More Fun with Jumping Clay - Martha Stewart Moulds

The other day I saw the new Martha Stewart moulds on Create & Craft and they were being used with melted embossing powder which I thought looked good but thought nothing more of it (mostly because I have so much craft stuff already and would want to then buy a Ranger Melt Pot which I'd probably use once and then it would sit gathering dust). 

However..... on Thursday they had the molds on again but this time they were using them with Martha Stewart clay. This is a new clay which air drys and apparently is made of paper so it's really light and from looking at it I thought it seemed very similar to Jumping Clay so wondered if I could use it with the moulds to make card embellishments. I watched a bit longer and then found that for under £10 you got 4 molds in each set which really tempted me.....so I had a look online and found them a bit cheaper from an eBay store I've used a few times and postage was free too so I brought them and they arrived this morning.

The moulds I went for were the sweet shop set which comprise of a strawberry, cherry with stalk and leaves, bows and a cupcake. The molds are made of silicone so you can twist the mould the help ease the item out and also means you can use them with melted embossing powder.

I got my pots of Jumping Clay out and had a little play with the moulds. I found that I did have to work the clay in my hands a bit to dry it a little as very moist clay stuck to the mould a bit. I tested the small bow first as wanted to only use one colour so I could re-do the bow if it didn't work (if I had of done the strawberry or cherry I would have ended up mixing the colours and then wouldn't be able to re-use it).

Below is the best way I found of making embellishments with the moulds and Jumping Clay.

To start with choose an easy, simple design, I chose a bow and went with the blue Jumping Clay.


Press a mound of Jumping Clay into the mould you want to use. Use a little more clay than you need as this helps when getting it out without distorting it.

Press the Jumping Clay into the mould, trying to make the back as flat as possible.

To get the item out bend the silicone mould. This one just popped out when I squeezed the sides but you may need to bend in a few directions to get more intricate pieces out or use a tool to help get it out. (Please ignore the headache tables I had a migraine coming on and my husband just brought me a cup of tea and headache tablets into the study).

You will now have your shaped clay. Sometimes you get creases in the item where you've not pushed it into the mould enough but I just usually push it back in the mold and press a bit harder then get it out again. You can see this a little in the bottom left hand corner of the bow.

 Now to get rid of the clay round the edges I used a pair of scissors to cut the large bits off then smoothed the edges with my fingers.

 You are then left with your embellishment. The white specks on the bow is actually embossing powder which I didn't realised was still on my craft mat and I'd put the clay down on it while taking a photo of the molds.

 Then it's just a case of waiting for the clay to dry. Below are a few of the embellishments I made. I still need to work on the large cherries and strawberry  as they were harder to get out of the moulds but may try putting some talc/cornflour/glitter or something in the mould first to stop it sticking (I think glitter may be quite nice as it would give a nice sparkly embellishment).

I did try to use the moulds with some embossing powder after watching the video by Sugar and Spice  Crafts (below) but tried with normal embossing powder rather than the WOW Melt It (which is thicker) and then gave up after my husband got involved (he said that the heat gun wouldn't be hot enough so put it on the gas hob, then used a lighter as said I needed to use a flame....he is a jeweller though so is use to melting metals etc in a similar way). I'm going to pop into Sugar and Spice and get some Melt It and try again but use a peg on my foil tray rather then using tweezers so it's easier to hold.

I love these Martha Stewart moulds but wish they were food safe as they would be great for putting on cakes (the packaging doesn't say they're not food safe but on TV they said they weren't). There are lots of other moulds available from Martha Stewart including flowers, frames etc. I brought mine from http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Make-or-Take as they were the cheapest and I've brought from them before. The Jumping Clay is available from http://www.jumpingclay.co.uk 

I'm going to use my finished items on cards and gift wrapping as embellishments and as the clay is light it shouldn't add too much weight to my cards. I'll attach it with silicone glue to my projects to ensure it sticks properly.  

All the above items were brought by myself and I've not been paid etc to use or review these items.