BYOB to a #Cre8time Happy Hour.... by Tracy Alden

Hello! Tracy here with another Amazing Casting Products tutorial! I will let you in on a secret, I have a bit of a collecting miniatures addiction. I love searching for all kinds of miniatures and typically I will buy them without even having a miniature scene or project in mind. This happened with an adorable collection of miniature cocktail cups I found. With Summer in full swing I got to thinking about making mini versions of the beautiful, bright and tasty drinks that are a great way to relax in the summer.

Supplies:

• Amazing Clear Cast Resin
• Alumilite Dyes
• 1/12th scale Miniature cocktail glasses
• Polymer Clay
• 21 gauge wire in gold and silver tones
• Red Seed Beads
• Wirecutters
• Toothpicks
• Stir Sticks
• Craft scissors
• Tweezers
• Needle nose pliers and earring wires (only needed if you plan to make the miniatures into earrings)
• Ultra Fine White Glitter for "salt" and Micro Fine Shell White Glitter for "sugar" on the cups
• Beacon Gem-Tac Permanent Glue

With many of the miniature sets and collections available, you will find they are often made of plastic, resin or porcelain. In this case the set was made out of plastic and a few of the cups just needed a quick sanding to remove any raw or uneven edges. I then carefully cleaned them with soap and water and left them to dry.

Resin drips are an unavoidable aspect of creating resin art. However I rarely throw those cured drips away, as they can always be used as filler for other projects or, in this case resin ice cubes! By picking the thinnest and longest resin drips I cut them up into tiny little bits and shards, perfect for emulating ice cubes.

By using the miniature martini glass for size comparison I made sure all of the resin was cut small enough and to size for the cocktail glasses.

To create the look of sugar on the rims of the glasses, I put a thin bead of Beacon Gem-Tac Permanent Glue and then carefully pushed the cup into a pile of Micro Fine Shell White Glitter. To give the look of salt on the margarita glass I once again applied glue and this time applied Ultra Fine White Glitter in the same manner.

Using polymer clay I created tiny lime and pineapple wedges and gently pushed them onto small lengths of 21 gauge wire and baked them per manufacturer instructions. Once they were cool I added some small red seed beads onto a few of the wire elements. These would become the toothpicks with fruit embellishments commonly seen as decoration in mixed drinks.

I mixed up a small portion of Amazing Clear Cast Resin, making sure to slowly stir to reduce air bubbles and let it sit for 5 minutes. Using toothpicks I put a tiny drop of Alumilite Dye into a small mixing cup. Starting from the left I had my untinted resin, a cup with 1 drop yellow + 1 drop brown, a cup with 1 yellow drop, a cup with 2 drops blue and a cup with 2 drops red. These were my base colors that I used mix with each other or add to my untinted resin to create the look of the drinks.

Each cup I would fill halfway with tinted resin by using that oh so expensive tool, the toothpick. If I felt the drink needed some ice cubes I would carefully add some of the resin ice cubes I created earlier and then top with more tinted resin. To create the illusion of a drink with carbonation I would let the resin rest until it reached the consistency of thick syrup, then stir the resin rapidly and pour it into the cup. I would then carefully place a small wire with fruit elements into to the tinted resin and let cure.

A wide assortment of drinks was easy to create by

just mixing different tinted resins together!

With a miniature Happy Hour at your fingertips don't forget

a nice cup of green tea for the designated driver!

What AMAZING arts and crafts can you create?

Please share them on the user GALLERY on the Amazing Crafting Products Website!

Visit my blog Art Resurrected for more craft tutorials!

Until next time, safe travels! ~ Tracy

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