Have you heard of “Mod Podge Mod Melts by Plaid?” Well if you haven’t, it’s a relatively new craft product on the market in which you can use in your hot glue gun to fill molds with. Do you want to hear a Secret? They are almost identical to using hot glue gun sticks! We didn’t think it would be fair to not tell you that hot glue works just as good! If not better! So why is this Big News? Because Hot Glue is cheaper, and our molds work as well as the Mod Melt Brand, plus we have a LOT more to choose from! We have 1,000 molds to choose from. Don’t make what everyone else is making, create something that’s unique. Let’s get started! FILLING MOLDS First things first:  • Both our flexible and hard molds work with Mod Melts or Hot Glue. • Both Mod Melts or Hot Glue can be used with these instructions. Gather supplies: • Get your molds out! • Cooking spray oil • Hot glue gun* (plug it in) • Mod Melts or... • High temp glue sticks (colored or clear) *Make sure you use a hot glue gun, because you will need the extra cooling time to fill your molds. If you use glue sticks instead of Mod Melts there’s no need to clean out your gun to use it with a new product. Step-by-Step: 1. Spray your molds with cooking spray. 2. Heat your glue gun is as hot as it gets. 3. Squeeze into your molds filling each mold cavity. Be careful to try to get the glue into all of the crevices, and try not to overfill the molds. The excess Mod Melt around the shapes can be trimmed with a craft knife or sharp pointed scissors, and can be avoided by filling the mold a little less generously. 4. Let dry for 5 to10 minutes and then pop them out with the tip of a knife or your fingernail. Remove all traces of the non-stick spray oil before painting. The finished embellishment can be finished with FolkArt acrylic paints, shimmer mists, alcohol inks, glitter, metallic paints, pearl paint and even embossing powders.  You could even leave them white or clear by not painting them at all. Good Tip: By first painting the embellishment a solid color, and then pouncing or dry brushing over the base color with another color helps highlight the details of your finished pieces. What adds to the appeal of making your own embellishments is being able to insert a string, pin-backs, bobby pin, or other feature into the embellishment before it hardens so that it dries around the feature to become a solid piece. You could add jump rings or a bezel into the back of the castings to make quick jewelry as well. Our take on Hot Glue vs Mod Melts Here’s our experience using Mod Melts products to make resin-style embellishments and how to make your very own knock-off versions using hot glue instead for a fraction of the price! So what are Mod Melts? They are made by Plaid (the makers of Mod Podge) Mod Melts are meltable sticks to use in your hot glue gun and melt into small sized molds.  These make resin-style embellishments for to use in various crafts, scrapbooking, jewelry, hair accessories, etc. I was really intrigued by them - especially because you could paint them using a variety of finishes to make them custom colored, metallic, glittery, etc.  No more buying big assortments of resin shapes just to get a few in a certain color or shape.  And just making what you need, when you need it, sounded good.  The concept was pretty simple.  Just heat a stick in a high temp glue gun and trigger the melted goo into the molds.  After 10 minutes they're hardened and ready to paint.  I learned you have to work super fast - the stuff sets in seconds, so it's a bit tricky to get into the little crevices in the detailed shapes and to avoid air bubbles.  Opposite to the directions (that said to start in the middle), I started in the nooks and crannies after a few dud results.  They started turning out better, but I noticed I went through a lot of the material pretty quick.  16 mini sticks cost about $6.99.  4 sticks made about 2 dozen pieces, but not all turned out usable. The big surprise for me was that they weren't super hard like resin shapes, more rubbery, like dried hot glue. And that got me thinking... why not try that?  So I did.  And guess what?  It worked just as well, if not better.  I just used my high temperature sticks & glue gun.  The glue took a little longer to start to set, so it was easier to fill in the shapes and knock out any air bubbles.  It also didn't take a full 10 minutes before it could be popped out - I did in about 5 minutes, so I could get to painting right away. And they painted up great - I actually noticed the paint coverage seemed better on the hot glue shapes. I also noticed painting with many coats and using textures like glitter helped hide imperfections on both the Melts & glue varieties. The point of being able to make your own custom embellishments seems kind of negated when everyone is using the same 4 molds, so using our molds seems like a no-brainer. The results were just as good with the glue. Just be sure to use cooking oil before filling hard molds with glue. Price-wise, the regular glue sticks work out to be about 1/4 of the cost or less, so I can go crazy making embellishments and still keep it cheap.  I thought this little discovery was worth sharing, so you can save too! The finished Mod Melts could be added to favors, napkin rings, cards, thank-you notes, and party decor, giving a very professional and cohesive look on a budget.