[Tools] Mod Podge Mod Melts and Molds

I am a fan of Plaid Crafts, particularly their Mod Podge line of products, decoupage art and all.  They have another product line called Mod Melts and Mod Molds that have been around for a couple of years but for some reason, I only took notice a couple of months ago.

I bought a bag of Mod Melts in milk glass white and the Ornamental mold from my craft buddy, Michaels.  The sticks resemble that of a glue gun stick but it is thinner and uses a hi-temp glue gun. If you're familiar to using a glue gun, it's basically the same so be careful not to burn yourself and keep your working area clean and free of dust and lint.

There are Youtube videos by Cathy and Steve demostrating how easy it is to use.  Yes, it looks nice but it takes practice to squeeze the right amount of glue in the mold and making sure that there are no air pockets.  The piece cools pretty quick and it pops out quite easily.  Then you can add color or paint and incorporate them in your projects.

I tried to use a cameo mold and compared using the Mod Melts vs using Premo Sculpey Accent Pearl Polymer Clay.  I wanted to compare the details and ease of use of the different mediums.

The photo on the left was done using Mod Melts in milk glass white and the cameo on the right was with Premo Sculpey Accent pearl polymer clay that was baked according to manufacturers specifications.  Which one do you like?

I had difficulty in squeezing the mod melt into the mold vs the polymer clay where I conditioned and rolled a ball of clay.  I also noticed that the details using the mod melt are not as distinct as when I used polymer clay.  Perhaps I used a "difficult" and too detailed mold for my mini experiment but I wanted to push its limit.  The mod melts harden faster and is ready in no time whereas polymer clay has to bake for about 20 mins.  The Mod Molds are very nice and detailed as well.  The quality is excellent!

Have you ever used Mod Melts or Mod Molds before?  How did it go?   Please share your experiences with me.

See  you soon!

♥ michelle

Heart to Art Recycled Deluxe Wall Decor [Nap Time Crafters: American Crafter]

Have you seen or ever heard of this great contest:  BE THE NEXT AMERICAN CRAFTER!  Check out Nap time Crafters to see what it's all about.   

Have you ever wondered what to do with all the Yellow pages directory that they keep on sending to your doorstep?  Do you want new ideas on what to do with your toilet paper roll?  Today, I will share with you a wall decor that's all that:  paper, tissue roll and mod podge.  This is my 'heart to art' take on that.
Instructions:
1.  Paper:  Use the colored tabs of the Yellow pages and cut 1 1/2 inches.  I used orange, red, blue and green tabs.
2.  Tissue Roll: 
     a.  Measure 1 inch and cut.  1 tissue roll will have 4, 1 inch segments.  Cut out 21 pcs or more as you can see later.
      b.   Measure 3/4inch segments and cut.  Make about 7-10.
3.  Apply a generous amount of mod podge on the tissue roll segment and wrap with paper.  Apply another layer of mod podge to create a clean and polished look.  If you are new to mod podge, you may want to read THIS.
4.  Flower:  Pinch 2 opposite edges of the wrapped segment to form a marquise shape.  Make 5 of these and adhere to one another (colored edge on top) as seen in the photos.  To complete the flower, crumple a small piece of paper and cover it to form a round shape.  Affix it to the center of the flower.

Steps to "Recycled Deluxe Wall Decor"

5.  Leaves:  Use green paper to cover the segments.

6.  Time to be creative:  I used 3 flowers and worked my way around them by adding leaves and round shapes.  I like wavy patterns so I did that here.  Finally, I stuffed them with white tissue paper to make them 'pop' against my hunter green wall. 

I hung the wall decor below my 2 frames.  Here it is:

RECYCLED DELUXE WALL DECOR