Sunday 26 July 2015

Mould Making and Stamp Mounting

I had my fourth chemo on Friday and although I felt awful for the rest of Friday, yesterday and today I am feeling quite a bit better and have managed to do a few things. The worst part has been raging peripheral neuropathy in my hands and feet and the only thing to do is to keep them as warm as possible – not easy doing things with 2 pairs of gloves on!! Last time I had a good weekend but then crashed for the rest of the first week, so I am hoping this won’t happen again. Things were much better in the second and third week though, so I think the reduced dose is helping.

Yesterday I spent some time working on editing images for one of the secret projects I am working on, and this morning I decided to make some moulds from the new metal embellishments and gearwheels I got on Ebay last week. For one of the projects I am working on, I wanted to use a particular rubber stamp from a set I bought ages ago but hadn’t yet used, and I hadn’t realised that I had never got around to mounting them, so I did that today, too.

Mould Making

01 Gearwheels from Ebay and Steampunk Wings 26-7

In addition to the gearwheels, I also got a couple of metal pairs of wings and hearts from Ebay. All these metal embellishments are quite heavy for use on cards, and are better on albums and other projects, so I decided to make moulds from them – that way you can use the originals with impunity, but still have an endless supply! I make them up in Friendly Plastic or UTEE or polymer clay, or even Polyfilla One Fill (Joint Compound) – whatever takes my fancy.

I finished the EasyMold Silicone Putty (the purple sort) and then started the Amazing Mold Putty (yellow) to finish this project. Need to order some more of this!

The putty comes in two pots, one coloured and one white. You take equal quantities of each, and mix them together until you can no longer see any streaking, and then you press the object into it. It cures really quickly so you need to work fast – the large mould in the picture (the pair of wings and the heart) was starting to go off while I made the impression because I didn’t mix up enough to start with, so I am not sure how well that one will work. I can always make it again if it’s not a success.

Once they are set, you can pull the object out, but you shouldn’t use the moulds until they are fully cured. I usually leave them overnight to be sure.

Stamp Mounting

My last attempt at stamp mounting using EZ Mount Foam was a bit different! Usually this is a horrendously sticky and unpleasant job, and even with Tim Holtz’ wonderful non-stick scissors with their micro-serrated blades, they get coated with sticky gunk and have to be cleaned off, and it gets all over your hands… So last time I decided to use my hot knife, after seeing a Youtube video on this, and while it worked really well, it made the most humungous smell which took a long time to get rid of!

This time, therefore, I decided on the Talc Method. I always keep a jar of unperfumed talk on my work desk as it has all sorts of uses. This time I sprinkled some on the craft mat and rubbed some on the blades of the scissors and cut out the stamps which I had already stuck onto the ultra-sticky surface. I put the clippings into the talc and kept adding more to my fingers and to the scissors, and the result was pretty good!

04 Mounting with Talc 26-7

Clean-up was easy afterwards – all the bits went in the rubbish bin and didn’t stick to my hands. I wiped off as much talc as I could from the surface of the stamps, and put them back on their packaging. The scissors had a bit of glue on them (minimal) and I used a quick spray of Stick Away from Crafters’ Companion (an essential part of my kit).

05 Crafty Individuals Locks and Keys Stamps Mounted 26-7

Nice job, eh?

More later, on how I use these things.

5 comments:

  1. Looking Good! I love those stamps & the moulds look great!

    ReplyDelete
  2. You are a real inspiration Shoshi xx

    ReplyDelete
  3. I do love your blog Shoshi - I so often find things I need to Google and wonder how I lived without - I'm going to look up 'hot knife' and 'Stick Away' spray this time - both sound intriguing! Last time I visited I noticed the Presspahn heat board in your side bar and have treated myself to one as I'm fed up with my cutting mats warping - it's fantastic and I meant to thank you earlier for putting the info up!
    Thank you so much for visiting my blog and leaving your kind comments - I hope you continue to feel a better after this last lot of chemo and fingers crossed you won't need the gloves for too long - mind you it might be difficult to cross them while wearing two pairs of them!!
    Take care,
    Diana xx

    ReplyDelete
  4. I've had the same experience as you. Love to buy unmounted stamps for the price, but it is a major chore to get them mounted. Thanks for the tip on the talc, I will try it next time I get brave enough to buy unmounted

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi Shoshi where do you get your EasyMold Silicone Putty and the Amazing Mold Putty from. I have had something similar in the past but it came in tiny jars and this looks to be a larger container. Angela x

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for your comments! They are much appreciated. Spammers, please be aware that I read and moderate ALL comments, and yours will be deleted before publication, so please don't bother!

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...