Sit for a #Cre8time Spell! #DIY Eye of Newt Apothecary Jar by Tracy Alden

Hello! Tracy here with another Amazing Casting Products inspiration post! This time I am taking inspiration from one of William Shakespeare's most famous plays, Macbeth:

"Eye of newt, and toe of frog,
Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,
Adder's fork, and blind-worm's sting,
Lizard's leg, and howlet's wing, --
For a charm of powerful trouble,

Like a hell-broth boil and bubble."

That part of the play has a wonderful spooky quality, often inspiring all types of ghoulish displays and decor for Halloween. The interesting part is that most of those names of ingredients were not intended to be taken literal, but were herbalist or folk terms for common herbs and plants. In the case of "Eye of newt" it was referring to a type of mustard seed. However thanks to pop culture more often than not most people think of real newt eyes in a jar. So knowing some seeds in a jar isn't that ghoulish of a Halloween decoration I decided to go with the pop culture version of making a jar with faux newt eyes.

Now I already have a growing collection of bottled fantasy curiosities I have created and bought. So following along the lines of my Zombie Apothecary Jars I cleaned up a old jar. In this case it was formerly a 3 wick candle jar, as the glass was heavy and the lid metal, making it perfect for an apothecary jar.

I put some dried moss at the bottom of the jar to add some visual contrast. It would also help with adding some textured base to prop the fake eyes on so they wouldn't all sink to the bottom.

I mixed up 3 fluid ounces of Amazing Clear Cast Resin 

and slowly poured it on top of the moss to cover it.

The moss became a bit dark after the resin started to soak into it, so before the resin layer started to cure I sprinkled a bit of micro crystal glitter to give just a slight shimmer to the moss layer.

For newt eyes I used transparent acrylic Eye of Warding beads carefully placed in the still wet resin. Recent popularity of the beads has had a lot of bead manufacturers making all kinds of the Eye of Warding beads out of glass, acrylic, clay and even recycled plastic. *Take a trip to your favorite craft store to check out what types of beads they might have for you to use!

Once I let the first layer of resin cure for about an hour I added some more eye beads and little snippets of moss. I didn't want to add too much. I wanted it to look like someone used the "newt eyes" a lot in their spells.

While the final layer of resin cured I worked on the lid to the jar. To bring down some of the bright silver tone of the lid I used some sandpaper and little bit of chalk paint to give it an aged look. A painted wooded bead glued on top of the lid gave it a pull knob.

With a chalk board sticker for a label the jar

was finished and not a single newt harmed! :)

 

What AMAZING spooky 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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Candles are Lit... the Halloween Dinner Table is SET! AMAZING Chicken Feet by Rachel Whetzel

Happy Halloween everyone! Rachel here today with a special Amazing Mold Rubber project... and the finishing touch to my Witch's Apothecary mantle and will be great for the Halloween feast too.

A while ago, I was mindlessly skimming images researching awesome artsy inspiration on Pinterest, and I came across a listing for a vintage set of candle sticks with a VERY interesting twist. They where bronzed CHICKEN'S FEET.

The candlesticks were sold, already, and I haven't been able to locate any others, so I decided to do what ANY creative woman would do. I decided to MAKE my own. I started out with an interesting candle stick that I found at the thrift store.

What you'll need: 

• A candle stick for molding 
• Amazing Mold Rubber
• Amazing Casting Resin
• Creative Paperclay® 
• Krylon Spray paint 
• Acrylic Craft paints (I use Folk Art) 

I knew from my last piece using Amazing Mold Rubber, that I needed to make my mold with as little extra space around my piece as possible, so I decided to use a Solo Cup for the sides again. 

I cut the cup's bottom and rim off, so that I could create a funnel easily, and made the funnel with just enough room for the top of the candlestick to fit through.

I put the larger end of the funnel at the bottom of the mold, and taped up the sides to keep the rubber from seeping out. I used Amazing Mold Putty to create the bottom of the mold, and to help with the seal of the bottom of the piece. Then I laid my candle stick in, and got it secured by using wire to hold it in place at the top of the mold. There was a hole all the way up the center of the candle stick (I removed the bottom. It unscrewed easily and made it easier to pour the Amazing Mold Rubber into the mold.) so I was able to settle the cup part of the stick into the mold rubber without worrying about air pockets. Once I got the cup settled, I mixed a second small batch of Amazing Mold Rubber and poured it into the mold. 

To make taking my molds out easier, I cut a slit down the side of my mold once it was set, and when I poured my Amazing Casting Resin, I held it closed with some rubber bands around the outside. 

Here are the finished resin pours! As you can see, I didn't mold the whole candle stick. I didn't need to, because I planned to make the rest of the piece with Creative Paperclay®. 

I hand sculpted the chicken's feet using the Etsy listing as my reference. When the feet were done, I connected them to the resin tops using more clay. Once they were dry, I painted them black, and added some metal patina to them. I think they turned out pretty awesome!! Because Creative Paperclay® and Amazing Casting Resin are not flame retardant, I don't plan to actually USE these, but they will make a really cool addition to my Witch's Apothecary mantle. 

What One of Kinds are YOU turning into

TWO of a kind using Amazing Crafting Products?

Please share your projects in the comments below! If you create something inspired by my idea, please leave a comment with a link here, so I can come and visit to see! I would love for you to visit me at my "house" too!! Thank you so much for reading!! ~ rachel

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