Greetings Amazing Crafters! Today we continue our "Featured Artist" series here at the Amazing Crafting Products blog. Each month we feature one artist who will share a special project and some inspiration using Amazing Crafting Products. Today, our Featured Artist for November, Heather Kindt joins us with a project of EPIC proportions... a mixed-media Steampunk Collage Box, full of nooks, characters and inspiration galore! Heather's use of Amazing Crafting Products with an artist's touch is remarkable and she shares a variety of resin techniques along the way. CLICK HERE to see more of Heather's art adventures on her Facebook page, Heather Marie Kindt.
• • • • • • • • • • • •
Steampunk Shadow Box Art
Today I'm sharing a Steampunk inspired project... I don't always go Steampunk, and this project can certainly be in any theme! This shadowbox blank with cover has loads of curio niches which I tie together with paint, collage, stamping and use of Amazing Crafting Products.
This began with this Configuration Book from the Tim Holtz Idea-ology Collection - which has been totally transformed. I made the face, gears and butterflies embellishments with Amazing Casting Resin. The cover is coated with a layer of Amazing Clear Cast Resin and collaging/layering images and objects in the shadow boxes.
Since this one has a cover, I cut up some tissue and covered it with Glossy Accents {a clear adhesive}. Using gold pigment ink, I painted what would be pages if it were an actual book; and used blue Staz-On ink on the covers edges. I like this disguise! When completely dry, I sealed the cover with a layer of Amazing Clear Cast Resin. What is difficult to show in the pictures, is the coating of resin I gave on the cover. But the cover was shingling and there is more resin to come!
Before we get into it I want to show the technique I used for the stamping. I stamped all my images on deli paper. I used the colors and black so I would have choices.
You could also stamp on gift tissue paper. I prepped all my images and surfaces then prepared some Amazing Clear Cast Resin. Please CLICK HERE to view mixing and preparation. I recommend covering your large flat surfaces first if you have any when the resin is fluid. That way when it gets a bit thicker, it is just fine for embedding items in enclosed areas like the boxes or in jewelry bezels.
Here is everything drying! The resin has soaked into the paper which makes it more transparent. That is how my stamps became darker in the inked areas and the images became sharper.
You can sprinkle mica flakes onto the wet resin for shimmer that will never fall off. Putting it under resin is fine too. On one of the fragments I adhered the quote (using glossy accents or diamond glaze) then when completely dry, added resin, then mica fragments.
Many of my accent pieces were cast in Amazing Casting Resin and painted.
A little resin primer... One thing I have done to this point is coating and sealing with resin – but another resin ability is that we can cast with it! Casting is pouring a material into a open form that will later solidify. I worked in a jewelry store's customer service area after college, and in the shop the jewelers would cast in gold and white gold every week. I have used the Amazing Clear Cast above, which is the clear resin. Amazing Crafting Products also makes Amazing Casting Resin – an opaque white casting resin that cures in about 10 minutes {CLICK HERE to view mixing/preparation}. Have you seen Prima or Melissa Francis's frames, butterflies, and other white embellishments? They are resin, probably a white resin.
There is one other piece you need to start casting... a mold. Amazing Crafting Products makes several types of mold making products – I've used Amazing Mold Putty and Amazing Mold Rubber. The Amazing Mold Putty is very easy, clean and quick giving you a mold in about 15 minutes. Mix it together and use a small object to create an imprint, and when it is no longer squishy, you have a mold {CLICK HERE to view mixing/preparation}. The Amazing Mold Rubber creates a silicone mold and needs a container you can pour it into to setup in several hours {CLICK HERE to view mixing/preparation}. However the cured mold is really flexible and surprised me with its ability to mold intricate forms. Don't forget there are also finished molds you can pick up in your craft store if you would like.
I have combined a variety of molds to create my embellishments for my shadow box. The casts come out clear or white, depending on resin used. I painted mine with Viva's Precious Metals Effects paint because it is fast drying.
These items created using the molds I made using Amazing Mold Rubber and Amazing Mold Putty; then cast in Amazing Casting Resin dusted with Alumilite Metallic Powders {all objects shown are the cast pieces not the originals}.
I created butterflies using this Martha Stewart mold dusted with
Alumilite Pearlescent Powder before Amazing Casting Resin pour.
These castings are created from a mold set by Mod Podge that I dusted with Alumilite Metallic Powders prior to pouring Amazing Casting Resin.
I even poured Amazing Casting Resin into this polymer clay texture mat by Lisa Pavelka... these thin little gears even held up!
Here is the final shadow box book...
Enjoy the close ups!
I used Big Pitt Pens for some color, and Staz-on ink pads on the edges.
Hello birdie!
He is painted black, coated in Amazing Clear Cast Resin and golden edged.
• • • • • • • • • • • •
Thanks so much for dropping by! We hope you have enjoyed Heather's Steampunk Shadowbox and sharing so many ideas and techniques. Drop by for a visit next Friday for more from our Featured Artist Heather Kindt... you don't want to miss it! CLICK HERE to head on over to Heather's Facebook Page, or HERE to visit her blog Color Me Heather to see more of her fabulous work.
No comments:
Post a Comment