A Mantle for all #Cre8time Ages... Shrunken Macabre with Rachel Whetzel

Hey, AMAZING gang!! Rachel Whetzel, here! Playing some more with my apothecary display!! I recently made some large scale Heads in a Jar for our High School's Zombie Ball Homecoming dance. 

*WARNING: this post is picture heavy. 

Here are my original gallon sized heads in a jar! 

For the gallon sized heads in a jar, I used pictures of some of our Seniors, following the instructions from THIS SITE. I didn't have the same photo editing software that the site used, so I used iPiccy, and PicMonkey along with Picasa to achieve the same results. When the full sized heads in a jar were such a huge hit, I got the idea to do a smaller, "shrunken head" edition with Amazing Crafting Products! 

WHAT YOU WILL NEED TO MAKE YOUR OWN SHRUNKEN HEAD IN A JAR:

*you can click on any of the photos in the post to view them larger. 

• Pint sized jar that can withstand high heat from the reaction of Amazing Clear Cast Resin
• Amazing Clear Cast Resin
• Alumilite Brown Dye
• Computer and Internet connection
•  iPiccy, PicMonkey and Picasa
• Printer
• Krylon Matte Finish or other clear sealant for your image
• Tape

First, take a picture of your subject making a face for your jar. Take a side picture also. (These are the cropped photos... you can leave space around your face and crop once you load to Picasa.) 

In Picasa, crop your images to 4X6 size, and take the front of your face off of the side angle shot just near the corner of the eye.

Once you have cropped your images, load them to iPiccy. In iPiccy, choose the collage option, and then  select the second option on the fourth line, with three image areas. Don't load your photos. Simply select the red check mark at the top right of the screen when you're done choosing your collage. This is your background that will provide you with the space you need to work.

Next, choose the tray icon, which is the LAYERS tab in iPiccy,
and then choose the picture option for layering. 

Click the UPLOAD PHOTOS button on the left,

and choose the images you took and cropped. 

Drag your images one at a time, onto the background, and pull with your mouse curser, on one of the corner circles to make your image larger. 

Drag your side picture onto your background twice, and use the flip button to change it's direction on one of them. Layer the side images over the top of your front facing image and line them up to fit your front image using the hairline and eye area to best match up your photos. Don't worry if your side images don't fill your background completely. We'll fix that later. 

When you are done layering and positioning your images, click the red check mark at the top right of the screen, and then choose the "floppy disk" SAVE tab. You'll have the option to save your image as a PNG or JPG, but Picasa automatically converts PNG to JPG, so I use the JPG option.

Now, open your new image up again in Picasa.

Use the RETOUCH option to blend your hard lines. 

Click on the hard line, and then move your mouse to the left or right. The area you move the curser to, is the area that Picasa will replicate, so use areas of the face that will blend well. If you make a mistake, just choose UNDO PATCH to remove your last retouch. You can also adjust the size of the area to be retouched. 

At the bottom of the neck, I use the existing edge of the neck as a retouch area, and move my curser until the hard line of the underside of the neck lines up well in the spot I am retouching. 

Once I'm done, I save my photo and take it to PicMonkey. 

In PicMonkey, I click on the lipstick icon, and use the AIRBRUSH option in touch ups to smooth the lines and blend the color of my face further.

NOW FOR THE FUN PART!! I use the THEMES in PicMonkey (the Pumpkin icon) and play with the themes there. I used the BEARD edit, and the ZOMBIE BRUISE, along with some of the texturing in the WITCHES theme. 

Another favorite is the ZOMBIE theme GASHES AND SLASHES. I used one of the Gashes and Slashes to create a stitched effect over my shrunken head's mouth. The actual layer was too long, but there is an eraser edit on most layers in PicMonkey that allow you to remove the layers in whatever area you want. I used that to cut my staples short enough to *just* cover the mouth. As you can also see in the photo below, you can move the layer and tilt, flip, etc... to arrange it just the way you'd like. Clicking and holding the circle with a line to the surrounding line is how you drag the layer to move it.

I used another of the Gashes and Slashes to create a chopped off head look. 

I saved the image when I was done playing with creepy layers in PicMonkey, and took the image back to Picasa. In Picasa, I cropped my image to a 3X5 size. This is where you crop out any areas that your pictures don't cover your background. Once I had cropped, I used the LOMO edit over the photo to create a shadow around the edges, that make the effect of a head in a jar better later on. Save the image. 

FINALLY, you are ready to print! I printed out my 3X5 image onto regular paper, and then sealed it with some Krylon Matte Finish to keep the ink from bleeding in the Amazing Clear Cast Resin. 

When the paint was dry, I used some clear tape to pin the paper into my jar where I wanted it. I tried to keep my paper fairly close to the side of the glass, with a very small amount of space for resin. As you can see, the photo doesn't circle the entire jar. You can see it clearly here, but in the finished piece, you can't. 

To create the formaldehyde in the jar, and hide the harsh lines of the paper, I mixed Amazing Clear Cast Resin with a TINY drip of Alumilite Brown Dye. (CLICK HERE for directions on mixing Amazing Clear Cast.) Your Amazing Clear Cast Resin will look dark. To see if it's too dark, you can pull out your mixing tool, and if you can see through the tint, then you'll be able to see your image in the jar. I poured it all into my jar, and worked out any bubbles between my paper and the glass using the tool I mixed my Amazing Clear Cast with.

Be careful to you check your project soon after mixing and pouring your resin, because the reaction of the two parts create a lot of heat in large quantities. This is also the reason you want a canning jar or other heat resistant container. Now I have a tiny shrunken head to add to my collection! I thought about putting a lid on the jar, but I really like the liquid look of the resin, and being able to see it without a lid, so I decided to leave it off! 

What kind of Macabre things are you
dreaming up in your AMAZING minds? 

Thank you for reading! Want to see more of what I'm up to?

Visit me on PINTEREST and INSTAGRAM, or like MY PAGE on Facebook!

Thanks for stopping by! ~ rachel

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