OK -back from Meijer with a brand new cake stuff dedicated heating pad! I just did a bow impression mat on the heating pad WORKS LIKE A CHARM!! The gelatin is completely even across the whole sheet!! THANK YOU BWB!!!
Now, on the other hand, I thought it would work out for the butterflies too....not so much. They worked better NOT on the heating pad.
Now I have to patiently wait for it to dry to see how nice the bow strips turn out!!!
OK. At the risk of sounding quite stupid, What is a heating pad? What is it normally used for?
Here is a picture of my first gelatin bow. I am ordering mats today to try to make it easier. I have been practicing on the meantime on anything I have around with a texture on it! Maybe by the time I get the mats I will be much better.
SharonK - that bow is beautiful!!! I LOVE that color too - we had cake club last night and one of our members made sheets of the gelatin so each of the members could make one.....that peach was one of them, but someone (twingirls05....) got to it before me! 
You did a GREAT job on that - what did you use for the texture on it?
OK - heating pad....go to the pharnacy department and look where the ankle/wrist braces and stuff like that are heating pads will be really close by. You use them on sore muscles! (they are literally a pad that stays a constant temperature - you plug them into an outlet!)
When I used it - I set mine on a cooling rack (so air could circulate under it) then put a piece of wax paper on top of the heating pad - then the impression mat. I turned it on high - it wasn't warm enough on the 2 lower settings. It kept the gelatin in a nice liquid state - not completely liquid, just right - until I took it off the heating pad. It is gonna work out great!
My name is Cindy - my drug of choice (right now) is gelatin.......
Lou...Thanks for answering my clueless question! I guess I am headed to walmart or walgreens for a heating pad!
You wouldn't believe what I used for that texture! Shelf liner from IKEA!
You COULD eat them if you wanted to (unflavored gelatin and water)....I have heard that Diane and Michaelle are working on a recipe to have them flavored - not sure if that will be in their book or not.
BTW - you cannot use jell-o it has to be PLAIN-UNFLAVORED gelatin. NO sugar. The reason being is the sugar makes things all sticky and it doesn't work out well. (just passing this info on)
Ok, here's a question. Once the gelatin is set up, which doesn't take very long, can you take it off & set it on some plastic wrap or wax paper to finish drying? I'm not sure that would be possible to manage w/ the thin stuff for the bows (although it would be great if it did!), but I have a use for some thicker stuff, & that would save some time...
After it has set - you can take it out of the bowl - (I do, and I put mine in a ziploc bag to store it). You will have to see how well it will dry though - I am not sure it would completely dry before it grew things???
You can't remove the bows, flowers, butterflies from the sheets until they are completely dry - I have tried and it ruins them.
Ok, here's a question. Once the gelatin is set up, which doesn't take very long, can you take it off & set it on some plastic wrap or wax paper to finish drying? I'm not sure that would be possible to manage w/ the thin stuff for the bows (although it would be great if it did!), but I have a use for some thicker stuff, & that would save some time...
It takes 4 to 6 hours at least for just the butterflies to set up. I let them set overnight. It's not like making Jell-O where that does set up quickly. It's done when it peels itself away from the mat, not before. So in light of that, the way you are describing it would ruin them, not save time. That's why I bought two kits because I like a LOT of butterflies (as you can see from my pix!) 
You can also buy the mats individually. Hope that makes sense! 
Oops....I thought she was asking about the gelatin in a bowl - NOT made into the butterflies/bows. (I pop mine out of the bowl and store it in the ziploc bag in the big "lump" that it forms after it just sets in the bowl) Then when I have time, I remelt it and paint it onto the mats.
Oh, maybe she is! 
It's hard to keep all the questions and comments straight when I fly through them at warp speed! Well I hope my comments can help SOMEONE!
I guess I'll just add that it takes less than two minutes to whip up a batch of the gelatin mixture, color it and make it ready to work with, so I just do it when I need it. No need to risk making a science experiment!
Is it just mine, or does everyone else's smell terrible when its being melted? Which shouldn't be a surprise considering what gelatin is made of.
Yep, it stinks! But if you're in a well ventilated area you cannot smell it.
I am odd one out on the smell - I can't smell it! (although those who live here tell me they can!)
I LOVE that heating pad trick, it works soo good.
I never have the "time slots" to get all of mine done in one shot - I have had several times where the gelatin has firmed back up and has to be reheated to use.
Another FYI - you can use a tart burner (and I think one of those electric coffee cup warmers would work too??) to keep the gelatin in a liquid state while using it.
You know it's funny, it not only stinks but it tastes TERRIBLE!! When I did the teal butterfly cake (in my pix) I told them "don't eat the butterflies, they are edible but they don't taste good." So the gal took them home and some guys at the party thought they were the tasty blue Jello and boy were they in for a rude awakening! Well hey, she told them -- don't eat the butterflies!
Yay, I'm so excited...I finally ordered my sheets. How long should I expect to wait before I get these? I can't wait to play too
I let one of my baking friends know about this. It just so happened that she had a Tuckerman's Ravine cake to make last weekend. Well she was so excited to try making a gelatin waterfall. She showed me pics and it came out great! I guess she just crinkled up foil and applied the gelatin with a spoon in the shape of a waterfall. So many uses, so little time!!!
Can't wait to try it! And thank you to everyone who teaches us such amazing things! I never would have dreamed this up in a million years! 
The electric coffee cup warmer works like a charm!! I now have the cup warmer AND the heating pad plugged in for my addiction. I am one hot momma with this stuff now, I am tellin' ya!!
I am working on a new one - it is different from the others I have done! I'll post it tomorrow.
I LOVE this place and all the fun we have sharing!!!
I bought gelatin tonight. I just got home from work a few hours ago. I mixed the stuff up with blue coloring (yes it DOES stink! UGH!) and I spread it out on my son's plastic sesame street placemat. I dont have anything else to really put it on so it wont be all pretty and textured but at least it gives me something to play with. 
If I can make a pretty bow Ill post a photo.
I was daydreaming about this all day. Thinking about making stained glass windows and car windshields and pretty butterfly wings. Every time I hear of a new trick I just have to try it. lol.
OK - this one is made with my brand new impression mat set from Cake Connection. It took 3 sheets of gelatin to make this one. It is HUGE. It is beautiful though!! It is going on a graduation cake - colors are orange and black. I actually cut the sheets for this bow lengthwise - and made the loops from those - I wanted to see how big I could get it and I am thinking no one will ever need a bow to be any bigger than this!! 
http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1369310&done=1
Not sure if you can see, but the gelatin is all nice and uniform in this bow - those new tricks really work great!
You can color them several different ways. You can color the gelatin itself while it is in the liquid state, or you can use a tiny paintbrush (use airbrush colors or thin regular gel colors with vodka) or you can use the edible markers.
The important thing about painting the dry gelatin is to make sure it doesn't get too wet - it will dissolve if it does.
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