"Painting" embossed images with condensed milk

Kate and Barbara were at it again today! We are stamping maniacs!

We decided to try a technique featured in "The Rubber Stamper"
(April/May 2003), which involved painting an embossed image with
sweetened condensed milk and using a heat gun to carmelize the milk. It
gives a lovely effect, and of course no two images are exactly the same.
Your colors are limited to something that goes with
cream/brown/yellow/rust, though! You can see all of our experiments in
a picture named "Milk_images" at:
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/drbarb.../ph//my_photos

Stamp an image and emboss it. Then use a paintbrush to paint the inside
of the image with condensed milk. Finally, heat the milk until it
starts to carmelize. Tips we learned:

1) Paint a thin layer. If it's too thick, it just bubbles really thick
like the butterfly in the upper left corner of the picture on the above
web page. The "thick" effect might be good for certain uses or
backgrounds, but we didn't like it so much inside the image. All detail
was lost.
2) Let the milk dry a little before applying heat.
3) Heat slowly. As soon as the milk starts to bubble up, pull away the
heat and let the bubbles settle back down. Then heat again. Pull away.
Repeat until you get the desired level of browning.
4) Directed heat can be used for a shading effect, such as the row of
pumpkins seen on our picture, where I made the top half of the image
darker than the bottom.

Those look really great but will they not eventually go off & begin to
smell or grow mold?

Do you use the condensed milk straight from the can or do you water it
down a little?

Liz

www.cornishheritagefarms.com

Liz wrote:
Those look really great but will they not eventually go off & begin to
smell or grow mold?

Since the heat cooks it real good, I think it's now essentially like an
enamel of sorts. It's pretty dry, and molds like moisture. All I know
is the card featured in Rubber Stamper must've lasted at least a couple
of months, from the submitter to the magazine which photographed it.
Guess we'll let you know :-)

Do you use the condensed milk straight from the can or do you water it
down a little?

We used it straight from the can. In fact, when I started to open the
can, enough leaked out onto the lid that we were able to just dip the
brush in the bit on the lid without even fully opening the can. As I
said, it really only takes a very thin layer. I'll have to use the rest
of the milk for brownies or something :-)

Barbara

Thanks. Next time I make caramel shortbread I'll clean out the can with
a paintbrush. My kids will think have I really lost it!
Liz
www.cornishheritagefarms.com

I think the sugar acts as a natural preservative.

That technique is gorgeous, thanks for sharing. I wonder what would
happen if you put food coloring in the condensed milk. I may have to
try that soon. If I do, I'll post here. I'm brand new to this group,
and I'm really glad that I came when the group is having a huge
upswing.

Kristina