I have now spent a small fortune on silicone molds!! Thank you for all the info. I sell a lot of these and hated making them with cookie cutters, which were such da headache.
Same here! Definitely prefer the silicone molds to the cookie cutters, which is unfortunate now that I have over 100 cookie cutters 😅 I actually just started making my own silicone molds and will be launching them to sell them soon so I'll definitely be slowly building up my own silicone mold collection 🤣
Thank you for all your wonderful, helpful educational videos. Very helpful for wanna be crafters. Exceptional, precise, to the point instruction. Mucho Gracias
I totally LOVE that monstera leaf! I'm gonna be on the search for one now...lol. I appreciate you so much for taking the time to help so many with their crafts. You're Awesome!!! 💗💯
I use a silicone lubricant spray on my metal cutters and it makes a huge difference in releasing when they’ve cooled so I don’t bend them all up. A lot of people seem to use cooking sprays and that seems like a bad idea since the oil can go rancid. Just sharing the tip. I get my spray from BISI.
Hi Erica.. I love the way you make the freshies with variety of designs. Is it possible to learn with you via a workshop or online zoom? Thanks a lot for the wonderful videos..
Hey! Thank you so much for watching & loving them! Yes, approximately. I've noticed some are more, some are less, depending on the thickness/depth. I just keep a close eye on mine.
Thanks for watching! So I pretty much just eye everything and know where I want it to hang from but with the molds where there's detailing in the bottom sometimes the nail doesn't cooperate and you have to wedge it in. Or just set it on top of the details if that makes sense. I'll show what I'm talking about in my next freshie video with a silicone mold for ya.
@@CreativelyErica Thank you! Quick question my first ones I baked them at 350 degrees for 15min and I overcooked them what temperature you recommend doing the next ones?
I cannot get silicone to work for me. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong. I have tried 300, 310, 350 from 10-15 minutes and then I use a metal one from the same batch of beads and it’s perfect ! So frustrating the beads fall out from the bottom or in the middle when I pull it out of the mold. But appears to be baked completely when I finger touch
Uh oh! That's so weird, I haven't had that happen (atleast yet). If the beads are falling out from bottom/middle, makes me think they're not melting completely through. So if it were me, I'd try baking lower for longer, like 275⁰ for 20-25min maybe? That amount of time seems crazy to me but might be worth a try. Or maybe don't fill the mold up as much? Hope that helps! Definitely keep trying and come back to let us know what works/what doesn't.
Great question! Yes, some of them are made with a type of silicone/rubber that have a maximum temp that they can withstand - so they aren't oven safe and can melt when baked. Just make sure you read the product descriptions thoroughly & you'll be good.
@@CreativelyErica Oh I see, yes that would be a problem 😅 I work with resin & we're blessed to have so many different moulds we can use. There's lots of interesting food grade moulds too, can you use those, I mean as they're meant to go in the oven and all.
Yes, in my experience, all of my food grade molds are oven safe and work great. I've bought a lot of mine by typing in "silicone baking molds" or something along those lines.
When a freshie runs out of scent can you refresh it? I tried adding fragrance oil and my freshie in a ziplock bag but it didn’t really work. I think the oil stuck to the baggie. Maybe a hard air proof container? Thanks.
Unfortunately there's no way to refresh it. I wish though!! Basically whenever you're curing your beads the aroma beads absorb the fragrance oil (usually 30% of their weight) so they won't absorb any after they've absorbed all they can. Plus after you bake them, you're melting the beads together so it'd be impossible to make them reabsorb after being melted down. Hope that helps.
I have a question. What brand bags do u use to store the Freshies in. And could u post a link where u get them. Maybe Amazon? I have heard some bags absorb the Freshie smell and I can’t store them long? 😊
Not sure what brand they are, as they're just a random one I found on Amazon. Link for them is in my video description (above). I've heard others say that too but I also don't have my freshies on the shelf for that long so I don't worry about that (plus not sure if that's even true, I just don't listen lol). Those are typically the same people that tell me to not use my oven to bake them😅
Ooooh if I had the equipment I totally would. It's my understanding that most of them are made with a 3d printer that uses silicone. It's crazy cool but super expensive. I'll have to do some more research but if there's another (cheaper) way to make them, I will totally show y'all 😊
Interestingly that's what I was going to ask. I was going to say that if you had any cookie cutters that you loved, just make a silicone mold out of it. It's inexpensive, you can add fine glitter and mica to make them "pretty" like the ones you got, and that way your collection of silicone molds will grow much faster. It is not a difficult process at all. There are lots of videos on the subject. I believe you'd essentially make a "freshie" out of polymer clay, smooth it out and even cut out decorations or lines or whatever to dress it up, then get maybe one of those big big cookie cutters (enough to fit the freshie with a little space around the whole thing. Most silicone mold making kits I see are a simple 1:1 ratio. Mix it up and pour it over. After curing (12 hours?) Pull it out of the big cutter, then trim it down. I mean I have never made one, but I've watched a few videos myself to learn to make my own, and I'm sure it isn't rocket science! ☺
Hey I was just wondering in your first video with the metal cookie cutters you said 4 oz of aroma beads- 1 TBS. In this video you said 3 oz- 1 TBS. Was that a mistake or did you find 3 oz with 1 TBS worked better?
I always do 3 or 4 depending on the scent I use. I know some are stronger than others. And some even take longer to cure, so I'll do 3 with those. But if the scent is super strong I'll do 4. I don't think it really matters though.
I like the measurement of aroma beads to fragrance oil. For every four oz of beads, you use 1TBS of oil. From watching other videos I’ve learned 1oz of fragrance oil to 4oz of beads. Do you think I’m wasting oil?
They won't melt unless you're using them wrong or using the wrong supplies. Maybe I can ease your mind this way, I bake mine at 300⁰, the inside temp of a car on a HOT summer day parked in the sun reaches about 140⁰-ish, still less than half the temp that you're making them at. Also the only stories I've heard about people having melted freshies (not from any that I've sold, but other freshies makers have shared their stories with me), one accidentally put one of those silver sun visors in her windshield all day, parked in the sun, and the freshie got caught between the visor and the windshield- smooshing it and basically baking it on the foily side of the visor, pressing against the hot windshield. The only other story I've heard is someone's string broke (they were trying to save money and bought a cheaper (thinner) elastic string, so the weight of the freshie and heat snapped the elastic, the freshie fell on their black leather dash and baked there, it didn't melt, just got super soft she said and left an oily residue mark on the dash. But again, only because her string was cheap to begin with. I obviously don't know what products everyone is using so I can just speak on mine, but I've been making them for years & never had a freshie melt before and I used to live in Florida. If you're scared though maybe you need to make some for your car first and test em out first to ease your fear.
@@CreativelyErica thank you! I live in Utah. Maybe I shouldn't stress about it. Any recommendations on how to put the elastic in the hole a little easier?
@@ivetten8502 you're so welcome! Yes, sometimes I'll use some fishing string to help me thread it through. Kind of hard to explain but I tie my elastic cord like normal then take a piece of fishing line, (you can use any type of fine/thin string) and I just thread it through the elastic loop and thread the fishing string through my freshie hole and pull the cord through. I hope that makes sense!
