Chocolate to Resin to Soap, Oh My

Good morning crafters,

I am here to show you what I made for Mold rubber Monday at Amazing Crafting Products.  If you haven't done so, please go over to that blog and check out ALL the cool ideas this fabulous design team comes up with.

It's been a long three weeks that I have had to keep this a secret, but yesterday was my reveal over there and I wanted to share with all my readers also.  This will be a very, very long post and picture heavy with an added bonus of a video because I am going to actually show you three projects in one.

I started out with cleaning my dresser off and found this "yummy" chocolate rose my hubby gave me 10 years or so ago.  I was actually pleasantly surprised that the chocolate wasn't totally white when I unwrapped it.

from this

to this

Now, it turned out "nice" but it definitely had some flaws.  The nice thing about the Mold Rubber is that is picks up ALL the detail of the original item, the bad thing is that it picks up ALL the detail of the original item, LOL

  I then created this

which was pretty in itself, but still had some flaws.

I also created one layered with the Amazing Crafting Resin with Alumlite Flo Red Dye, just the resin without coloring and then with another layer with the Alumilite Blue Dye.  Pretty, right?

After making these I showed hubby what I had made.  He is my go to guy when I've created because he DOES NOT hold back in critiquing me.  Sometimes that's good, sometimes not so good.  This time he looked at the rose, turned it over and over and said "You know..." which means he isn't totally into what I just made "...you could improve on this a bit if you cut those lines out.  Can you cut resin?"

So back to the drawing board I went.

I then created this piece with Amazing Clear Cast Resin and Alumilite Pearlescent Powder just to see how it would turn out.

and here it is, all pretty in sparkly white 

just because this is what I do I used the Oil Pastels from Frog Dog Studio to give it some color

heat set it with my heat gun and rubbed the oil pastel in to give it an incredibly cool shiny color (and when you put heat on the resin, it also softens it a bit so that... 

you can use your exacto knife and trim away all the grooves).  How cool is that?

From that I went to create another Amazing Mold Rubber mixture.  Now when I am ready to mold something I keep all the "extra" bits and pieces of molds that either didn't turn out or the skin from the mixing cups and "bed" my original piece.  It saves on not having to use a lot of the mold rubber and pouring it onto this will actually adhere itself directly to the bits and pieces. 

If you can, always hot glue your original piece to your container.  This will keep your piece from "floating" and creates a nice hole to pull your piece out of. 

and here is my "perfect" rose mold. 

This rose was actually made by first adding a mixture of Amazing Casting Resin and swirling it around in the mold to give it an edge.  You definitely have to have some patience when doing this technique, but the outcome is fabulous.  Then when that was totally cured I added more Amazing Casting Resin with Alumilite Black Dye and filled the mold.  Once it came out of the mold, I also added a little bit of the oil pastel in black around the edges and heat set that again also.  I didn't have to do this, but since inventing this technique I feel I want to heat set everything with oil pastels.  LOL  

I created a wire piece, drilled a hole in the center of the rose and  

glued it with E6000 to make a picture holder.  Since the resin piece is so dense it's actually a solid somewhat heavy piece.

Now, while I was creating ALL these fun roses I had some time between drying, curing, setting, etc and I was looking around my craftroom and found this:

I actually remember purchasing this at Michaels on clearance last fall.  Ding, ding, ding...could you really use the Mold Rubber Molds to make soap?

Here is the proof of what I did, Enjoy

(Now keep in mind this is my first video in a very, very long time...don't judge, lol)

if you don't want to watch the video or cannot watch it, keep reading.  There is a full step by step on how I did what I did.

 VIDEO

I melted the soap in the microwave for 20 seconds, added some fragrance and two drops of the purple colorant and poured my mold.

put it into the refrigerator for 10 minutes 

since I had no idea if this would work or not, I slowly pulled the edges from the piece away and it sorta just popped out 

Check this out... 

beautiful or what? 

here are some other pieces I made just because I had the soap all melted.  All the other pieces except the rose are Amazing Mold Putty molds.  So, the proof is that you can also pour soap into those molds. 

I got a little dish at the Dollar Store, wrapped the soaps with some fake flowers and  

Viola, a pretty accent to your bathroom.

now, I do have to say that after letting the roses set out for a day, they "dried" a bit more and kinda crystallized, but I love this look even more than the glossy look. 

If you are still reading here, thank you for sticking around to read all the way through and I hope you had a chance to watch the video also.  It was my first attempt at a video in a very long time and I think I did pretty good.  I hope you enjoyed todays post and thank you so very much for all patience with this oober long post.  Please leave me a comment below with any questions or feedback.  I love to hear what others think.  

As always, have a great day and God Bless.

It's Marble-ous mini challenge at ABAC

I am hosting the mini challenge over at Anything but a Card and I hope you will come over there and check it out.

As always, have a great day and God Bless.

Summer Lovin at ABAC

Good morning,

I'm so glad to be here today for our Summer Lovin over at ABAC.  I love being on the design team because it really makes me focus at least once a month on creating "anything but a card".  Not that I have been doing a lot of that either because I tell you, it's been a very hectic summer already.  I haven't had much crafting time, but when I do I am wowed by what I have made.

Today I am here to show you a simple jewelry project that was inspired by my trip to Florida.  I got to meet our fabulous leader Susan and we spent one whole day junk-ing.  I had such a great time with her and we found some awesome trinkets.  Today I will show you two of those fabulous finds.

here are a couple of buttons I found and just loved the detail

using the Alumidust I "painted" all my molds I had created with the Amazing Mold Putty.  

All of these items were found while I was in Florida.  

I decided to go with a green/blue with a bit of purple to remember my days in Florida.  The beaches and the ocean water was fabulous and here, look at the sparkle...love it!

Then I poured Amazing Casting Resin mixed with the Alumilite Dye in Black over the top of all my molds.  So messy, but so much fun! 

I absolutely love the colors.  Who says blue and green don't go together? 

I even added a little bit of purple  

searching through my GIANT stash of beads I found the perfect ones to go with my new recasted buttons. 

I hope you will join us at Anything but a Card and remember there are only three rules.  

1.  Make something summer - y

2.  Anything But a Card

3.  Just have fun while creating!

As always, have a great day and God Bless.

Luscious Stamped Pendant with Embossing

Good morning friends,

Today I am going to show you a technique I hope you will enjoy. Many times I use my products not like they are supposed to be used. I love to experiment and with that let's see what I have to share with you today.

I received the new Frog Dog Studio May Mixed Media Kit and wasn't quite sure how to use it. There are a lot of cool items in this kit, but for me it was a bit overwhelming. I'm not much of a artist in the sense of drawing and painting. Today I am sharing what I have done with some of the parts and pieces.

In the April Kit we received these awesome acrylic pieces. Of course I had to mold them before using them. You can go here to see a video how to make your molds using the Amazing Mold Putty. I molded this piece with the Amazing Casting Resin and Alumilite Metallic Silver Powder.

I applied the Beach Hut Paper Artsy Chalk Acrylic paint directly to my stamp and pressed my Amazing Casting Resin piece directly onto the stamp upside down and let it dry. Then I used the Pastel Peach Quick Dry Fluid Chalk onto another part of the stamp and pressed my resin piece directly onto it upside down again. The reason I did it this way is so that I could control which part of the stamp I was using, since it is a big stamp.

I just ran my stamp under some warm water soapy after I was finished stamping and it came pretty much clean. The paints do not alter your stamp in any means, just not as gray as it was brand new. You just don't want to let the acrylic paints dry and clog up the detail in the stamp.

Now before I did all this I knew I wanted my piece to have a textured, 3D effect. How was I going to create that texture of the stamp? How about embossing it? I of course did not have any colored embossing powders to match those colors that came with the kit – but last month we also received these fabulous Aumidust Powders. SO off to experimenting again... I combined regular clear embossing powder with the Orange Alumidust and mixed them together.

Eureka!!! DIY Orange Embossing Powder!

Then after I had stamped my image from above, I sprinkled the embossing powder over the resin piece IMMEDIATELY. The Pastel Peach says its quick dry and I didn't know how "quick" drying it was.

Poured the remaining embossing powder back into my container and, then I set the embossing powder with my heat gun. The result is fabulous shimmery detail.

I wanted my piece to shine so I mixed up some of the Amazing Clear Cast Resin and added a layer to dome my piece. You might be curious as to what I have my pendant suspended on... CLICK HERE to see my DIY Doming Platform for resin.

That had to set up and cure for about 24 hours...

and now I have another pendant created all while experimenting.

I hope I've given you some ideas on how to use your products – not the way they were intended... don't be afraid to experiment. Sometimes you may "fail" but I always have fun trying new and different things. I really love the dimension and layers of texture captured in the Amazing Clear Cast Resin.

Until next time, have a great day and God Bless!

Oil Pastels to coloring Resin

Good morning friends,

If you were here yesterday looking for the second post to my Frog Dog Studio post from a week ago I apologize.  I know I had said the 2nd of June but in my head I had the 3rd in mind.  SORRY!  But I'm here today to with you another fun project using Frog Dog Studio's May kit.  LOVE IT!

here is the kit, now again, like I had stated in the previous post I am not a painter, drawer so I wasn't sure what I would do with the oil pastels that come with this kit.  But if you know me, I need to experiment like always and this is what I created.

and this

Now I am sure you want to know how I did this?  

Well be aware this is a heavy picture post.

Let's start with the leaf...

I created a mold using my Amazing Mold Putty.  You can go here to see how a mold is made. 

I then mixed up my Amazing Casting Resin with some Alumilite Black dye and poured my mold. 

and here is my leaf ready to be played with. 

I pulled out the Oil Pastels that came with the kit 

and colored over my leaf.  Not being careful at all and just coloring 

here and there mixing both the yellow and red randomly. 

Then the magic begins...I heat set the oil pastels...they melt and intertwine beautifully 

Look at that...it's AMAZING!  I think I will turn this into a broach for fall.

Now let's see how I created my necklace...

I started with a mold of an old lock and only poured the main part with my Amazing Casting Resin and black alumilite dye.  I did have to cut a bit away as I only wanted the ROUND part.  I just used my exacto knife to trim around the edges.

I started out with the same concept of coloring certain areas with the oil pastels and heat set 

them also, but this time I chiseled off some of the green oil pastels and

 flaked them here and there onto the piece...and heat set. 

then I also colored a matching key with the oil pastels and heat set. 

and here it is... 

Please tell me what you think as I just love experimenting and when it works I'm on cloud nine.  

This has got to be one of my favorite experiments right now.  

I did plan on sealing these pieces with Amazing Clear Cast Resin 

to make them all shiny but I ran out of time to show you here.  

Until next time, have a great day and God Bless.