Your melt pot and stamps

Now, to continue with our melt pot experiments, we can of course, use our stamps.  So many ways to use stamp!  You can pour your UTEE onto your non-stick craft sheet and stamp into it.  I love this technique, as when you pour you can also sprinkle more embossing powder into your utee.  Because of the heat, your powder will melt with no need to apply your heat gun.  You can use any stamp - as long as it will take the heat of course.  If you want colour, ink your stamp first.  Allow the stamp to sink into the UTEE - if you are using wood mounted just be careful not to get the UTEE stuck to the foam part as it can be trickier to release.  Allow the UTEE to cool slightly before lifting off the stamp.

You can also use your UTEE directly onto your stamp.  Pick a good background stamp for this, and make sure it is one that can stand the heat.  I ink mine first, with Versamark if you dont want any colour.  If I want a large sheet of patterned UTEE, then a pour a dollop onto the stamp and using your silicone tool, spread the UTEE down over the stamp.  It will cool really quickly and you will be able to peel it off the stamp.  It is a lot easier to peel off if you have an unmounted stamp, as you can bend the stamp away from the UTEE.

You can create a thicker piece of UTEE, just pour and leave.  Or you can create a perfect shape using a cookie cutter.  Pour a thick layer of UTEE onto your stamp, making sure it will be big enough for your cutter.  Whilst the UTEE is molten, pop your cutter into it and press down.  The cutter isn't sharp, so won't damage your stamp.  Keep testing the UTEE with your silicone tool to make sure it is cool enough to handle, and take away the cutter and peel off the stamp.  You may be able to actually snap the excess UTEE away from your cut shape - however you may need to cut it off, but it should come away easily.  If you wait for it to cool it will be a lot more brittle, and therefore may snap when you try and take the excess off.

Using your stamps with UTEE means you can create brilliant patterns, backgrounds and main embellishments.  If you need something that isn't brittle you may want to add Flexi to your pot.

Once the image has cooled, to emphasise the texture add a little of the gilding wax - it looks ace!!

Here's the links to the stuff I have been using on my web site:

UTEE HERE

Stamps HERE

Melt Pot HERE

Heat Resistant Craft Mat HERE

Gilding Wax HERE

The top image is the one peeled from the stamp, the lower one was cut with the cutter from the stamped image.