Making Duplicates of your Cool Embellishments

As I am making my versions of the 12 Tags of Christmas, as developed by Tim Holtz, and available for learning and viewing on his blog-and, seriously, for technique and style, these are not to be missed! (http://www.timholtz.typepad.com/) ...it occurs to me that I would like to have multiples of a lot of the items that are used...especially if I am doing some sort of swap......so I am turning to the Mold-n-Pour material ( a Ranger product) from which one can make multiples of any dimensional item...within reason, of course. The first thing to do is to make a little glob of each color, the same size, with each glob being about half the size of your item. (Thus, when mixed, it is the size of your item...I always go a tad bigger.) Then gently mix the two colors together, not crazy rubbing, just gently mixing, until you get all the same, light purple color. (pictures 1, 2, 3)

I took a bird charm, removed the ring at the top with the Tonic Tim Holtz scissors, and pressed the bird charm into the ball of mold-n-pour, nice and deeply, and drew the purple stuff up around the edges to form walls...you will want the bottom to be flat so the heated liquid doesn't go anywhere...usually I will make it on the back of a wood stamp, so I can set it aside for the seven minutes it usually takes to cure. You can tell it is done if you press your fingernail into the side and it doesn't leave a permanent impression. See the next three photos.

While it is curing, this is a good time to get out your melting pot, and, for this silver bird, I am using the platinum Ultra-Thick Embossing Enamel (now to be known as UTEE). Place it in the melting pot, at the highest temperature, and see it melt, as in the photos below. Once it is liquid, carefully pour into the mold. The pan itself is hot--be sure to be safe and use the handles on the outer edges. Let this sit until is is really set. Do NOT touch it with your fingers to test it...it could burn. Setting will take a minute or so...it always depends on the thickness of the item. The mold is rubbery, so it pulls away from the new charm easily, and the charm pops out, and is now fairly flat on the bottom, so it can be glued onto a project very easily.

The platinum UTEE makes a duller silver than I wanted, so I added a bit of Viva InkaGold in silver ---it just rubs on. The difference can be seen in the two photos.

I went on to play some more, now with the numerals from the metal number set. Make the mold, pour, in this case, white UTEE in. UTEE can be brittle, so for thinner pieces you can add a product called UTEE Flex (directions on jar.) When you remove the items from the mold, it is still possible to trim off unwanted pieces on the edges.

Go play! I will answer any questions you have...just leave a comment and I will check them each day. Melting pots, Viva products, UTEE, and Mold-n-Pour are available here and they may even be up on the web shop by now!