Mono-Printing Fun!

Hey Stampers!  This is Robin Redd, here, with today’s post.

SinCity Stamps is partnering up with Composimold this month.  I was stumped with ideas on what to mold with this product.  After much research I found the perfect alternative to molding with Composimold.

I made my own mono-print gel plate!   

I simply heated the Composimold in the microwave for 3 minutes, poured it into a casserole pan that had no markings on inside so the mold would come out completely smooth.

I had forgotten to put in a release agent, but it came out of the pan super easy.  

 This one measures about 8” x 11”.

This is a great project to use up some of those acrylic paints you might have around in your stash.

Simply pour a couple colors of paint onto the plate and smooth out with a rubber brayer.  You can use some other kind of tool, like a spatula, as long as it doesn’t have any sharp edges.

I used some old sketch paper and laid it over the plate and smoothed it out with my hand.   

When I lifted the paper, this is what I got!

Next I placed a stencil on the plate, put paper on top of that, 

smoothed it out with my hand and got this fun print.

I removed the stencil from the plate, laid another piece of paper on it and came up with yet another print.

Now, onto a new color.

I got this pretty print with some residue of the previous colors on it.  I like this one!

I had this fun die-cut sheet of paper I place on the plate and made this beautiful print.

Here’s the residue on the plate from the last print made.

I picked up the rest of the paint onto this paper.

I love dots and circles!  I placed a stencil on the plate and spread paint over it.   

Lifted the stencil and this is what I got.

I placed an already printed paper over the painted stencil (can’t waste paint!), and got this print.   

You can get so many different looks.  The possibilities are endless.

When you are finished, just wiped down with water and a paper towel.

But, what to do with all these pretty prints?  Well, you can use them as background on a layout.   

Cut shapes out of them and put them on a card.  Tear them up and use them on a collage.

Me?  I made envelopes with some of my prints!   I took a thin piece of patterned paper and made an envelope with We R Memory Keepers Envelope Punch.

I trimmed down some papers that I had printed up on my new mono-printing gel plate 

and decorated my envelope.

I added some doodle lines along some defined shapes.

I, then, used some Project Life cards for address labels.

Now, I have some envelopes ready to send out for some happy mail.  

I can’t wait to play with my new mono-printing gel plate again.  And!....if you want to use the Composimold to make a mold, just tear up the gel plate, place it in the container, reheat it to use it as a molding compound.  Then you can make a gel plate again, when you’re ready for some more monoprinting.

Amazing….simply amazing!

Until next time...

~Robin Redd

Steampunk Style Cards

Hello everyone.  Barbara here, and today I am going to share a couple of cards I made using Sin City Stamps and a really fun product  called Composi•mold reusable mold making material.  Okay, I was not sure about this product, but after I got over my fears, I jumped right in and I have to tell you, this stuff is sheer FUN!  It is easy to use, and absolutely mistake-proof because, if you don't like what you made, you can start over just by reheating the product.



I love making 3D embellishments and have always wished I had a way to make my stamped images come to life and more dimensional.  Well, here's the answer.  I was able to make molds of my Sin City Stamps, which allowed me to use whatever materials I choose to make these images 3D. I chose to use Creative Paperclay®.   I love it!

I found a wonderful video tutorial here which explains how easy it is to use.

http://www.youtube.com/user/ComposiMold

Supplies:

Sin City Stamps A Wing Above the Rest; Art Journaling with Terri Sproul 2

Composi•mold reusable mold making material

Creative Paperclay® air-dry modeling material

Mix'd Media ink (Leather) (Altered Pages)

Metallic Rub on creams (Altered Pages)

Regent Street paper collection (Recollections)

Black acrylic paint

Metal Gears (Tim Holtz)






Directions for Composi•mold:


Follow Composi•mold directions to mold your stamp images.  It is so simple, even a caveman can do it.

Next, choose a microwave safe plate that you will never use for food again and mist with either mold release or Pam cooking spray, which is what I had on hand.

Heat Composi•mold per package directions and pour contents over stamp image (face up) to about a ½" depth or slightly less.  It may seem like you are using a lot of product, but remember, this stuff is reusable, so there is no waste here.

After the Composi•mold has cooled, it will be ready to remove from the pan.  You can then remove your stamp by flexing the Composi•mold and carefully removing it.

I made my second mold at the same time using this image.

Now, to make your Creative Paperclay® stamped images, all you need to do is push the clay into the mold and let it dry a bit before removing it.  You do this the same way as you removed the stamp, but perhaps a bit more carefully as not to disturb the clay too much.  I always turn my mold over and, while using pressure, make sure the clay is really into the mold, and at the same time, making the back smooth and nice for layering.  Here is what it looks like through the Composi•mold.

The really cool thing about this being see through is that you can check your clay to see if you have gotten it into all those little nooks and crannies, unlike any other push molds.  After the clay is dry, you can trim off any excess clay around your image, and even sand if smooth, if necessary.



Now that my Paperclay® is dry, sanded, and trimmed, I can begin the next step.

I first painted each piece with black acrylic paint, making sure to cover all of the white clay.

To bring out all of the details of the Sin City Stamps, which are etched so well and worked fabulously for this project, I simply used my go-to-tool (my finger) and picked up various colors from these cool little metallic rub-on creams.

I used two and three colors to give it some interest, and in the closeups below, I think you will see what I mean about how well-etched the Sin City Stamps are, because the detail is just awesome.

For my first card, I cut my print paper to just less than 5" x 7" so that a tiny border on my card base would show.  I stamped the small swirl from the Art Journaling with Terri Sproul 2 plate in Leather ink along the top portion.  I also stamped STEAM from the A Wing Above the Rest plate in the same color ink.  Then I adhered that to my kraft card base.

Next, I die cut three gears from another print paper and because it had a design in resist, I again added some gold metallic rub-on cream over each gear.  It was subtle, but effective.  The gear on the right has not been colored yet.  

I added the gears, the now dimensional stamp image, and some metal gears to the card front.

For my second card, I cut my plaid print paper to just less than 5" x 7" so that a tiny border on my card base would show.  Then I stamped the script from Art Journaling with Terri Sproul 2

and the bricks from Art Journaling with Terri Sproul 2 over the print, as shown.  I am not real fond of plaids, so this made me much happier and I think added to the overall look.  I then edged the paper and layered onto my kraft card base.

I cut out some ephemera from one of the print papers, edged both with Leather ink, stamped Remember When from the Art Journaling with Terri Sproul 2 plate onto one, and adhered both to my card.  I used foam pop dots for the ticket.  I also added some metal gears for fun.

I hope you enjoyed my steampunk style cards today.  They would make wonderful masculine cards for all those men in our lives.



Thanks for stopping by, and be sure to check out the Sin City Stamps online store for all your stamping needs.  And while you are at it, hop on over to Composi•mold and check out their fun products as well.   I will be back in a couple of weeks with another fun project using this awesome material with Sin City's fabulous stamps!  And please visit me at my place, http://blackholeartstudio.blogspot.com



In the meantime, thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful, creative weekend.



Barbara

"Never Drive Faster Than Your Guardian Angel Can Fly"

My youngest child just passed the test to receive her driver's permit.  Once again I will be hitting the road with a new driver...starting in the parking lots and then making our way to the actual roadway (yikes).  It has been 6 yrs since I went through this with her sister and 9 since her brother, so (to be perfectly honest) I am a bit nervous to be venturing out again.  I am sure she will do a great job as she is the first of my children to pass the test on her 1st try...it is just the getting started that has me asking for help from up above.

With this in mind I looked through my many angel charms and doodads.  I found a small metal angel holding a heart...PERFECT!  I placed a small ball of clay on her backside and pressed her onto a metal tray, cutting away any clay that squished out.  The tray and angel were sprayed with a bit of PAM cooking spray and set aside.

This month we are working with a new product called ComposiMold (www.ComposiMold.com).  It is a molding material can be heated in the microwave and then poured over parts to form a mold that is extremely flexible (think firm Jello) and makes great impressions.  I melted the ComposiMold according to the directions, poured it into the metal tray covering the angel charm,

 

and then waited (this may have been the hardest part of this project!)...and waited...touch, wiggle, pull, WAY COOL!! 

The mold release worked perfectly and it came out without any rips or tears that I would have expected.

Now to pull out the polymer clay (I know, that is SUCH a surprise).  I placed the angel mold on my work surface before I rolled a small ball of clay.  Pressing it into the mold I discovered that the mold release was still at work and the clay wanted to move around quite a bit.  So I rolled a ball of clay again and then pressed it into the deepest part of the mold (the heart I thought) spreading the ball out to fill the entire mold.  When I pulled the angel out I discovered that the heart was a beautiful pull, but the face was none existent :-(  Second try I pressed the clay into the face first and then into the other areas...better impression than the first, but still not quite right. 

One more try gave me a perfect angel right down to the smile on her face!

 

I can tell I need a little more practice with this product.  If you look at the bottom of the angel's skirt you will see a bubble that I didn't notice until I used the mold.  As for the rest of the angel mold I am pretty happy with the precision it allows. 

 

Want to know the coolest thing about this molding product??  When you are finished with a particular mold, it can be cut up and put back into the container to be re-melted and turned into something completely different!  What a wonderful cost effective product this is :-)  So glad that I am able to experiment with it.

 

So, back to the Guardian Angel.  I used an exacto knife to cut away the excess clay.  The wings, hair, face, arms, and heart can be detailed with powders or ColorBox inks (note: I applied the inks after baking rather than before) to bring out the detail in each area.  Once finished the angel bakes at 275 degrees for 15-20 minutes.  Now she is ready to use on a card or hang from a keychain or make a pendant or perhaps a small magnet to attach to the car as we "fly" along. 

 

 

Wish me luck!

 

WildHeart Art ~"Texture" On The Edge~ SinCity Design Team project featuring "ComposiMold"

"Texture" On The Edge

Featuring ComposiMold

Being a mixed media artist, I had fun trying to come up with a unique idea to use ComposiMold. (ComposiMold is a wonderful versatile "melt-able" product which is used in projects to create molds for soap making, plaster casts etc.) in my mixed media  artwork and came up with several fun alternatives. One which will be highlighted in this post and the additional alternatives and final project will be revealed March 17th! So lets begin and have some fun!

Supplies

ComposiMold

Wax paper

Wooden popsicle stick

Cardboard roll ( I am using a very heavy duty roll)

Black Ink Pad

Finished journal page

1) Melt the ComposiMold in the  container microwave per instructions.

2) Dip the wooden stick into the melted ComposiMold and coat the stick . Drizzle over the tube to create a ridged texture ( designs and ways to apply can  be varied for interesting effects!)

3) Let this stand upright and dry for an hour or so.

4) When fully dried apply ink from an ink pad ( I used black but different colors would be fun too!) highlighting all the ridges with the ink.

5) Roll the tube back and forth on a finished journal page.

6) Here is how the random texture looks rolled out on a journal page below.

It is so easy to create this unique textured paper roll with ComposiMold! Next time I will show you some other fun mixed media items created with ComposiMold!

~In Love and Faith~

Sherri

                      *For other ideas on how to use the ComposiMold visit them here 

Repurposing rubber stamp text

This is from Karen at Starshine Salon.

The rubber stamp sets from Sin City Stamps are a really great deal, even if you don’t plan to use every stamp on the sheet.  And here's a way to use some of those phrases that aren’t quite right for your current projects.  I made these pendants using only single words from phrases in Sin City stamp sets.

 

If you want to use part of a phrase, you have several options.  You can stamp the image and cut away the part you don’t want.  You can mask the part you don’t want.  Or, if you are using unmounted stamps, you can cut out the part you want to use and stamp only that part!  And you can still use the whole phrase later.

I wanted to embed words in resin in the bowls of some brass spoons.  Some were part of longer phrases, so I just cut out the part I wanted from each.  Then I adhered them to an acrylic block with double-sided tape and stamped them with ColorBox Chalk Ink onto scrapbook paper.

 

“Believe” comes from the Angel of Time set.  I took “love” from the Dress Forms set and the Wings of Love set.  And “passionate” comes from the Rosette Hearts set.

I cut the words out and dabbed the edges of the rectangles with Chalk Ink.  Then I coated the front, back and edges with Mod Podge.  This seals the paper so the resin doesn’t soak through, leaving the paper opaque.

I prepared the spoons, adding patina, waxing and burnishing them, and punching holes for jump rings.  I cut the large ones in half and turned part of the stem into a bail for hanging.

Then I mixed ICE Resin according to the package directions.  This is a wonderful product!  You mix the two liquid components and they cure into a clear, permanent solid.  If you have been wanting to try resin but have been hesitating, I recommend you take the plunge! 

I floated the slips of paper in the resin.  I added some sead beads to one spoon.

To make sure the resin was level, I rolled up some aluminum foil and set the spoons on it.

Then I just let the resin cure!

These spoons are now pendants, and some of them have already gone to new homes!  And I was able to use stamps I thought might never be used!