Hi there, today I want to share a fun summer project. The other day I was watching a video from
Mark Montano for DecoArt entitled "
Bejeweled Boho Mirror". This project gave me an idea to create something similar with a white photo mat art board I got in a mystery box I purchased on-line. I decided instead of using acrylic jewels I would use
Amazing Clear Cast Resin and some of the dyes.
Here is what I used for this project:
- Amazing Clear Cast Resin
- Mixing cups and Popsicle sticks
- Alumilite's Dyes in green, red and purple
- photo mat art board
- white paper flowers
- recycled cardboard box lid
- mixed media paper
- Westcott's paper trimmer
- Mod Podge dimensional magic glitter silver
- Beacon's 3-IN-1 craft glue
- Acrylic paint in orange and yellow
- Paint brush
- One large bead
- ribbon
First things first, let's cut up all the strips needed
to make the circles that will be filled with colored resin.
I used the lid from a cardboard box, as I do like to recycle as much as I can. I used Beacon's 3-in-1 glue – it works pretty fast, but I thought using paper clips to hold the circles in place was a good idea, it worked great. Here you can also see the beginnings of the project – I noticed the cardboard was too hard to roll to get a nice solid look, even using really thin strips. I decided not to use these so they went into the recycling bin.
So I decided to use a page from my mixed media sketch pad and I cut it all into strips using my paper trimmer... it was a lot faster then using scissors. I used a marker to create my circles, I rolled them and then released them, allowing me to glue them into different sizes without having to used different size pens to create different sizes.
Seriously, this part took the longest – sometimes the glue would set right away, sometimes I had to use a paper clip. Either way, I spent an entire day just cutting and gluing circles.
Once I was done, it was time to move on to the photo mat which would be the base of this frame. It took me a while to find the right placing for these circles and the paper flowers – finally I decided to just start gluing things up, because I was ready to move on to something else.
I first colored the inside edge of the picture frame opening. I didn't care for the color or the look of the ink so I decided to use acrylic paints. I took a nice bright orange and painted the entire photo mat.
First thing I did was glue the paper flowers, then I began
to glue the circles until the entire photo mat was covered.
I made some tiny circles and some solid circles to serve as fillers. I didn't want to completely cover the photo mat, I wanted for some of the orange background to be visible, and figured it would add more color once the resin was added inside the circles. I used the Mod Podge dimensional magic to glue the circles and the flowers to the photo mat. I spread out the dimensional magic with my fingers. This would leave a nice sparkle on the areas not covered with the circles.
Once I was done gluing down everything, and the glue was dried it was time to paint. I painted everything the same color as the photo mat. Once dried, I took a little bit of yellow acrylic paint and brushed it on top of the circles and the paper flowers too.
Here you can see, everything is glued in place and painted, all ready for the next AMAZING step... adding the colored resin inside all the circles. The
Amazing Clear Cast Resin mixed with the color dyes will cure and look like glass giving the illusion of glass jewels.
I added a few drops of the
Fluorescent "FLO" Red dye to part "A" of the clear cast resin. Be sure to mix it really good, then in a separate cup, pour part "B" and make sure is the same amount as part "A" with color {otherwise your resin may not cure properly}.
Combine both parts and mix thoroughly. Let resin set
to let bubbles escape and it's ready for pouring.
I used the stir stick to add the resin – a little bit at a time to make sure I didn't have any spills on the frame. You just have to take your time doing this step.
Next color, mixed the same as the previous color, and pour!
This color makes me think of lemon ice cream.
A few close-ups of the resin added into the cardboard circles.
I had a little bit of the red resin left, so I added a drop of white to make a milky pink... why not?! For sure it will look pretty mixed in with the other colors. This red actually looked more like orange, so I decided to mixed more resin and add a lot more of the "FLO" Red dye.
Here you go! This looks more like a red... now to fill
out all the circles, even the very tiny ones.
I had a few circles left to fill and finish this piece. I would just mix a little bit more resin, and leave it clear to accent the orange paint below. Here are all the circles filled with
Amazing Clear Cast Resin. Now it's time to let the resin set and cure. I will leave it alone for 24 hours, before I add a hanger and a photo to finish this piece.
Here is the finished piece, I really loved how this turned out! Do you like the background I added for the photo? It's a piece of mixed media paper that was covered with the left over resin colored with the "Flo" red dye... see no resin goes to waste here. I can change photos whenever I want on this frame.
How would you use resin on a frame?
What do you think? Should I have used acrylic jewels or do you like my resined jewels effect? Share your ideas with us, we'd love to see how creative you are with
Amazing Clear Cast Resin.
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