CHA Recap - Making Some "FUNctional" TOOLS using Amazing Mold Putty...

Here's another one of my "AMAZING" adventures using Amazing Mold Putty that was on display at Winter CHA last week in the Amazing Mold Putty Booth #2252. If you had a chance to visit the booth - I hope you took a few minutes to play with the product and cast something yourself.

This project is a little off the wall...but definitely out of the box! For anyone that knows me knows I love PURPLE, not lavender - purple {like grape jelly} and that I love my tools. I have a gadget to do pretty much everything. My crafty friends call me if they need a tool for something they want to create.

Today's project is catering to all my crafty STAMPING friends. If you stamp, you will appreciate today's project. I started a with this antique stamp holder I picked up at my local artist salvage center Trash 2 Treasure. It came with a couple old rubber stamp handles in varying sizes. So knowing that I wanted to have a complete set of handles for my blending foam and alcohol inks...I decided to cast my own in Amazing Mold Putty. Between the handles that came with the spindle {like T!m Holtz has}, and a couple I already had...I had six. I was off and running.

Please see accompanying image number(s) to go along with written instruction/description.

Photo 1: I gathered all of my handles of varying sizes. Photo 2: With razor blade, gently slice off old decayed rubber stamp and mounting. Photo 3: I glued my handles to my glass cutting mat with hot glue. This is so they are level and they would not move around as I put the putty around them {see Photo 4}. This was a good idea as it resulted in a nice flat surface on the open end - but I lost some control over seeing where I was leaving open areas. I ganged them this way thinking it would use less putty and make it easier when pouring resin. In hindsight, I would probably make separate molds next time - it was quite tricky getting the cured resin out.

To mix up Amazing Mold Putty, I followed the simple illustrated instructions on the packaging. If you want a more in depth how-to of mixing Amazing Mold Putty please click here. Photo 5: For this project, I needed to make a lot of putty to cover the entire piece, so I make several small sections and overlapped them due to the quick setting cure time. Photos 6, 7, 8 and 9 of following photos show the mold build-up process. Photo 10: View underneath completed mold. Photo 11: Using a spatula, I gently pried the mold and glued handles from the glass mat.

NOW FOR THE CASTING with the Amazing Clear Cast Resin:
 

 

Please see accompanying image number to go along with written instruction/description.

Photo #12: Completed Amazing Mold Putty mold prior to removing stamp handles. After about a half hour, I gently removed stamp handles from mold. It's recommended to dust the mold with some type of release agent, especially if there is a lot of fine detail. I didn't think I needed this for this resin, yet it would have greatly helped in ease of removal cured resin. Photo #13: After measuring liquid needed by filling mold with water, I mixed just one drop of Red Alumilite Dye and one drop of Blue Alumilite Dye into PART A of Amazing Clear Cast Resin. This resulted in a pretty purple color {when cured it turned a dark violet, almost cobalt blue color}. Photo #14: Mixing together part A and part B of Amazing Clear Cast Resin stirring slowly and mixing thoroughly. I let rest a few minutes to let air bubbles escape. Photo #15: Prior to pouring resin, I placed objects into the mold: purple glitter, assorted colored beads, googly eyes, dichroic beads, and misc. computer parts and screws. This was the fun part of customizing my tools. Then I gently poured the completely mixed two part resing into the molds. The googly eyes decided to float.

After much filing and sanding of rough edges, here are my completed CUSTOM tools. Ready for adhering velcro to apply blending foam or alcohol ink applicators. My stamp handles are fun and just make me giggle - they have PERSONALITY!!! I plan to make more in different colors, embedding other found objects & cleaning out those things in the craft drawer saved for a rainy day!

This photo is taken on a light table, so that the beautiful color is visable.

Check out this cool set of custom handles that I made. Can you guess who these are for??? They were hand delivered and brought huge smiles all around at CHA.

I hope you enjoyed this project. I encourage you to visit the Amazing Mold Putty blog to see the many AMAZING projects from my fellow Amazing Mold Putty Design Team members for some great tips and ideas!

If you have any questions, please leave a comment, select receive e-mail follow ups on comments and I will respond. If you would like to see more of my creations, please hang around a while and stroll around my blog. Happy Crafting : )