Amazing Casting Products: #Cre8time with a Little Heart... DIY Resin Hearts by Tracy Alden

Tuesday, February 13

#Cre8time with a Little Heart... DIY Resin Hearts by Tracy Alden

Hello! Tracy here with a fun tutorial using Amazing Casting Products! Sometimes I find myself making art at the spur of the moment, with a shape or color being my inspiration. This tutorial was a result of wanting a bright and cheerful Valentine's Day decoration for display in the Amazing Casting Products booth at Creativation.

If you were able to attend Creativation in Phoenix (January 20-22, 2018) and happened to drop by the Alumilite/Amazing Casting Products Booth #2214, you would have seen a wonderful selection of art from our Creative Team. You might have seen on display a bowl full of decorative resin hearts I had created.

There was such a positive response to these quick and easy hearts – people loved picking them up and looking at the play of light. So I decided to share how quick and easy it is to make them!

Supplies:

Amazing Clear Cast Resin
Alumilite Dyes in Red, Violet and White
Alumidust in Pearl and Interference Red
Micro Fine Glitter (optional)
6 oz. Measuring cup
Mini Heart Ice Cube Tray (I got mine from IKEA)
Stir Sticks

The hearts in this project were made using this ice cube tray I bought from IKEA. The cube shapes are very smooth, small, and perfect shape to pour resin. This particular ice cube tray is make from a synthetic rubber, so it did not need a mold release.

**A TIP** If you are not sure what your ice cube tray is made from, test by applying a small amount of resin the the backside of the mold and let it cure completely. If it peels off easily when cured, you don't need a mold release... though if it sticks, then I recommend using Alumilite's UMR as a mold release.

To create the different color hearts I made several different color recipes. First we have Alumilite Violet Dye with Amazing Clear Cast Resin and glitter (on left); and a variation of this is including the addition of Pearl Alumidust (on right).

I repeated this process this time adding Alumilite Red Dye to the Amazing Clear Cast Resin, then glitter, and again the variation of this (seen on right) with the addition of Pearl Alumidust.

Getting a bright glittery or shimmery white is just as easy with Amazing Clear Cast Resin. Alumilite White Dye is opaque and not clear/transluscent like the other dyes – so to get a bit more of a pop of color and shimmer I added glitter and Pearl Alumidust. On the left I used Interference Red Alumidust which gives the resin a brighter, slightly pink shimmer; and the variation on the right uses Pearl Alumidust, which resulted in a softer white and less intense shimmer.

To fill this entire ice cube tray with resin hearts, I mixed up 4 fluid ounces of Amazing Clear Cast Resin – making sure to slowly stir to reduce air bubbles and let it sit for 5 minutes (CLICK HERE to view mixing and preparation). I used just *ONE* drop of Alumilite dye for that much resin to get the vivid red you see in the photo. I added some micro fine glitter and slowly stirred.

REMEMBER... Alumilite Dye is super concentrated and a little goes a long way!

Carefully, I poured the tinted Amazing Clear Cast Resin into the ice cube mold. Bubbles that formed in the pouring process that don't pop on their own can be removed with a simple pass of a heat gun or can be popped using a toothpick. I let the resin cure fully before removing them from the mold.

I repeated filling and casting the ice cube mold several times until I had a bowl full of bright and cheerful hearts. Being that Amazing Clear Cast Resin is FDA compliant, you can put them in a vase with flowers with no worry of the resin causing issues with the flowers.

Now don't think they are only decor... by drilling a hole into each heart you can create beads for jewelry or small charms for gifts!

What AMAZING Valentine
jewels will you create?

Visit my blog Art Resurrected for more craft tutorials!

Happy Valentine's Day! Until next time, safe travels! ~ Tracy