Your resin moulds are quite an investment in your resin hobby so you want to make sure that they last a long time. After you've been resin crafting for a while, you'll start to get quite a collection of moulds. No matter what type of moulds you have, they won't last forever. But if you look after them, you'll get many, many casts from them.  So, let's break this down into the two main types of moulds you'll use with resin :    PLASTIC and SILICONE ,   and look at what the best practices are for caring for each type of mould . Plastic Resin Moulds Plastic resin moulds are inexpensive compared to silicone moulds but because they are vacuum formed, mould shapes are limited to simple shapes. Because the moulds don't have as much flexibility or stretch as silicone, they need to be wider at the top of the mould or straight-sided to remove resin from them. The plastic used in resin moulds is polypropylene. This is a type of plast......

When the resin bug strikes, you just want to get right into the casting. But if your moulds are grubby, you'll have to clean them first. So here's a really smart tip for keeping your silicone moulds in tip-top shape and always ready to go. When you're working with resin, it's important that all your equipment is clean so that you don't risk ruining your casts with contaminants. Clean cups, clean stir sticks and a clean workspace are all important. But what about your moulds? How do you clean glitter, mica powders and general specks of fluff and dust from silicone? Resin is like glue and anything that is in the mould when you pour the resin in will become part of the resin when you demould it. But cleaning moulds is EASY when you know this trick, even if your moulds looks as dirty as this! The front of this mould is just as bad. Just take a piece of sticky tape and place it on the surface. Rub your finger across the tape..... And then remove it. And voilà! All the sp......

Putting your craft skills to work is a great way to add one-of-a-kind personal touches to any special occasion. In our household, we're busy preparing for a wedding and being a crafty pair, my daughter and I decided to incorporate some handmade details to add that extra pizazz to her special day. One of the projects we're tackling is the bonbonnieres. Hers will feature a handmade polymer clay tag with a sentiment on it. It's a big undertaking to make 100 so to speed things up, we made a mould from silicone rubber. But before we get into making the mould, we created a master tag by following Marie Segal's tutorial from Art from my Heart. Marie suggests looking in the Mexican aisle for the alphabet noodles she uses to create her sentiments. In Australia, I found them in the Italian aisle. But no matter where you are in the world, look for something like San Remo's Soup Pasta . Begin by conditioning the clay and then place it between the wooden stir sticks and roll......

Shopping for men's gifts is one of the hardest shopping assignments there is. But when my twin nephews celebrated a milestone birthday recently, I knew exactly what to give them: a set of resin coasters featuring some of their favourite alcoholic beverages. They were a huge hit! If you find yourself with that male gift shopping dilemma (and with Christmas fast approaching, who doesn't?), then why not consider making your own set of coasters to give to the beer loving men in your life. If you're the hands-on type of person who would like to make your own mancave coasters, you can now buy the Beer Bottle Cap Resin Coaster kit and have the fun of doing it yourself.  Or if you want a set but don't want to make your own, I'll make them for you! Just send me an email . So here's what you get in the kit: a handmade flexible silicone mould (for easy demoulding) bottle caps to get you started self adhesive surface protectors for the back of the coaster complete instruct......