VIVA LA VIDA... #Cre8time Inspired by Frida Kahlo with Maria Soto

Hi there! Maria here with a project I've been wanting to share with everyone. I love the artist Frida Kahlo, and after looking up some of her many quotes, I was inspired to create with these in mind. 

I created this piece inpspired by a short but very strong phrase, "Viva la Vida" which means "Live Life". I feel that we need to embrace life, live to the fullest, try to overlook all the negativity we see around us and just scream these words out to remind ourselves that life matters, that we should do our best to make the most of it today, to leave the past behind us and live life now. 

During one of my many visits at Michaels, I purchased several wood pieces and these cute little frames already have a cute cut-outs on the corners. I noticed they also have a small frame that fits over them, so I also purchased several of those too.

I sketched an image of Frida, then took out my Walnut Hollow burning tool from and began to trace around the image.

I love burning images on wood. For this piece, I decided to add shading too. Whenever I draw or paint I have to add shading and details, though this is the first time I tried it on wood – and it will not be the last because I really loved how this turned out.

I used Plaid acrylic paints to add color to the piece, then I stamped the quote using black ink. As you can see the hair was left alone, as I didn't want to cover all the shading I had done. I used wood glue to put together the two pieces.

I used gold paint to paint the sides and the back of the finished frame.

Then I coiled some colored wire over a paintbrush, added some beads and wrapped it around the cut outs on the top corners. I also added beads to make her earring, and finished with some swarovski clear crystals. 

To finish off this piece I decided to add a layer of Amazing Clear Cast Resin. Not only would this resin give it a glass-like finish, but the colors would be brighter too.

I gathered these supplies in preparation: parchment paper, wipes, measuring cups, a mixing stick, and Amazing Clear Cast Resin.

Using Amazing Clear Cast Resin is pretty easy. First you measure out equal amounts of parts "A" and "B" {please CLICK HERE to view mixing instructions}. 

   

Add part "A" to part "B" and mix the resin slowly. When completely mixed, let it sit for a few minutes for the bubbles to go away. Now the resin is ready to apply to the piece. I gently spread a thin layer of resin around using the mixing stick.

She looks AMAZING and love it!

I think I will do a collection of "Frida" inspired frames like this one.

The photos don't do this piece justice at all –
photographing the clear resin is not easy. 

I hope you like my piece – please feel free to leave a comment.

A simple quote inspired me to create this piece...

What inspires you to create?

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 Celebrations... Dia De Los Muertos Sugar Skull Earrings by Maria Soto

Hi there, this is Maria and today I bring you a fun and creative project. I love to be as original as possible with everything I do – and since I love, LOVE making molds I try and make my own original pieces when possible, then create molds of these using the Amazing Mold Putty. This is my favorite product because it cures in about 10 to 15 minutes.

Earlier this year I went a bit crazy creating pieces out of two-part jewelry clay and also paper clay... from which I made so many different things and then made lots and lots of molds to help me make some fun and interesting pieces. Today I am sharing one of the items I made.

Here you see my hand sculpted skulls, different shapes and sizes. 

  

I decided to make one big Amazing Mold Putty mold grouping all of these – since they are small enough and its easier to keep them all together. 

Most of what I create is using Amazing Casting Resin – simply because it cures in minutes and it allows me to go from molding right into embellishing my pieces right away. Do you see my Cherub on the new packaging??!

Creating the resin skulls:

1. Mix the Amazing Mold Putty as directed. CLICK HERE to view mixing/preparation.

2. Place the skull over the putty and press down, then wait about 15 minutes to remove the skull.

3. Mix the Amazing Casting Resin as directed, and pour into the mold, wait about 15 minutes to remove the resin skull. CLICK HERE to view mixing/preparation.

Creating the earrings:

1. Paint the entire skull with white acrylic paint (since the cured resin is white I skip this step).

2. Since the details of the skull are already there, all I have to do is take paint to make them stand out. I use black acrylic paint to highlight the uni-brow, nose and mouth.

3. For the eyes instead of painting them and to add more dimension, I opted to use red sequins and clear crystals.

4. Paint tiny heart with red acrylic paint.

5. I drilled a tiny hole on each skull right under the heart and added a headpin to assemble the earrings.

This turned out to be a very simple project. I love the light-weightedness of these earrings, you simply forget you are wearing them.  That's one thing I love about using this resin, it is so light, even on bigger pieces, you don't get that heavy feeling... which is one thing I dislike when it comes to jewelry, especially earrings. 

It really helps to have molds ready for creating... and spending time sculpting items to create different types of molds ahead of time to have on hand for later has worked wonderfully for me.  

Materials used:

• Amazing Mold Putty
• Amazing Casting Resin
• Wood Sticks
• Measuring cups
• Acrylic paints - white, black, red
• Earring wires
• Metal butterflies
• Head Pins
• Paint brushes
• Red sequins
• Clear crystals

What would you imagine creating

using these Amazing products? 

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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Happy Bird-day!! An Amazing #Cre8time Transformation by Maria Soto

Hi there! Happy BIRD-day! Maria here today to start off the weekend with a fun Cre8time project! You never know when or where inspiration will strike – this project was hatched from Easter!

Some time ago after Easter, I went shopping and noticed these cute tin bird containers that were on clearance. They were filled with some type of hard candy, but all I could think about is how I wanted to make a mold out of the container!!! So I bought two and went home with lots of tasty Easter candy.

I used Amazing Mold Putty for making a mold of my fun bird tin.

CLICK HERE to view instructions for making a mold.

In about 10-15 minutes, my mold is ready to use! Amazing Mold Putty is truly amazing – it works fast and it captures lots of detail, too!

I plan on hand-painting this birdie, so I decided to use Amazing Casting Resin to make my first piece. Follow the easy 1:1 instructions for mixing this resin -AND- keep in mind that it begins to cure very quickly {CLICK HERE to view mixing/preparation}.

**A TIP** This is a fairly large mold, and with larger volumes you will feel it getting hot faster... so make sure your mold is ready for it. Larger pours of Amazing Casting Resin cure quicker than smaller ones will. Keep an extra mold on hand in case you mixed too much resin – you don't want to waste this product.

I used a pencil to draw some patterns to get an idea of what designs I wanted. I could just ink these lines in with a black, gold or silver permanent pen and this would make a lovely ornament. But I plan to add some color!

I always like to paint my pieces with white acrylic first. I find it allows me to use any type of paints I want on top afterward.

For this project, I used an assortment of DecoArt Patio Paints;

simply because I love the bright colors.

Now the fun starts – I get to paint, paint, paint! First I painted the base coat, all green. I just had too much fun painting this little birdie! Once I got started I got carried away, then suddenly all the painting was done {sorry I don't have any photos to share}. 

Then I added some little clear acrylic drops to add more dimension, then used pens to add detail to the bird – giving a bit more color, illusion of dimension to the piece.

  

Here's a close-up of the head and tail to show the transparency

of the drops – they make the colors underneath POP.

I felt this little bird needed something else, so I glued some green ribbon to the back for hanging. Since I had all these small pieces of foil paper from Rinea, I thought, "why not give this pretty bird a fun party hat"... and here I give you the finished piece!

You are a little party animal,

you little birdie!

I hope I have inspired you to have "FUN" with these amazing products. I always do, they allow me to get really creative, they allow me to imagine and create!

What would you reimagine using

these Amazing products? 

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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Let your #Cre8time Dreams Soar... Day 3 of StencilGirl and Amazing Casting Products Bloghop!

Hello Amazing Crafters!! Welcome to Day THREE of the StencilGirl Products and Amazing Casting Products Blog Hop! We hope we have been inspiring you to create! If you are just joining us you can catch up with the projects from Day ONE and Day TWO!

The creative teams of StencilGirl and Amazing Casting Products have joined Cre8time forces in playing with Amazing Casting Products and StencilGirl stencils... including Mary Beth Shaw!!!

ARE YOU READY TO BE AMAZED??!

Follow the links below to see today's projects!

Anna Friesen

Anna of Team StencilGirl has jeweled up her art journal!

CLICK HERE to pop over to her blog to see how.

Janet Joehlin

Let your Cre8time soar with Janet of Team StencilGirl.
CLICK HERE to see more on these amazing birds!

Maria Soto

Amazing Creative Maria has created an inspiring piece filled with text, texture and colors! CLICK HERE to see all the details!

Tanya Ruffin

Amazing Creative Tanya has is catching her Cre8time dreams with a colorful dream catcher! CLICK HERE to see the full reveal!

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Thanks for joining us today - we hope you are inspired and we would love to see what you create. Share you creations using Amazing Casting Products on social media using hashtag #amazingcastingproducts.

What would a bloghop be without a GIVEAWAY??!!!

One lucky winner will receive both a $25 Gift Certificate to StencilGirl Products AND a $25 Gift Certificate to Amazing Casting Products!

Please take your time and visit each blog showcased today through Friday and leave a comment. The more blogs you comment on, the more chances you have to WIN! 

Day 3 Bloghop Lineup...

Visit the fabulous designers from both teams and comment

for your chance to win (one comment per blog please).

Anna Friesen

Janet Joehlin

Maria Chuy Soto

Tanya Ruffin

You have until Sunday, April 23rd at 11:59PM Central Time to leave your comments. Winner will be announced on StencilGirl's Facebook page and also on the Amazing Casting Products’ Facebook page on Monday, April 24th. GOOD LUCK!!

Be sure to check back tomorrow for more AMAZING Inspiration!!

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If you like what you see here, we would LOVE for you to join us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube or subscribe to the blog in the right sidebar for more amazing inspiration!

Share your creations on social media

using hashtag #amazingcastingproducts

Dia De Los Muertos - Amor de Familia... a #Cre8time Keepsake by Maria Soto

Hi There! Maria here today and I wanted to share how I came about this project... a Family Shrine for the "Day of the Dead" celebration. 

Many years ago I went to Mexico for my grandmother's funeral. My Grandfather had passed away many years before her. When we arrived at the cemetery, they opened her coffin, and added human remains inside her coffin. I asked my Dad what that was about and he said that was my Grandfather, and he would be with her now for eternity.

Until that day I never knew you could do this. So I decided to make a coffin shrine for my project – you will see more than one skeleton on the inside, and also many skulls on the top... representing all of the other family members that have passed on.

Products used:

Amazing Mold Putty

Amazing Casting Resin

Measuring cups

Mixing sticks

Alumilite Black Dye

Acrylic paints and various colors

Paint brushes

Recycled bag

Kleenex tissues

Flowers

Cheese cloth

I had a handful of plastic skulls and also some little tiny ones that are actually double-sided. I used Amazing Mold Putty to make this multi-skull mold. I need a lot of skulls for this project, and making one single mold was not a good idea – so I made this big one with many instead.

First make sure to follow the simple instructions on how to mix Amazing Mold Putty {CLICK HERE to view mixing/preparation}. It's pretty easy – it comes it two parts, Part "A" and Part "B"; and you take equal amounts of each (one part is white the other is yellow) and you mix these two until you no longer see any white, only a uniform yellow putty.

  

I used a plastic bowl to place the putty inside and then quickly pressed down all the skulls, trying to use as much of the putty's surface as possible. You have to move fast because this sets pretty fast once mixed together. I was able to make 10 large skulls and 7 tiny skulls from this one mold.

  

Now since I was going to paint all these skulls for Day of the Dead, I needed to use the Amazing Casting Resin. This resin not only cures in about 10 minutes... but it cures a nice opaque white as you can see in photos – and you can also add color to the resin is you want. I just left them white because I knew I would be hand painting each differently. I had extra resin leftover so I poured into a bigger skull mold (I'll use this later in another project). CLICK HERE to view how to mix and prepare Amazing Casting Resin. 

  

I made this little heart with wings out of Creative Paperclay. I did make a mold of this piece, but at the end I decided to use the one made from paperclay instead of the resin, same goes for a little skull I used on the inside of the coffin.

Here is the wood coffin I purchased from Michael's. I painted it first, then played around with how to add the skulls, add texture and embellishments, etc.

I love to use recycle items in my projects. In this project I used this empty potato bag. I painted the inside of the coffin purple, and this mesh was perfect because it matched the inside color. 

Here is the coffin, all painted with acrylic paints... 

black on the outside and the inside is purple.

So now I'm ready to add the skulls to the outside of the coffin. First I added some Amazing Casting Resin to the top of the coffin – a little bit at a time. Since this resin cures really fast, I had to make sure to work in small amounts, waiting for each pour to cure. It took me a few hours to get the top completely done.

Each resin pour over the coffin meant I would add a few skulls. As you can see I did color some of the skulls black, and then I stopped because I remembered I needed them to be all white. Adding the skulls at first was easy, but then I really had plan where to place them first before adding more resin – because I needed to fill the entire top of the coffin, making sure not to cover up the bottom skulls. This took a while, but I think it turned out perfect. The tiny little skulls were the perfect size for use as fillers.

Once I was done adding the skulls to the top of the coffin, I painted all of them white. Since some of the skulls were black tinted resin, it took a couple of coats to completely paint them all white.

Once they were all white the fun could begin... going back in and adding all the little details of color to each. This took a while but I really liked the end result!

I also added some color to the resin that spilled over the coffin – I wanted it to look as if the bodies had melted away, and all you had left were the skulls.

Here you can see how I added the recycled bag on one side, and then added the heart with wings and the skull made from paperclay. Had to add some flowers... they were orange, but I wanted to distress them. So I painted them all black, then I added back some red, orange and black. The heart as you can see was painted black, then I added some red and white and the word "amor" which means "Love". The tiny skull was painted all white, then detailed with bright colors. 

This close up shows the final look on the inside of the coffin, You can see the three bodies I added on the right side of the coffin. I used two kleenex tissues to cover the bodies and then added Amazing Casting Resin colored with Black Dye with a piece of cheese cloth over the cured resin. I painted over these materials to give them more dimension.

Here are more detail views of the finished inside of my coffin shrine.

This project took me about three days to start and finish. Once I was happy with everything, I took it to my office and created a little setting to celebrate my loved ones that have moved on... then brought it back home for the traditional celebration including food and lighted candles with my family. 

I've shared my take on how I used these products to celebrate a special day with my family. CLICK HERE to view some other Sugar Skulls and a Mini Shrine I created last year for this occasion.

How would you celebrate

a special holiday using

these Amazing products? 

Please share your ideas with us. We have the winter season and Christmas coming up, let's see what amazing creations we can all come up with! We love to see what others do with these awesome products.

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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