Silicone Molds

This crafting stuff can be very expensive, so many toys to try out so little money. But, there is always a way, and if you are prepared to do research, and hunt the internet, and experiment, then really there isn't much that you cannot do 'on the cheap'

Recently I came across a video on youtube, where the lady made her own silicone molds using bathroom sealant.

THIS ONE... is the video that I watched, but I noticed that there are lots.

I bought just a small tube of white bathroom sealant to try out this method, I got mine in the £1 shop. In the video the lady says to mix this with a powder of your choice, baby powder(talc), baking powder or cornflour. This is to take away the sticky of the silicone, and make it form into a dough like ball.


I used cornflour, as that is already in my craftroom.

Coat your hands with a little vaseline to prevent the silicone sticking to you.

I emptied  the tube onto a non stick mat, and poured on a generous amount of cornflour, then started to mix it. Just keep adding cornflour till it forms a non sticky dough.

I then rolled it into a ball, pressed it down, and immediately pushed in my embellishments. I rubbed on a little vaseline to each embellishment before pushing into the 'dough'

Then leave aside to set. The video says 12 to 24hrs. I would say that mine was dry within about 4hrs, but it was very,very warm weather. So best to leave it longer just in case.

Once set, the embellies popped right out, the only one that stuck a little was the one that I forgot to coat in vaseline.

I fine the quickest and easiest filler to use is hot glue, and this super hot glue gun from PaperArtsy is perfect for this job. Fill them up and leave them to set. 

Hot glue can get a bit stringy, don't worry those bits can be trimmed off.

Just like a regular silicone mold, you just flex in your hand and the embellies pop out. 

Here they are as them came out, some have extra bits of glue that need trimming off. 

After trimming and a little sanding. 

I painted each with a little  Fresco French Roast You can see the details starting to show now. 

But look at how they really pop once you add Treasure Gold..

Close up of a couple.. 

Totally impressed with this technique and I will definitely do this again. 

Edited to add.. of course you don't have to use a hot glue gun, you could use UTEE, beeswax, friendly plastic or paperclay. Whatever modelling medium that you have. 

Glue Gun Review

Years and years ago, I am thinking around 20 yrs... I bought a hot glue gun. I thought it was the bees knees, it was small and light , got hot really quick and the glue sticks were cheap. I glued everything in sight. Over the years I used it less, but i was always happy to know it was there for those jobs where only hot glue will do. Definitely a staple in anyone's craft cupboard. 

Sadly last week I was using my relic of a tool, the glue wasn't running, the trigger was getting stiff and the project i was working on was an epic fail. I feared the worst, the poor old thing was giving up on me...and then kaput, it gave up and went to the great glue gun party in the sky. 

For something that I didn't use that much it was actually quite sad to see it go. I started looking around for a new one. There are so many, and so many prices and sizes and types of glue and even ...get this..COLOURS.. of glue. I had no idea you could get coloured glue. 

So after lamenting my loss I was super lucky to be offered a new glue gun by the lovely people at PaperArtsy. It arrived at 7 am this morning. It's not often I get out of bed for anything at that time of the day, but so glad I did. 

This glue gun is awesome.

However before I got to the awesomeness I had a full on fit of laughter at the size of the glue sticks. They are mahoosive, who knew they came so big. They actually had me chuckling all morning. 

Here is the gun as it arrived..

and just look at these glue sticks, they are a hefty 12mm in diameter and 285mm long. that's enough glue to keep you going for ages. 

So, what did i think of the glue gun...back to the awesomeness, because it really is. The gun itself , although billed as industrial, is in fact very light. The trigger is more than double the size of the trigger on my old gun, this makes it very easy to use. 

..on my old gun the trigger was pulled by only one finger, this new one has a trigger big enough to comfortably fit 4 fingers, giving you much more control. ideal for anyone with joint problems in their fingers..

You can see in the photo that the gun slips onto a stand, I found it very stiff to remove at first, but after a few times it slid into place and back off without too much effort. Though to be fair, the whole thing is still so light even while attached to the stand, that i would probably use it with the stand still on. I wouldn't recommend taking the stand off and discarding it, as the gun gets very hot and if you were to lay it down on your table it could cause damage. The stand is very useful.... and something that my old gun did not have at all. 

It didn't take long to heat up, the instruction leaflet suggests waiting 5-7 minutes and I would say that is about right. I kept a close watch on the gun, waiting to see the moment when the glue starting to drip out...

 It didn't!

Marvellous, no annoying drippage all over my craft mat, and no wastage of glue. 

The glue once pulled through is very runny, and stays runny long enough for placement and adjustment. 

So how can you get one of these guns???

They are not currently on the PaperArtsy site... but you can ring them direct to order..

44 (0)1277 212911

As of today they only have 3 in stock, so  if this is a purchase that you are thinking of making then ring them soon. They do however have lots of gluesticks in stock. 

So what did I make... Well, i didn't have any projects that needed 'sticking together', so I thought I would make some embellishments. 

When the glue was good and hot, I let it flow into some silicone moulds. 

Leave the glue to set fully..

flex the mould and the glue embellishment will just pop out. 

Now take your favourite colours of TREASURE GOLD and brush it on, once dry add a highlight shade. 

It does take a bit of practice to get the moulds full without too many airbubbles, as you can see I  got air bubbles in the face, but in my opinion that just gives them more character. 

I did the same with these flower/button moulds.. sometimes there is a little excess glue on the edges, this is trimmed off easily with scissors. 

Just look how the Treasure gold picks out all the details, that the glue has perfectly captured. 

I hope you found this useful, go on treat yourself to a glue gun and have a play.