Amazing Casting Products: Bringing the Outside in for #Cre8time... Organic Resin Home Decor by Tracy Alden

Tuesday, May 12

Bringing the Outside in for #Cre8time... Organic Resin Home Decor by Tracy Alden

Hello! Tracy here with another Amazing Casting Products inspiration post! I often bring up Nature as a never ending source of inspiration for my art, so when I hit an artistic wall I go out to collect rocks, fallen plants and bits of wood. With found leaves, fronds and petals I like to use a basic flower pressing technique, just sandwich the plant material between two thick pieces of paper towels and put it on a flat surface with a heavy weight on top. Between a week to two weeks I then have perfectly dried pieces with most of their original color intact. I store the dried plants flat in a box, and it was that box that I decided to rummage through to get inspiration for my next resin project!

Supplies:

Amazing Clear Cast Resin
Alumidust
Liquitex Gloss Varnish
Liquitex Matte Medium
Baking Parchment Paper
Dried Plant Clippings
Paper Scraps
Cosmetic Sponges
Stir Sticks
Craft Scissors

I placed the dried plant pieces that caught my eye on a table to see what I wanted to do. An idea for making them into home decor pieces came to me seeing them placed on a white background. I could make organic resin home decor pieces with the help of Amazing Clear Cast Resin!

I sealed the pieces with Liquitex Gloss Varnish coating the front and back of each piece and letting it dry. I added a second coat to act as a glue for light dusting of Alumidust and let them all dry. Sealing the dried plant matter with varnish will not only help reduce air bubbles from forming when placed in the resin, but will prevent the resin from soaking into the organic matter, which would create an oily appearance.

I had some uneven cuts and scraps of handmade mulberry and flower petal paper, that would be perfect for a "canvas" for dried plant pieces. I applied Liquitex Matte Medium to the front and back of the paper with a cosmetic sponge, which took several hours to dry because of the nature of mulberry. I covered most of the paper using a sponge application, but it left just enough tiny bits of paper unsealed. When resin is applied later on, it will soak into the uneven coated paper creating an interesting visual appearance.

Once the paper was dry, I placed the dried plant matter on the paper to get an idea of how I wanted it to look, such as the case with these palm leaves on the mulberry paper.

I cut a large piece of baking parchment paper to place the mulberry paper on top of. Any resin that drips off the piece will not bond to the parchment paper, making it a quick and easy work surface for messy resin projects. I poured a layer of Amazing Clear Cast Resin on the mulberry paper, coating the entire front surface, I then carefully placed the plants back on top of the resin coated paper and poured a second coat to entrap the dried plants. I then let the resin dry to a tacky set and poured a third layer of resin to give the piece a nice smooth topcoat.

I let the resin cure to the point it was dry to the touch but still slightly flexible, I peeled the pieces off the parchment paper and trimmed any resin drips with a sharp pair of craft scissors. I placed the resin pieces back onto the parchment paper to fully dry.

With any scrap paper or dried plant material making a quick and beautiful home decor or paper crafting piece is easy with Amazing Clear Cast Resin. :)

What AMAZING arts and crafts can you create?