Save yourself a little money by making your own souvenirs! Take all those shells your kids have collected and make a lasting souvenir of your vacation.
Materials:
- Sand
- Shells
- Amazing Clear Cast Resin
- Alumilite Blue Resin Dye
- Wine glass
- smaller glass votive
- Decoart Glass Marker
Directions...
Pour sand in the wine glass. This is going to replicate the ocean. This is the sand on the bottom of the sea, so fill it about 1/6th up.
Drop some shells on top of the sand, stick close to the outside edge of the glass (you won't be able to see the shells in the middle very well, so don't waste them). Mix up some Amazing Clear Cast Resin (clear) and slowly pour in wine glass. Avoid the side of the glass, you don't want clear drips down your glass. The resin will slowly soak into all the sand. You may see air bubbles. Let cure. It took about 3 hours for my clear resin to cure enough to move to the next step.
Using the Alumilite Blue Dye, mix a small amount into part "A" of your Amazing Clear Cast Resin. You want just a small amount!!! I made the mistake of thinking it would cure more transparent the first time and it did not! Start light – you can always make it darker. Let this cure over night.
Add a layer of Amazing Clear Cast Resin on top of the blue layer. You can throw in a shell or two if you like. I dropped a little sand on the top after it had cured a little while. I decided to do this clear layer before I added more sand because on a test glass, the sand actually fell all the way through the blue in a few spots. The clear layer will seal the blue water layer and keep it separate from the sand.
What Will You SAVE now?
Now add some more sand and position your glass votive in the center. You can start arranging more shells. After you have the shells arranged you can add more Amazing Clear Cast Resin. I let the resin cure for a few hours then added more shells and more resin.
I love how it looks! You may see air bubbles coming up from the sand and need to add more Amazing Clear Cast Resin as it starts to soak into the sand.
Measure the bottom of your glass so you can use a computer to layout text.
I used CorelDRAW – but you can use any software that lets your curve text. Print it out and place glass under the print out and trace with a glass marker.
Now light your candle and reflect on your vacation.
With all the money you saved on souvenirs you have a jump start paying for the next trip! Think about how much grandma would love a gift like this made from shells her grand kids collected. This is much better than a "I went to the Caymans and all i got was this lousy t-shirt" shirt!!!
Until Next Time... ~ Tanya
Tanya Ruffin with Create Studios
Please visit my site to see more of my inspiring creations at www.tanyaRuffin.com
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