hot Glue can be used with these instructions. Gather supplies: Get your molds out! Cooking spray oil Hot glue gun* (plug it in) Mod Melts or... High temp glue sticks (colored or clear) *Make sure you use a hot glue gun, because you will need the extra cooling time to fill your molds. If you use glue sticks instead of Mod Melts there’s no need to clean out your gun to use it with a new product. Step-by-Step: Spray your molds with cooking spray.  Heat your glue gun is as hot as it gets. Squeeze into your molds filling each mold cavity. Be careful to try to get the glue into all of the crevices, and try not to overfill the molds. The excess Mod Melt around the shapes can be trimmed with a craft knife or sharp pointed scissors, and can be avoided by filling the mold a little less generously. Let dry for 5 to10 minutes and then pop them out with the tip of a knife or your fingernail.  Remove all traces of the non-stick spray oil before painting. The finished embellishment can be finished with FolkArt acrylic paints, shimmer mists, alcohol inks, glitter, metallic paints, pearl paint and even embossing powders.  You could even leave them white or clear by not painting them at all. Good Tip: By first painting the embellishment a solid color, and then pouncing or dry brushing over the base color with another color helps highlight the details of your finished pieces. What adds to the appeal of making your own embellishments is being able to insert a string, pin-backs, bobby pin, or other feature into the embellishment before it hardens so that it dries around the feature to become a solid piece. You could add jump rings or a bezel into the back of the castings to make quick jewelry as well. Our take on Hot Glue vs Mod Melts Here’s our experience using Mod Melts products to make resin-style embellishments and how to make your very own knock-off versions using hot glue instead for a fraction of the price!So what are Mod Melts? They are made by Plaid (the makers of Mod Podge) Mod Melts are meltable sticks to use in your hot glue gun and melt into small sized molds.  These make resin-style embellishments for to use in various crafts, scrapbooking, jewelry, hair accessories, etc.  I was really intrigued by them - especially because you could paint them using a variety of finishes to make them custom colored, metallic, glittery, etc.  No more buying big assortments of resin shapes just to get a few in a certain color or shape.  And just making what you need, when you need it, sounded good.   The concept was pretty simple.  Just heat a stick in a high temp glue gun and trigger the melted goo into the molds.  After 10 minutes they're hardened and ready to paint.  I learned you have to work super fast - the stuff sets in seconds, so it's a bit tricky to get into the little crevices in the detailed shapes and to avoid air bubbles.  Opposite to the directions (that said to start in the middle), I started in the nooks and crannies after a few dud results.  They started turning out better, but I noticed I went through a lot of the material pretty quick.  16 mini sticks cost about $6.99.  4 sticks made about 2 dozen pieces, but not all turned out usable. The big surprise for me was that they weren't super hard like resin shapes, more rubbery, like dried hot glue. And that got me thinking... why not try that?  So I did.  And guess what?  It worked just as well, if not better.  I just used my high temperature sticks & glue gun.  The glue took a little longer to start to set, so it was easier to fill in the shapes and knock out any air bubbles.  It also didn't take a full 10 minutes before it could be popped out - I did in about 5 minutes, so I could get to painting right away.And they painted up great - I actually noticed the paint coverage seemed better on the hot glue shapes.   I also noticed painting with many coats and using textures like glitter helped hide imperfections on both the Melts & glue varieties. The point of being able to make your own custom embellishments seems kind of negated when everyone is using the same 4 molds, so using our molds seems like a no-brainer. The results were just as good with the glue. Just be sure to use cooking oil before filling hard molds with glue. Price-wise, the regular glue sticks work out to be about 1/4 of the cost or less, so I can go crazy making embellishments and still keep it cheap.  I thought this little discovery was worth sharing, so you can save too!   The finished Mod Melts could be added to favors, napkin rings, cards, thank-you notes, and party decor, giving a very professional and cohesive look on a budget.   "Handmade is Better"    Contact Us!                                           Find us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter       Fun Links: Free Stuff Free Downloads Creative Ideas Gallery Instructions Newsletter Archives Molding Accessories Mobile Site      Contact Us!  Comments Welcomed!  How are we doing?  Let us know what you are thinking!   Email Us Website The Preferred Place for Clay Push Molds!

When it comes to service, we break the mold! Thank You! Copyright © 2014 Mad About Molds, All rights reserved.  Subscribe  |  Unsubscribe  |  Forward  |  Update Profile  |  Archive             Feel free to send this newsletter to a friend. If you received this newsletter from a friend feel free to sign up for our newsletter. We don't want to lose touch with you! We will not sell, trade or give away your personal information or email address.

Your Best Creative Time! Feb. Issue of My Molds Newsletter 2014

News that Inspires Imagination! The Preferred Place for Clay Push Molds. Feb. 2014 Issue of My Molds Newsletter. Is this not displaying correctly? View it in a new window.

Dear Readers, Spring is getting closer ever day! Which bring fresh ideas, and new possibilities with new color pallets. What kinds of projects have you been doing with your molds? Are you ready for Spring holidays like Easter and St. Patrick's Day? If not, we have some inspiration for you today! To help you get motivated this month, we'd like to share with you an article you might find helpful. "Your Best Creative Time Is Not When You Think" It will inspire you to try new ideas and find the best time for your creative mind to be at it's best! Please take the time to sit back and enjoy this issue of My Molds! All the best, Marjorie with MadAboutMolds .com News that Inspires Imagination! "You're My Favorite Work Of Art"  Come on over!  The sky is the limit with what you can do with our molds. It's like magic when you first see the results. It takes very little work to make a piece that looks like it took hours to make. Don't you just loving making products that are one-of-a-kind items that you can't find anywhere else? With our molds, you are allowed to use your creations in anyway you wish. So feel free to have fun and make something you can be proud of. Think of all the Possibilities! Using our molds is easy and fun! You don't need to be ultra-talented to make items that look like they took hours to make. Learn how to make this charm step-by-step here.  Did you know?  Question: Can you bake polymer clay more than once? A common question for those new to polymer clay is “Can you bake polymer clay more than once?” The answer is YES! There is no reason you can’t bake a piece of clay as many times as you need to. In fact, for complex pieces it’s common to bake parts of the piece separately and then assemble and attach them after baking. It’s also perfectly fine to attach raw clay to baked clay and bake that. Sometimes it’s the only way you can get certain effects. Hand Sanitizer cleans clay residue off your hands. After working with polymer clay, there is usually a residue on your hands which soap and water will not remove.  Alcohol dissolves polymer clay, so it works well to rub some alcohol-based hand sanitizer gel into your hands, and then wipe them clean with a paper towel. Follow up with a soap and water wash and you’re good as new. (And rubbing alcohol is pretty great to have in the studio, too!) Nail polish, spray paint, and solvents will degrade polymer clay. For some reason, this polymer clay tip isn’t well known. It seems like such a simple solution to use nail polish to accent your polymer clay creations. Or use clear nail polish as a glaze. Don’t do it. Ever. Under any circumstances! The solvent in nail polish will begin to soften and dissolve your polymer clay, even baked clay, making it sticky and gooey over time. The same holds true for most varnishes and paints in spray cans. And also paints that are solvent based and require mineral spirits to clean your brushes. If you need a spray sealer to coat polymer clay, then you should use PYM II, a polymer clay safe protective coating. Sharpie is not compatible with polymer clay. I see Sharpie Markers recommended in tutorials all the time and I have to tell you…don’t do it. Sharpie markers are a great little tool and I love them for all sorts of crafts. But Sharpies are a solvent-based dye based marker. And that means that over time the dye will diffuse into the polymer, creating a “blur” or bleed. Use a pigment based marker instead, such as PITT Artist Marker or Microperm markers.  Store polymer clay in Ziploc sandwich bags. Polymer clay can react with and dissolve some plastics. But plain old Ziploc sandwich bags are polymer clay safe. Plus you can zip the bag shut, keeping out dust. And if you’d like, you can label the bag with a Sharpie, removing all doubt about what brand of clay you put inside.  Marching into March  Did you know that March is National Craft Month? I guess that means if you’re a crafter you need to be busy all month long. LoL I have a few St. Patrick’s Day crafts started and hopefully they will be finished before the 17th. {Grin}  Hard to believe that Easter will be here in a month. I have seen so many cute Easter ideas online that I am not sure of which ones to try! If the weather keeps up being so nice I may just have to move my crafting supplies outdoors so I can enjoy crafting AND the weather! What crafts do you have planned for St. Patrick’s and Easter? Easter & St. Patrick's Day Molds  Your Best Creative Time  Morning people have more insights in the evening. Night owls have their breakthroughs in the morning. A bus company in China has launched a new “safe driving” campaign by suspending bowls of water over their drivers.  To avoid getting wet, drivers must drive gently.  In today’s technology-obsessed world, this solution is elegantly primitive.  You might imagine that this simple yet ingenious idea was conjured by someone functioning at their very best, that such “aha insights” come when innovators are at their peak. Not so.  A recent study by Mareike Wieth and Rose Zacks suggests that innovation and creativity are greatest when we are not at our best, at least with respect to our circadian rhythms.  Circadian rhythms determine whether you are a “morning-type” person or an “evening-type” person, and are often measured with a short paper-and-pencil test called the Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire. Circadian rhythms drive daily fluctuations in many physiological processes like alertness, heart rate and body temperature.  Recent research indicates that these rhythms affect our intellectual functioning too. Numerous studies have demonstrated that our best performance on challenging, attention-demanding tasks - like studying in the midst of distraction - occurs at our peak time of day.  When we operate at our optimal time of day, we filter out the distractions in our world and get down to business.  Contact Us!                                         Friend on Facebook Follow on Twitter Forward to a Friend Fun Links: Home Free Stuff Free Downloads Creative Ideas Gallery Instructions Subscribe Newsletter Archives Molding Accessories Mobile Site     Contact Us!  Comments Welcomed!  How are we doing?  Let us know what you are thinking!  Shop@MadAboutMolds.com  www.MadAboutMolds.com The Preferred Place for Clay Push Molds!

When it comes to service, we break the mold! Thank You! Copyright © 2014 Mad About Molds, All rights reserved. Mad About Molds periodically sends a newsletter to its customers. You received this newsletter because you opted in to receive this newsletter, inquired about our products, or ordered from Mad About Molds. Our mailing address is: Mad About Molds 624 3rd Ave. Brewster, MN 56119 Add us to your address book  unsubscribe from this list | update subscription preferences Feel free to send this newsletter to a friend. If you received this newsletter from a friend feel free to sign up for our newsletter. We don't want to lose touch with you! We will not sell, trade or give away your personal information or email address.

10 Steps for Boosting Creativity! Jan. Issue of My Molds Newsletter 2014

News that Inspires Imagination! The Preferred Place for Clay Push Molds. Jan. 2014 Issue of My Molds Newsletter.

Dear Readers, It's hard to believe January is almost over! So how have you been? What kinds of projects have you been doing with your molds? We would love to see what you are doing with them, so please share! February is the "Love Month" and we have plenty of love to go around with all the heart molds we have available. See them here!   To help you get motivated this month, we'd like to share with you an article you might find helpful. "10 Steps for Boosting Creativity" It will inspire you to try new ideas with the skills you already apply to your projects. Please take the time to sit back and enjoy this issue of My Molds! All the best, Marjorie with MadAboutMolds .com News that Inspires Imagination! "My beauty comes from having my own style, living my own way and knowing my own mind..."    Just add color!    It’s show and tell! Here's our before and after shots, so you can see how nice these turned out. Each mold casting was made from white clay and painted with acrylic paints and glazes. They are actually pretty easy to make. Just choose and paint a color for the overall background color and then highlight the raised areas with colors of your choice. Be sure to check out our “Gallery Page” to see our endless amount of ideas that we have for you.   All molds can be found on our website at www.MadAboutMolds.com   Molds: #048, 050, 071, 091, 101, 105, 188, 193, 194, 207, 357, 367 & 368.    Oh my! Little Pretties!    As our subscriber you get first dibs on previewing our newest molds and castings and much more. Theses are some of our seven new samples of our latest creations. Each would be a wonderful addition to your mold collection. Search these molds on www.MadAboutMolds.com to read more details about each mold.    Molds: #098, 184, 365, 435, 919, 923 & 962.   See all 1,000 molds here!      Love is in the air!  Don’t you just love new ideas? Many of you may already own these molds, so these new projects may inspire you to get them out again. If not, we are including the mold numbers below for you to add them to your collection. Shown is just a random selection of castings that we had on hand in our office, but we painted them all in the same four colors to create a Valentine’s theme. (Hot Pink, Chocolate... Brown, Cream and Green) The end result is a collection that would be suitable for all kinds of projects such as candies, cupcake-toppers, party favors, Valentine embellishments and much more! Let us know if you come up with any ideas that could be used on our website. We would love to see them!    Molds: #038, 153, 360, 608 & 896  — at www.madaboutmolds.com. Using our molds is easy and fun! You don't need to be ultra-talented to make items that look like they took hours to make. Learn how to make this charm step-by-step here.       Everything's Owl-Right!    With all the owls we are suddenly seeing, we were inspired to add a few more to our site. What a HOOT!    Samples made from Molds #149, 522, 207 & 164.   Think of all the Possibilities! The sky is the limit with what you can do with our molds. It's like magic when you first see the results. It takes very little work to make a piece that looks like it took hours to make. Don't you just loving making products that are one-of-a-kind items that you can't find anywhere else? With our molds, you are allowed to use your creations in anyway you wish. So feel free to have fun and make something you can be proud of.    Find us on Facebook!    Go to our Facebook page.      Keep Calm and...   10 Steps for Boosting Creativity      1. Listen to music! Any type of music that you enjoy will encourage creativity. Getting the in groove is easier when you get your creative juices flowing.  2. Sleep. That's when your brain processes information and reorganizes all the stuff kicking around in your head. When you wake up, you may surprised by the ideas that burst into your brain! 3. Always carry a small notebook and a pen or pencil around with you. That way, if you are struck by an idea, you can quickly note it down. Upon rereading your notes, you may discover about 90% of your ideas are daft. Don't worry, that's normal. What's important are the 10% that are brilliant. 4. If you're stuck for an idea, open a dictionary, randomly select a word and then try to formulate ideas incorporating this word. You'd be surprised how well this works. The concept is based on a simple but little known truth: freedom inhibits creativity. There are nothing like restrictions to get you thinking. 5. Question your problem. Grab a sheet of paper, electronic notebook, computer or whatever you use to make notes, and question your problem in detail. You'll probably find ideas positively spewing out once you've done this. 6. If you can't think, go for a walk. A change of atmosphere is good for you and gentle exercise helps shake up the brain cells. 7. Don't watch TV. Experiments performed by the JPB Creative Laboratory show that watching TV causes your brain to slowly trickle out your ears and/or nose. It's not pretty, but it happens. 8. Don't do drugs. People on drugs think they are creative, but this far from the truth. - I would hope this isn't a problem for you. 9. Read as much as you can about everything possible. Books exercise your brain, provide inspiration and fill you with information that allows you to make creative connections easily. 10. Exercise your brain. Brains, like bodies, need exercise to keep fit. If you don't exercise your brain, it will get flabby and useless. Exercise your brain by reading a lot, talking to clever people and disagreeing with people - arguing can be a terrific way to give your brain cells a workout. But note, bickering over who should clean the dishes is not going to help.  Contact Us!                                           Friend on Facebook Follow on Twitter Forward to a Friend   Fun Links: Home Free Stuff Free Downloads Creative Ideas Gallery Instructions Subscribe Newsletter Archives Molding Accessories Mobile Site     Contact Us!  Comments Welcomed!  How are we doing?  Let us know what you are thinking!  Shop@MadAboutMolds.com  www.MadAboutMolds.com The Preferred Place for Clay Push Molds!

When it comes to service, we break the mold! Thank You! Copyright © 2014 Mad About Molds, All rights reserved.  unsubscribe from this list | update subscription preferences Feel free to send this newsletter to a friend. If you received this newsletter from a friend feel free to sign up for our newsletter. We don't want to lose touch with you! We will not sell, trade or give away your personal information or email address.