Sealing with AMAZING Clear Cast... Holiday Inspiration from Marilyn Weyman Kegg

Amazing Clear Cast Resin is the best ever sealant for nearly every need. When using natural elements for decorations, Amazing Clear Cast Resin will ensure that everything you make will last forever. If what you are making has a hole from which to hang it, make sure that you coat the inside of the hole with clear cast so that it is protected too.

You can even use it to embellish items as well as to protect them. Here, I've made a big bow for a basket decorated with pinecones. I brushed each pinecone with Amazing Clear Cast Resin using a disposable sponge brush, then sprinkled red and green glass glitter on top.

I gave it a few hours to dry and then brushed on another layer of Amazing Clear Cast Resin because it is shards of glass after all. I don't want anyone to get cut on it. The Amazing Clear Cast Resin protects the pinecones and will keep them looking great year after year, it makes them waterproof, it adheres the glass glitter to the pinecones, and it keeps the glass from cutting anyone!

What items will you embellish and preserve

with Amazing Crafting Products???

Please share them on the NEW user GALLERY on the Amazing Mold Putty Website!

Happy Crafting!

~ Marilyn Weyman Kegg for Amazing Crafting Products

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Don't Throw Away Those Old Tools... Make AMAZING Customized Embossing Plates! Tutorial by Marilyn Weyman Kegg

Have you ever wished that your favorite rubber stamp was also an embossing plate?

Now it can be with the help of AMAZING Crafting Products! Here's how.

What you need:

• Any embossing or cutting machine that uses pressure to work 
• Two replacement plates for an embossing machine that will fit into your machine or extention plates for your machine (these are sold wherever the machines are sold) 
• Cushioning such as is sold for embossing machines or use Fun Foam from the kids section of the craft supply store 
• Amazing Mold Putty
• Amazing Casting Resin
• Any rubber stamp - clear, red, grey, mounted or unmounted 
• A substrate - a smooth, flat base such as a piece of lucite, thick glass, or a clear mounting block for stamps or you can use a transparency or another piece of thick film to support the mold you are forming 
• A piece of PVC pipe to use as a rolling pin 
• Petroleum jelly 
• Solvent based stamp cleaning solution 
• Tissues and/or baby wipes 
• Measuring and mixing cups for resin 
• Popsicle sticks or wooden coffee stirrers 

Process:

Note about stamps: Choose a stamp that has good definition, where the images stand out clearly from the background in a deep cut as with the stamp I've chosen below, a text stamp.

1. With your finger, put a thin coating of petroleum jelly all over the working part of the stamp, including the edges. Work it down into the stamp's grooves and cut outs so that the mold material will not stick to it. Put the stamp off to the side. Don't skip this step or you could ruin your stamp (ask me how I know this!). Clean your hands well so the petroleum jelly will not affect the next step.

2.  Measure out enough of one part of Amazing Mold Putty to just cover the surface of the stamp with a small border. It doesn't have to be very thick, just about 1/16th of an inch or a little more. Roll it into a ball and make a ball of the other part to match. Together, they make twice as much as the one you measured or tried out with the stamp, so you will have enough depth. You don't want this to be any thicker than the depth of the cuts in the stamp plus about an eighth of an inch.

3.  Mix the two parts of the Amazing Mold Putty as usual. I like to flatten both balls out and put the white part on the bottom, then fold the top and bottom in to the center, squish it down, flatten it out, and then fold the two sides in. I keep doing this, alternating the top/bottom with the sides until the two parts are completely mixed with no swirls showing. It will be a light yellow color. It should not take more than two or three times for top/bottom/left/right folds to mix it thoroughly, about 1 minute.

4.  Quickly flatten the putty out onto the substrate, using the PVC pipe to roll it out smoothly into a flat surface. Immediately press the stamp into the Amazing Mold Putty and hold it there. You have about 30 seconds to 1 minute to do this. You might want to weight the stamp with something while you wait for the Amazing Mold Putty to set up because wiggling the stamp will make the mold less distinct. You can touch the edge of the mold with a fingernail lightly to see if it indents. Once a fingernail no longer leaves an impression, it is set. This takes about 15 minutes. Thicker and larger flat surfaces take a little longer so allow it plenty of time to set properly.

5.  Once it is set, remove the weight if you used one and pull the stamp away. It is a good idea to clean it off with a tissue and a solvent stamp cleaning solution right away before you forget. I use a brush-like scrubber to clean mine after each use. The black, sponge-like stamp scrubbers are excellent too but I like the brush ones to really get into the grooves and remove all of the petroleum jelly.

6.  Try embossing something with just the mold. If that is too soft of a look, you can mix and pour some Amazing Casting Resin into the mold and allow it time to cure, then use the harder resin piece as your embossing plate. Remember that you want the total depth of the plate to be about one eighth of an inch. (Look at a ruler to see how thick that is.)

An idea to try: Make an embossing plate with textures from more than one stamp. Because Amazing Mold Putty sticks to itself, you can easily add a section. So make one texture then after it is molded, add more Amazing Mold Putty and use another stamp. This is a great way to use one or several small stamps multiple times to make a large custom embossing plate!

Embossing with just the mold worked for me on a really soft text paper that came out of an old thrift store encyclopedia I had altered. (I save the paper I take out of these for later projects like this one.) This would have looked nice dry-brushed with some acrylic paint. But the embossing shows up really well on a plain, dark colored paper like the red paper shown. It could be highlighted even more with a dusting of some chalk or Gilder's Paste.

This was just an idea and an experiment to prove that it would work. I was really happy to have found a new use for my old Sissix cutting machine. Now I need to come up with a project to use it!

What AMAZING arts and crafts will you create

with Amazing Crafting Products???

Please share them on the NEW user GALLERY on the Amazing Mold Putty Website!

Think of all the new ways you can combine embossing with your collection of rubber stamps!

Happy Crafting!

~ Marilyn Weyman Kegg for Amazing Crafting Products

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Pick an Amazing Butterfly! AMAZING Inspiration from Marilyn Weyman Kegg

Hi, Marilyn here for Amazing Crafting Products, with a little bit of inspiration for you today.

Here's an idea for an AMAZING little project that will make a potted flowering plant a little more personal. Make a customized pick! It's a great idea to take with you when you visit someone in the hospital or as a hostess gift, or even as a surprise present for no reason. 

Choose an item that is personal to the recipient or that will appeal to them, such as the butterfly I've used here. You can find lots and lots of rubber stamps to use as the basis of your mold, or an item you find around the house. In this case, I chose a butterfly rubber stamp.

Get your craft on.

All you need is your chosen item or rubber stamp, a few Amazing Crafting Products: Amazing Mold Putty, Amazing Casting Resin. I also used a bamboo skewer (the kind that you'd use to make shish kabobs, get them in the grocery store or the dollar store), some glitter glue, a few glue dots, and acrylic paints, in this case metallic paints. The gold paint didn't have enough sparkle, so I added the gold glitter glue to the center of each dot. Then I outlined the whole butterfly with some jet black glitter glue. Finally, I added a final coat of Amazing Clear Cast Resin to give it some gloss.

This makes an ordinary potted plant a lot more personal, and is a quick and easy gift that is a lot less expensive than sending a plant or flowers!

Happy Crafting!

~ Marilyn Weyman Kegg for Amazing Crafting Products

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An AMAZING Touch of Color... by Marilyn Weyman

Hi, Marilyn here with another project using Amazing Crafting Products. I don't know about you, but I am drawn to color. So when I finally got my hands on some Alumilite Dyes to use with Amazing Crafting Resin, I couldn't wait to play.

My first experiment resulted in a solid color red. While it suited my purpose (see this project), I wanted to do something a little different for my next project, a miniature bust. Using Amazing Mold Putty, I made a mold for a bust from a Frozen Charlotte porcelain doll I had picked up at a vendor fair at an art retreat. I was thinking about the pretty white color of Amazing Casting Resin and how to enhance it with a little color, echoing the marble busts you see decorating museums, libraries, and other public buildings. Marble features beautiful tints of white with delicate touches of color. After a few ambitious failures (trying to use too many colors in the short timeframe before the Amazing Casting Resin solidified), I decided to simplify and use only one color. Inspired by this bit of left-overs from the bottom of a pouring cup, I had a plan.

Materials:

• molds - one for your project, one for leftover resin
• disposable gloves
• a toothpick
• a mixing tool - I use popsicle sticks
• a mixing cup - a 2 ounce disposable plastic cup
• a pouring cup - a 1 ounce, thin rimmed plastic medicine dispensing cup
• a color cup - another medicine cup
• Alumilite Dye - color of your choice, I used blue
• Amazing Casting Resin

It is important to get organized so you don't waste any precious time while the Amazing Casting Resin is still "open" or liquid enough to color. I lined up the cups I would need: a pouring cup with the toothpick I'd use to create the marble effect, a color cup with a drop of blue dye (marked with a "B" so I'd know it was the blue later), and a mixing cup with room to stir.

I also lined up a few molds I had already made from Amazing Mold Putty, two sizes of busts of Frozen Charlottes. It is important to use the right kind of mold for this technique. You want to choose one that has a large, open surface on top that gives you room to swirl the dye into the resin. A mold with a small opening would be difficult to use for this technique. Not impossible, just more advanced. You would need a bit of practice to do it. I always keep at least one empty mold nearby into which I can pour any leftover resin once I've poured my project. I always work with at least two molds at a time.

Next, get your Amazing Crafting Resin ready to mix. I pour Part "A" and Part "B" into their measuring cups, then check to make sure that everything is lined up, ready to go once it is mixed. When I know I am ready, I pour both parts into the mixing cup and start to stir with my popsicle stick, making sure to scrape the sides and bottom at least twice during the process, watching for those yellowish swirls to go away. When it is ready, I pour it all into my pouring cup. This does risk getting air bubbles into the resin but I think it is worthwhile because it gives me more control over the pour. From the pouring cup, I pour about half into the main mold I am using, quickly pour a little into the color cup, then use the toothpick to stir the color into the resin. Once it is fairly well distributed (I'm marbling so I don't care about even distribution of the pigment), I pour it into the mold. Swirl it around with the toothpick, being careful not to mix it too much.

    

The hard part is waiting for it to finish setting up, I think!
I'm always so curious to see how it will turn out.

Finally, pop the resin pieces out of the molds and see the results!

    

These weren't exactly as I'd envisioned them, so I'll try again. The next time, I think I'll try to make sure that the toothpick touches the bottom of the mold so that the color gets all the way to the face. As you can see, the blue girl has more color on the back than on the face!

I certainly cannot wait to play with more color in Amazing Casting Resin. I had so much fun mixing that purple that I want to dye the whole color wheel!

Have fun with color and Happy Crafting!

~ Marilyn Weyman for Amazing Crafting Products

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New Uses for Old Rubber Stamps... by Marilyn Weyman

Hi all! Marilyn Weyman here for Amazing Mold Putty and Amazing Casting Resin from Alumilite Corporation. Today, I've got a project that might have you looking at all of those rubber stamps with new eyes. I've turned one of my rubber stamps into a pendant and you can do it too by following this simple method.

What you need: 

• An unmounted rubber stamp with a nice shape 
• Petroleum Jelly 
• Acrylic Mounting Block 
• Amazing Mold Putty 
• Amazing Casting Resin
• Alumilite Red Dye 
• Measuring Cups 
• Mixing Cup 
• Popsicle Stick 
• Ribbon or Cord 18" or whatever you need for your project 
• Scissors 
• Drill (optional) 
• Large Jump Ring (optional) 
• Sanding Block/File 
• Wipes 
• Paint Brush 
• Gold Acrylic Paint 

Make the Mold

Carefully trim around the stamp if it isn't already perfectly trimmed. I used a Clearly Impressed® stamp from the Rock and Roll collection by © Michelle Ward from Stampington & Company. Mount the stamp on the acrylic block. You should put a very thin layer of petroleum jelly on the stamp to protect it. Be sure to get the vaseline into any embossed areas but not to fill them or the Amazing Mold Putty won't be able to get in there properly. 

Mix the Amazing Mold Putty. I like to pull out a piece of each putty that is about the volume of the item I am molding. I roll each one into a ball separately so I can easily see if I have the same amount of each. I can easily add a bit or take some away until I do. 

Then I flatten them down and lay one on top of the other and flatten them together. Once they are flattened out, I fold each side into the middle and flatten again. Then I fold the top down and the bottom up and flatten again. I keep doing that, alternating the sides with the top and bottom, until I can no longer see swirls of dark yellow or white and the mass is a consistent medium yellow color. 

Working quickly (you have only 2 - 3 minutes to make the mold), I fold the top and bottom in again and then the two sides. Then I flatten the Amazing Mold Putty into a piece about the size and shape of my stamp and press it down onto the stamp, being careful to push it all the way down to the surface of the acrylic block and to have a bit of a wall all the way around the stamp. Note that to get a clear image, you must make sure that there are no fold lines on the part of the putty that will contact the item you are molding, whether it is a stamp or anything else. 

The advantage of working on the acrylic block is that, wet or dry, Amazing Mold Putty will only stick to itself, not the acrylic block, plastic, mylar, etc., and that you can turn the block over to very quickly see if the mold is up against the sides of the stamp firmly, that there are no air bubbles, and that the Amazing Mold Putty is pushed all the way into the embossings of the stamp. Let it sit for about ten minutes to set.

Once the mold is set, pull it off the stamp and examine it. If you need to beef up a side wall, you can do it quickly and easily by mixing just a small amount of Amazing Mold Putty and putting it exactly where it is needed, then allowing it to set.

Pouring the Amazing Casting Resin

• When your mold is ready to use, get everything set up for mixing and pouring your resin.
• Put on thin latex gloves for this part. 
• I get everything out and have the mold right there where I can reach it easily. 
• I like to put the measuring cups for my Amazing Casting Resin on top of the jars the Amazing Mold Putty comes in. That brings them up to eye level so I can see more easily that I have the right amount. I mark my levels on my cups and mark them A and B. (Use a fine-tipped permanent marker.)

I measure out the Amazing Casting Resin parts "A" and "B" side-by-side so I can compare and make sure that I have the correct amount in each cup. 

Then I put 3 drops of Alumilite Red Dye  into my mixing/pouring cup, pour in Part "A" and scrape the sides and bottom with my popsicle stick to get all of the resin in there. I do the same with Part "B" and start to stir, making sure that I scrape the bottom and sides frequently to get every bit thoroughly incorporated. Once I can see no more swirls, I generally can feel the contents of the cup heating up. Once you feel the heat, you must pour the Amazing Casting Resin into your mold quickly before it sets in the pouring cup. (Ask me how I know this!) 

Be sure to pour the resin in up to the top of the mold. I try to always have an extra mold next to the one I am using so that if I have any left over Amazing Casting Resin, I can just pour the leftovers in the second mold. It doesn't matter if it doesn't fill up because you can always pour more in the next time you are casting. And it also doesn't matter what color it is because you can always paint it when it is full and unmolded. 

Wait for it to set.

Let the mold sit undisturbed for about 20 minutes, depending on the ambient temperature. You can see the center of the resin start to turn white, even when you have used dye. 

Pop the shape out of the mold and check to make sure it is perfect or that you can file away any extra. In the case of the one I did, I just needed to file a little in the center of the heart. 

Then I dry brushed a coating of very dry gold acrylic metallic paint onto the entire surface and rubbed it in with a clean wipe. Once the paint is into the embossed surface, you can dampen the wipe a bit and rub gently to remove the paint only from the very top surface. Work this part as much as you like until the look is pleasing. 

After that, you can paint more gold around the edge if you like. 

I mounted mine onto a ribbon with glue, ready to be worn around the neck, tied onto a present, or even mounted on a card. You might want to drill it and use a jump ring to add it to a ribbon or cord. If your stamp is small enough, this would be a great way to make charms for a bracelet.

I hope you found this tutorial interesting and that the tips help you in any project with Amazing Mold Putty and Amazing Casting Resin.

Happy Crafting!

~ Marilyn Weyman Kegg for Amazing Crafting Products

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Use this COUPON to shop at the Amazing Mold Putty

website HERE and receive 25% OFF your purchase.

Please use coupon code " summerhaus " {no quotations}.

Coupon expires June 30, 2013.

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Blooms can Dangle, too... AMAZING Inspiration by Marilyn Weyman Kegg

Last summer, I attended an art retreat and took a class with Deryn Mentock, making Bloom Bangles to be added to a bracelet made in another class of hers. Each dangle we made was one loop or square of wire, hammered flat, then backed with a pretty paper, and coated with resin. 

I kept thinking, "What if the dangles really looked like blooms?"

When I came home, I started experimenting with shapes in wire. I used my painted dictionary papers to back the shapes I made and Amazing Clear Cast Resin from Alumilite Corporation to coat the papers. The resin makes the entire structure of the dangle stiffer, waterproof, and shiny. It is so easy to do!

Make your shape out of one piece of wire, ending with the loop on the top from which it will be hung on earrings as shown here, or on a bracelet, chain, or cord. Hammer the shape flat, being careful not to flatten your loop and wrap which would weaken the metal. Use a clear glue on the back of the flattened shape to attach the paper, then quickly paint the back with some Amazing Clear Cast Resin with a small disposable brush. **A TIP** Don't use a brush you like because you cannot clean the resin out of it. I use cheap brushes I buy at the craft store in the model-making department. Lay the shape on a teflon crafting sheet on a tray, then generously add Amazing Clear Cast Resin inside the wire shape until it is nearly overflowing. Set it aside and allow it to dry for 24 hours.

Once dry, any drips or overflow may be trimmed off with a pair of scissors or even a small file.

What shape would you make?

~ Marilyn Weyman Kegg for Amazing Crafting Products

.................................

__________________________________________

Use this COUPON to shop at the Amazing Mold Putty

website HERE and receive 25% OFF your purchase.

Please use coupon code " summerhaus " {no quotations}.

Coupon expires June 30, 2013.

__________________________________________

.................................

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Don't forget to subscribe to our blog on the right side bar:

Twitter at AmazingCrafting | Facebook at AmazingMoldPutty | YouTube at AmazingMoldPutty