#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

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How do You #Cre8time Love Thee... Valentine's Day Conversation Hearts by Lyn Gill

Hi everyone! Lyn Gill here again – Let's have a conversation about... what else, "Conversation Hearts"! A quaint Valentine's tradition, these little candy hearts with a message for your loved one inscribed on the front. So why not create them in resin?

First I sculpted the hearts out of Super Sculpey. I made them double-sided so I could mold two off of each heart.

Using Amazing Mold Putty, I created a mold for each side of my sculpted hearts. I then mixed up Amazing Casting Resin with some Alumilite Dye in two cups – one colored red and one pink. In a third cup I left some resin uncolored, then poured into the molds and let cure. After cured and removed, I mixed up some Amazing Clear Cast Resin with some Alumilite Dye in Red and some red glitter to make the last two hearts.

I used acrylic paint to fill in the lettering with a fine detail brush. I created a bowl using Cat Kerr's demo from CHA using an embossing folder and Amazing Casting Resin, with resin formed over a bowl while still pliable. What a super cute & fun project!

What Valentine's Day projects

have you come up with this year?

Well thank you so much for stopping by... Till Next Time! ~ Lyn

As usual, you can find more of my work on my blog LynzCraftz, 

or on YouTube LynzCraftz, or my Facebook page LynzCraftz.

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A Little #Cre8time for Teachers... by Aimée Wheaton

"The best teachers teach from the heart and not from the book."

This is the quote that inspired this little piece that I will be bringing to the classroom. I found these two adorable pencils at school on the ground and I just had to do something with them. I plan on making more items with them because they're so much fun!

I used our Amazing Mold Rubber to cast these babies because I wanted to get all the details in them. It did an amazing job and I have 2 perfect pencils!! I cast them with our Amazing Casting Resin because I wanted them white.

This is what I ended up with, of course I had to glitter them up! This would make such a cute teacher gift. It's on a wooden coaster and it was quick and easy to make. I love the little details!

It's hard to see but there is the word 'teacher' in silver stickers down the side :)

Hope you enjoyed this quick teacher project!!

What would you have done with two little pencils?

Do you make your own teacher gifts?
What are your favorite ways

to create custom gifts?

Feel free to stop by my FB page to see the latest with me.

To see more of my work please visit my new blog "Life Glitter Makeup"

and also at the Aimée Wheaton Art and Design website.

Till next time! Xoxo Aimée

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#Cre8time Valentine's for One... by Maria Soto

Hi there! This is Maria and today I want to share a special project. I got a new paint kit and had been waiting for a project I could create using my favorite resin and these new paints. I previously shared how I took a frame mold I made in Amazing Mold Rubber and used the back to either create sheets of resin or to use as a resin work area instead of non-stick mat. 

For this project I used Amazing Clear Cast Resin and the Mixed Media Discovery Set by Pébéo. I received these paints in a Charity Wings Live in 4D Ultimate Sample Box for winter CHA. 

Though I have the Alumilite Dyes and Metallic Powders – it is wonderful how versatile Amazing Clear Cast Resin is in accepting a wide variety of media for coloring... as long as it's not water-based. These paints are solvent-based, so I knew they would be OK to try with the resin.

Have you heard there is a new Live from CHA event coming up on March 6th... Live in 4D from NAMTA/CAMEX and there is an Ultimate Sample Box to correspond with this event. CLICK HERE for all the details. We hope you join us... Amazing Casting Products will be just one of the amazing companies featured.

   

First step was pouring into a plastic cup 1 oz. of each parts "A" & part "B" of Amazing Clear Cast Resin, making sure to mix well – then let the resin rest for a few minutes before adding into my mold slab {CLICK HERE to view mixing/preparation}. 

   

I added drops of paint onto the resin using a wood stick. I think I added a bit too much, it was fun to see how this paint reacts in the resin... but even more fun when you add other colors, into the mixture – so I added some gold too.

I loved how the paints were mixing together all on their own, but I decided to just mix them up using the wood stick. The results were very pretty, however, one thing I learned in this process is that until the resin is totally set, the paints continued to mix. I ended up with a very overpowering red, yet the gold came through very pretty.

I let the resin cure over night. I did get up very early the next day, to make sure the resin was not completely hardened, because I wanted to cut up some resin hearts to use in this Valentine project. Lucky me, it was still flexible, so I was able to cut the resin sheets using my Westcott scissors. 

Since the resin was still flexible and not fully cured, when I applied the resin sheets onto the glass, the resin served as glue. I pressed them into place and left it alone then went to work. When I got back home after work, the resin hearts were completely cured and glued onto the glass. I had cut a very thin resin strip that I wrapped on the stem of the glass – I thought it looked pretty so I left it alone.

I have to be honest it needed something else... so I figured why not do some etching on the glass. I cut up some hearts making sure these were big enough so that the resin heart would sit in the center and I would be able to etch around the resin hearts. 

   

I used masking tape to protect the rest of the glass from getting any of the etching cream, as I only wanted the etching to be done around the resin hearts.

I decided to use the little hearts on the bottom of the glass as you can see below, I added some etchall resist gel around the hearts and I added etching cream around the strip of resin on the stem... figured why not, so I did.

   

After the 15 minutes were up, I removed and rinsed off the etching cream under running water in my bathroom sink, then removed all the tape and the hearts. I was left with a pretty etched glass, but I didn't like the hearts on the bottom of the glass – they looked very distorted. I was also not happy with the resin strip on the stem... I didn't like how it felt when I held the stem so I removed it. Since it was never glued onto the glass, it was loosely wrapped which made it easy to remove.

I painted over the hearts at the bottom of the glass with the red Pebeo paint and I also added a few red dots over the etched hearts.

I decided to mix a little bit more Amazing Clear Cast Resin. I took a few drops of the resin and added this to the painted hearts on the bottom of the glass. I really liked the red hearts at the bottom, the addition of resin was enough to bring out the painted hearts. I love it!

This is my Valentine glass for one... I had my chocolate hearts, a few candies and a little bit of wine after I got home from taking my kids out for pizza on Valentine's day. A perfect way to end my day with my very own one-of-a-kind Valentine's glass.

   

How will you customize your wine glasses?

Please do share your ideas with us by leaving a comment below.

Thanks for visiting! I invite you to stop over to my blog, "What is Creativity" at http://chuy-creativity.blogspot.com to see more of my creations. ~ Maria Soto

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#Cre8time Love for Nature... DIY Painted Rocks by Melissa Johnson

Hello everyone! Today I am sharing a fun and easy Valentine's project that you can even include the kids in (I did!).

We have had some beautiful weather here in Texas, so we decided to take this project outside. I had the kids gather up some rocks with flat surfaces from our yard and we washed them in some soapy water.

Next, we painted on our rocks using Mod Podge

to create hearts and other designs.

 

 

 

 

 

Then we added some very fine glitter over the Mod Podge.

After my daughter and I painted our designs, I mixed up some Amazing Clear Cast Resin to coat the top of the rocks and make the glitter really sparkle!

 

It was so much fun that my son even got involved! 

We set them out to dry overnight on a plastic garbage bag.

And here are the finished painted rocks :)

 

The resin coating makes the glitter POP!

 

 

What Valentine's goodies have

you made with your kids?

Make something that makes you happy :) ~ Melissa Johnson

For more of my mixed media projects, please visit my blog.

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A #Cre8time Toast to Love... #DIY Champagne Glasses by Bridget Cordero

Hello friends! With the season of love fast approaching, I decided to decorate a couple of champagne glasses that we could use on Valentine’s Day – using a few things from my papercrafting stash and Amazing Casting Products.

First I decided I wanted hearts and polka-dots on these glasses. After considering this for a while, I took masking tape and laid it on the sheet that is left over from printer labels and then punched out the hearts to create a stencil.

Figuring I need to layer the heart stencils to make a kind of wall so the resin stays inside of the heart. Once created, I placed them in various places on the glasses.

Then I mixed up some Amazing Casting Resin and Alumilite Red Dye, and waited a little bit until the resin started to thicken... then used the stir stick to put the resin into the heart stencils. CLICK HERE to view mixing/preparation for Amazing Casting Resin.

After a few minutes while the resin was not fully cured, I removed the stencils. While the hearts were setting, I mixed up a little more Amazing Casting Resin with some Cotton Candy Alumidust to make polka dots on the glasses. Before applying with my stir stick, I waited for the resin to thicken a bit.

I cleaned up the glasses with a wet paper towel and now we have two cute champagne glasses to enjoy on Valentine’s Day.

How do you creatively show your love??

Thank you everyone for stopping by and I hope I have inspired you.

If you’d like to see more of my creations,
please stop by my YouTube Channel

at https://www.youtube.com/user/BsAlteredDesigns 

Happy crafting! ~ Bridget

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