Amazing Casting Products: Owls Howl Under the Halloween Moon! AMAZING Tim Holtz' 12 Tags of 2013 for October... by Susan M. Brown {sbartist}

Hello Amazing Crafters! Susan here today to share my variation of Tim Holtz' 12 Tags of 2013 for October. For those of you who are not into stamping or papercrafting, Tim Holtz is the master of all things "Distressed" and has a monthly challenge where he designs a tag using products and techniques and has a linkup where you can share your try at the monthly tag. So this month's tag was SCREAMING Amazing Crafting Products... so I have created all my embellishments for this tag using Amazing Mold Putty, Amazing Casting Resin and an assortment of Alumilite Dyes. You are in for a Halloween Treat!

Here is Tim's Tag example.

First I did the marbleized painted background technique - to get it out of the way

so I can have some real fun and break out my Amazing Mold Putty!

In Tim's tag example above, the glittered embellishments are created from chipboard die cut shapes. I don't personally have those dies, but I do have some other things in my crafty stash that I can use. One of the things that's great about this monthly challenge is that anything goes - use what "YOU HAVE" is the name of the game... it's all about learning new techniques and having fun.

I didn't have a moon - so I made one. I located a vintage man in the moon image from thegraphicsfairy.com, printed it out, stuck it to some chipboard and cut it out. I mixed up a batch of Amazing Mold Putty and gently pressed my shape flat into it and I used the back end of a paintbrush to press it down further to make the mold a little more than 1/8" deep. Then I mixed up a batch of Amazing Casting Resin with one drop each of the new Alumilite Fluorescent Yellow and Orange Dyes to get a nice yellow orange cast resin moon. The moon in the photo above has been painted with a light layer of Ranger Spiced Marmalade Distress Paint.

About the owl - I already had those made from a Halloween Owl charm swap I participated in last month. Stay tuned for a post next month where I will share how I created my darling Purple owls!

Now on to the frame - the centerpiece of the tag!

I mixed up a batch really small batch of Amazing Casting Resin and Alumilite Black Dye and poured directly onto one of my Sizzix embossing folders. You know you have 'em... they AREN'T JUST FOR PAPER!!! Before I poured the resin, I prepared my embossing folder with a light rubbing of olive oil {it's what I had - was out of the spray} so that the resin will not stick in all the little detailed bits of the plastic. I waited until the resin started to thicken before pouring it directly onto the embossing folder, leading it around with my stir stick to fill all the details and a little overhang.

I let the resin cure for about 30 minutes before peeling back. ** A TIP ** the thinner a resin pour is - the longer it will take to completely harden. So in this particular application - this is GREAT! It's hard, but soft and somewhat pliable, though not stretchy, so you have some time to remove it from the mold - AND - cut and trim {OR EVEN form it over a shaped item} before it fully hardens.

After removed from mold. I laid it flat and blotted off the excess oil with a paper towel.

Then I began to trim with an old pair of EK Success Cutterbee detail scissors. This pour is no more than 1/8" thick in the detailed areas and these scissors cut through the resin beautifully while it's still soft. I continued all the way around defining the outer edge of the frame.

Then I trimmed out the center of the frame. Isn't it beautiful!? And the detail perfectly captured. I'll definitely be doing this again - I must have about 100 of these embossing folders... so much fun!!!

After trimming, I placed the frame back into the embossing folder and wrapped with a couple light duty rubber bands to let it complete hardening and to protect it from my clumsy ways. It was several days between when I started the resin to when I completed assembly and the frame was no longer flexible after a day or so.

So here's all of my base resin pieces before finishing.

Now on to adding a little GLITZ! Using Ranger Embossing Ink and a heat embossable glue powder, I adhered Black Soot Ranger Distress Glitter. I only rubbed the ink on the raised areas so the detail could still be seen. This looks so great!

Now for the moon. I repeated the same steps in applying the glue powder, but this time I did it in two applications. First I did overall then applied the Antique Linen Ranger Distress Glitter. Then I added more embossing ink and glue powder, heat set to make it tacky, then applied Spiced Marmalade to the outer edge. This makes a nice blend. I like how here and there the orange base peeks through on the edges.

For my owl, this was colored with Alumilite Violet Dye. Using Diamond Glaze (a clear dimensional adhesive that sticks to a variety of items - resin included), I filled in the belly and tail with Seedless Preserves Ranger Distress Glitter. I also filled in around the eyes with a superfine white glitter from my stash.. To finish the owl I adhered some gems for eyes and a pearlized brad head {I broke the metal arms off} above the tail. The final touch is a tied twist of green raffia for a branch and adding some Viva Las VegaStamps! script, tree and numbers to the painted tag. Voila!

My AMAZING tag for October!