Homemade Embellies for Pennies!

Feb 10, 2011

2 min read

Phew, what a week! It has been so hectic around my house lately, I’m glad to finally have a chance to slow down and just breathe. My favorite way to unwind is to play in my craftroom. While I was in the dentist chair Monday I had an idea: I wonder if I could make some cool embellishments in my clay molds with hot glue…ya know what? I sure can!

I used some digital stamps from the Love Grows and Posh ‘n Trendy sets as focal points on my card. the pretty double-sided paper is from GSD Studios, I couldn’t pick which side to use so I cut the paper a little longer than I needed, punched the edge and folded it back on itself to make a pocket and stitched it with my sewing machine, I great way to fully use your double-sided paper {It’s just too pretty to hide the backside!} I used Copic markers as my coloring medium.

Tip: If your papers and embellishments don’t quite match try tinting them with the markers you colored your stamps with as I did here. I colored the red {punched} bird with markers after seeing the paper did not show up too well and the sentiment that looked to stark when it was white. I also used them to color my hot glue charms.

To make some nifty hot glue embellishments you will need:

Make sure you use silicone molds because the glue will stick to ceramic or plaster and it will melt plastic molds (Don’t ask me how I know.) 🙂

All you need to do is lay the mold on a flat surface and squeeze hot glue into the molds. Let cool completely, the large the mold the longer it will take. The letter tiles took a minute but the Celtic knot took more like 5 minutes to cool.
There are a few ways to color your embellies, you can use alcohol ink, or alcohol ink markers. My Copics worked great and they matched my card perfectly! After I colored them I drybrushed a little acrylic paint over it to bring out the detail. You could just paint it with 2 coats of acrylic paint if you want a solid opaque color too.

Variations on a technique:

Try writing or drawing with your hot glue gun on a silicone mat to make a custom title or embellishment for you next scrapbook page.
Make fake “wax” seals by squirting out a gob of glue on a silicone mat and pressing a rubber stamp in it. Leave the stamp in the glue until it is cool then peel off the glue. Be sure to ink up the stamp with clear ink or glycerin first so the glue does not stick. This looks amazing!

I love all that you can do with hot glue! With Valentines day on Monday you might be scrambling around for ideas for cards and classroom favors. Here is a look at the sets I used today and some other sets you can use to make quick and easy valentine projects: