A #Cre8time March with the Elephants... by Brenda Burfeind

I'm super excited to share a fun project with you today... but first a little backstory about myself for those of you who are new to the Amazing Casting Products Blog. My name is Brenda and I've been an Amazing Creative with Amazing Casting Products since the beginning and I've enjoyed every minute of it! 

My blog is called Creativity is a State of Mind. I believe each one of us has a different view on artistic talent. I've definitely come a long way since working with this Amazing team. Working with these products has also taught me so much as I've enjoyed learning new techniques and I always look forward to expanding my horizons.

Today's project combines stenciling with moldmaking and resin casting to make a piece AMAZING home decor!

I have tons and tons of molds – anytime I'm making a project I wind up with more and more resin pieces. Some finished, some not. Since I've been on this creative team for so long, I've accumulated ALOT of pieces {to see some of my other makes using Amazing Casting Products, CLICK HERE}. These come in handy for all sorts of Cre8time projects... cardmaking, jewelry and accenting pieces for home decor. 

  

I started out with a foam core piece that I cut to 10" x 10" and painted green with acrylic paint. After the paint was dry, I took my Stencil Girl Elephant Parade stencil (if you know me elephants are my obsession), and traced the elephant shape with a pencil. It doesn't have to be perfect because I'm only using it as a guide.

Now for some fun! I got out my box of resin pieces and began laying them inside the elephant outline. It is kinda like putting a puzzle together. Absolutely every one of these cast resin pieces has a story for me.

Amazing Mold Putty is by far my favorite product. I love molding little charms and such that I find while antiquing or junking because I don't want to use the original piece {especially in a project like this one}. Making molds is quick and easy – CLICK HERE to view how.

Here are a just a few pictures of some of the pieces I have molded... I've made A LOT of molds! 

  

Tiny butterfly charms and branches that came from hair barrettes.

  

A Fleur-de-Lis I found in a box I bought at an antique shop. You can also change up things! I have taken the same Fleur-de-Lis and cast in dyed Amazing Casting Resin embedded it into another mold filled with Amazing Clear Cast Resin.

Some leaves that were molded from a brooch that I got in a jewelry lot at an auction. You don't need to mold an entire piece, you can just mold a section of something.

When I have all my pieces laid out the way I like, I glue them down.

After each piece is secured, I took the piece outside and spray painted it black. Look at how the elephant has magically come to life!

When black paint is dry, I add some stenciled accents using Stencil Girl's Ornamental Compass Screen. I dry-brushed purple metallic acrylic paint through the design to add color around the edges and corners around the dimensional elephant. While that was drying, I used the same paint to dry-brush the pieces of my elephant mosaic to give them some dimension also.

In my box of resin pieces I found some roses I made a long time ago cast in plain Amazing Clear Cast Resin. I absolutely love how they look like glass. I use these to add dimension to the centers of the stencilled design. To give them a bit of depth, I dry-brushed a bit of black and the purple metallic around the edges... just enough to add some definition, but you can still see that they are clear. 

After everything has completely dried, I coat the entire piece with a layer of Amazing Clear Cast Resin {CLICK HERE to view mixing/preparation}. Not only does this give it a nice GLASS touch when it's cured, but it will also keep everything in place. 

But now here comes another magic trick! I took a toothpick and ran it around the edges of the elephant outline while the clear cast resin was still wet and also within the stenciled area to "scrape off" some of the black and purple to expose some of the green base. This revealed just enough color to make it "POP".

After letting the resin cure for 24 hours, I am able to display this along with my elephant collection. The best part of this is it's weight – if I would have used this many heavy metal trinkets, this piece would be very heavy. By using Amazing Casting Resin this piece is super lightweight. 

This by far is one of my favorite projects thus far!

I totally love how this turned out and I hope you have found this tutorial inspiring.

What items would you transform 
into amazing home decor?

Until next time, Happy Crafting! ~ Brenda

Thanks for stopping by today! I invite you to stop over to my blog,
Creativity is a State of Mind to see all that I've been making. 

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You can see Brenda's work along with other AMAZING Creations from our Creative Team January 20-22, 2018 at Creativation – Drop by the Alumilite/Amazing Casting Products Booth #2214.

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