How to Mould with Friendly Plastic Designer Sticks

As a card maker and paper crafter, I love to create embellishments to add to my projects. And being on the Krafty Lady Design Team I have access to some of the best moulds available for that very purpose. These moulds are wonderful: apart from the fabulous array of designs, and the fact that they are made from silicone so nothing sticks to them, they are also very flexible, making demoulding a breeze. I've used these moulds to cast every kneadable or pourable medium I could lay my hands on including soap, wax, polymer clay, air dry clay, resin, Opals and UTEE. They've stood the test admirably and are as good today as they were when I first used them, literally hundreds of casts ago.

So today I'd like to share my method of moulding with Friendly Plastic using a heat gun. So let's begin:

Gather all the materials you'll need: Friendly Plastic, Krafty Lady art mould (I've used AM247 Leaf Med), Tim Holtz Tonic scissors (because they cut Friendly Plastic so easily), a heat gun and a bowl of cool water.

Cut a strip of Friendly Plastic slightly larger all around than the mould cavity.
Place it in the mould cavity foil side down.Heat it with the heat gun until it turn glossy..........and begins to slump down into the mould.Dip your finger tips from both hands into water - it's amazing how often you accidentally touch the Friendly Plastic with your non-moulding hand and it sticks to you. Press the Friendly Plastic down in the mould making sure you push it into all the nooks and crannies. Place the mould and Friendly Plastic into the bowl of cool water and leave it to set (usually about 30 seconds).Once it's cooled, remove it from the water and you'll find the Friendly Plastic cast will just lift out of the mould. Here's the finished cast. If you were adding this to a papercraft project you could leave it as a rectangle so that you have something to attach it to your page or card with. Pritt Power Gel or strong double sided tape should do the trick. If you prefer to trim the excess away, then look for silicone adhesive to fill the back of the mould (my favourite is Helmar) but if you need something archival then choose Scrap Dots (also by Helmar).

For jewellery projects, try drilling a hole through the leaf stalk once the piece is cooled.

You can download and print this tutorial in pdf format from the tutorials page at Mill Lane Studio.

Happy casting!