Did you miss it?? Make it Artsy Episode 105 - Nature

Hello Amazing Crafters!! Have you heard about Make It Artsy?? It's a brand new TV show for makers and crafters – featuring tips, techniques and projects for makers, crafters and artists.

Did you miss Episode 105
of Make It Artsy??! 
We have you covered!

Here's a sneak peek! CLICK HERE to view last week's episode:

Series 100, Episode 105 - Nature

Just step outside to find artsy inspiration in nature. Calligrapher Janet Takahashi adds floral accents to plain lettering. Metalsmith Mary Hettmansperger adds patinas to copper. Art entrepreneur Jenn Mason captures nature's beauty in monostenciling. Julie Fei Fan Balzer has a tip for printing designs with items from nature.

Bookmark or PIN the Make It Artsy Website http://makeitartsy.com

Make It Artsy launched on September 29th on Public Television stations across the country! Look for it on your local PBS channel. If you can't find it on your local programming, you can view this episode, Series 100, Episode 105 - Nature online from November 12 - November 18.

Make It Artsy is a new series that celebrates that maker spirit in everyone. From mixed-media to metalsmithing, using tools from saws to sewing machines, today's most creative "makers" join host Julie Fei Fan Balzer to unleash a new look for crafting with a touch of industrial style.

Amazing Casting Products by Alumilite Corp. is proud to be one of these fabulous group of companies partnering with Make it Artsy. Stay tuned for episodes with projects featuring some of our AMAZING products! Don't worry... we'll be posting here when each new episode is available so you can tune in.

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An AMAZING #Cre8time Reveal... the Hidden Beauty of Petoskey Stones

Beauty in nature is found most everywhere... even in hidden places. This is true of Petoskey stones, which are found in Michigan and the upper Great Lakes region. This fossilized coral has a unique geometric pattern that is revealed when wet.

While these stones can be polished to bring out it's beautiful designs – we've found an easier way! By coating stones with a thin layer of Amazing Clear Cast Resin, you can achieve a wet-stone look that reveals each stones unique pattern.

Watch to see more of this amazing process...

If you have trouble viewing video, please CLICK HERE.

**A few TIPS** After applying resin, you'll want to cover stones while curing to prevent dust from settling on the surface. After curing you may have a small puddle of cured resin on the backside of the stones. This can be repaired by sanding that part down, then applying a thin coat of Amazing Clear Cast Resin over the sanded area and allow to cure again overnight. The resin can also be applied using a foam brush or cosmetic sponges.

Enjoy your beautiful coated stones! The Petoskey stones reveal their inner beauty with this easy faux-polishing technique... ready to use in handmade jewelry and other handmade creations.

This technique can be used with other stones to bring out their hidden beauty... like this pendant featuring a triangular stone created by Rachel Whetzel.

What would you embellish with resin?

Thanks for visiting! CLICK HERE to view more videos on how you
can utilize Amazing Casting Products in your creations.

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#Cre8time Arting from Nature... Flowers with Rocks or Resin by Brenda Burfeind

Good day friends! Brenda here from Creativity is a State of Mind with a fun Pinterest redux. Now I love searching Pinterest and finding things to make. My only thing is that I don't make it exactly the way I see it – I love putting a twist on things. SO let's get started!

This was my inspiration for this project. I absolutely love these,

but I love to add my own take on the things I make.

Side 1 of my rock that I found. 

Side 2 – I loved all the texture it had!

I created a mold using my Amazing Mold Putty and you can see how to prepare your putty for molding HERE. I mixed the Amazing Casting Resin with Alumilite Violet Dye for both rocks. You can view mixing instructions for resin HERE. Each resin piece took about 10 minutes to set up.

Another great thing is that my new resin rocks are light as can be!

I needed a center, so I dug through my box of odds and ends of resin pieces and found this that I had molded awhile back {CLICK HERE to see that project}.

I just cut the necklace part off with my craft knife – I also love that it has texture.

Then I painted it with some green and purple acrylic paint.

While I was making my resin rocks, I worked on my board. This is 100 year old barnwood and it's so gorgeous! I stained and varnished it.

I went into my back yard and found some twigs to use for floral stems.

When all my faux rocks were made I laid

everything out on my board for placement.

I did use some Rub 'n Buff® to bring out the texture of my purple flower, and used the same green acrylic paint to highlight my "stem". Then I glued everything down with E6000®. I also glued some acrylic beads to the center.

So, what do you think? I'm so thrilled with how this turned out.

I cannot wait to hang it on my deck!

What would you mold to create

your very own flower plaque?

Thank you for stopping by and make sure

to check out all the other designers' projects.

Until next time, Brenda!

Visit my blog, Creativity is a State of Mind to see some more of my creations.

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It's that time to have you chance to join our team of Amazing Creatives!

CLICK HERE for details to apply.

DEADLINE to apply is April 22, 2016.

 

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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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#Cre8time Custom Artifacts... The Hunter's Knife by Lyn Gill #12DaysofHomeDecor

Hi Lyn here! Are you getting ready for the holiday's? Well I have been and I have a little home decor project to share with you today. I was inspired by my love of nature and all things ancient.

It all started with this broken Native American spear head tip I had found years ago. I knew Amazing Mold Putty would be the perfect to mold it! So I formed the putty around the spear head and quickly stood it up on it's end so that it would form a flat bottom. That way I wouldn't need to support it when I poured in the Amazing Clear Cast Resin.

I mixed some of the Alumilite Brown Dye to the Amazing Clear Cast Resin then poured and waited... LOL – waiting is the hardest part for me! When it was set I formed a handle around the cured blade using Super Sculpey and then I baked it. The Amazing Casting Resin and Amazing Clear Cast do well at Polymer Clay baking temps (around 275ºF). I added little acrylic paint along with a few embellishments and it was finished.

What broken items have you used

Amazing Casting Products

to fix, repair or re-use?

I want to thank you for taking the time to stop by today

and sharing in this fun 12 Days of Home Decor with us.

Till Next Time! ~ Lyn 

You can find me on YouTube at LynzCraftz or on my blog LynzCraftz.

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Bringing the Outside in for #Cre8time... Organic Resin Home Decor by Tracy Alden

Hello! Tracy here with another Amazing Casting Products inspiration post! I often bring up Nature as a never ending source of inspiration for my art, so when I hit an artistic wall I go out to collect rocks, fallen plants and bits of wood. With found leaves, fronds and petals I like to use a basic flower pressing technique, just sandwich the plant material between two thick pieces of paper towels and put it on a flat surface with a heavy weight on top. Between a week to two weeks I then have perfectly dried pieces with most of their original color intact. I store the dried plants flat in a box, and it was that box that I decided to rummage through to get inspiration for my next resin project! 

Supplies:

• Amazing Clear Cast Resin
• Alumidust
• Liquitex Gloss Varnish
• Liquitex Matte Medium
• Baking Parchment Paper 
• Dried Plant Clippings 
• Paper Scraps 
• Cosmetic Sponges 
• Stir Sticks 
• Craft Scissors 

I placed the dried plant pieces that caught my eye on a table to see what I wanted to do. An idea for making them into home decor pieces came to me seeing them placed on a white background. I could make organic resin home decor pieces with the help of Amazing Clear Cast Resin!

I sealed the pieces with Liquitex Gloss Varnish coating the front and back of each piece and letting it dry. I added a second coat to act as a glue for light dusting of Alumidust and let them all dry. Sealing the dried plant matter with varnish will not only help reduce air bubbles from forming when placed in the resin, but will prevent the resin from soaking into the organic matter, which would create an oily appearance.

I had some uneven cuts and scraps of handmade mulberry and flower petal paper, that would be perfect for a "canvas" for dried plant pieces. I applied Liquitex Matte Medium to the front and back of the paper with a cosmetic sponge, which took several hours to dry because of the nature of mulberry. I covered most of the paper using a sponge application, but it left just enough tiny bits of paper unsealed. When resin is applied later on, it will soak into the uneven coated paper creating an interesting visual appearance.

Once the paper was dry, I placed the dried plant matter on the paper to get an idea of how I wanted it to look, such as the case with these palm leaves on the mulberry paper.

I cut a large piece of baking parchment paper to place the mulberry paper on top of. Any resin that drips off the piece will not bond to the parchment paper, making it a quick and easy work surface for messy resin projects. I poured a layer of Amazing Clear Cast Resin on the mulberry paper, coating the entire front surface, I then carefully placed the plants back on top of the resin coated paper and poured a second coat to entrap the dried plants. I then let the resin dry to a tacky set and poured a third layer of resin to give the piece a nice smooth topcoat. 

I let the resin cure to the point it was dry to the touch but still slightly flexible, I peeled the pieces off the parchment paper and trimmed any resin drips with a sharp pair of craft scissors. I placed the resin pieces back onto the parchment paper to fully dry.

With any scrap paper or dried plant material making a quick and beautiful home decor or paper crafting piece is easy with Amazing Clear Cast Resin. :)

What AMAZING 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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#Resin Rocks! AMAZING #DIY Jewelry by Featured Artist Katie Smith

I'm the Indie Crafts editor over at CraftGossip which means I'm always looking at new stylish tutorials to feature and keeping up with the trends. One of the trends that is pretty popular right now is tribal themed items. I decided to make a necklace inspired by that trend.

While I was up in Oklahoma earlier this month, we stopped at a tiny rock shop and I picked up a few of these 50 cent arrowheads. I decided to try making a mold using them, so that I could make some resin arrowheads!

I started by mixing up a bit of Amazing Mold Putty and mashing my real arrowheads down into it. I let it cure for 20ish minutes before pulling them out {CLICK HERE to view mixing/preparation}.

I love how quickly you can make molds with this stuff!

To make my resin arrowheads I first brushed a tiny bit

of Alumilite Copper Metallic Powder into my mold.

Then I whipped up a batch of Amazing Casting Resin and added a little bit of Alumilite Dye into it and poured it into my mold {CLICK HERE to view mixing/preparation}. 

**TIP** I always have an extra small mold on hand as well in case I have any extra resin, I'll pour it in to there.

While the resin was still liquidy, I placed some jewelry eye pins into my arrowheads so that I could use them on a necklace (without drilling holes or gluing eye pins to them).

The Amazing Casting Resin cures pretty quick, so I pulled these 3 arrowheads out and made a half a dozen more in other colors.

You can see the original arrowheads on the left, and my resin arrowheads on the right. I love that I can make them in different colors!

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Katie Smith is a 22 year old artist currently living in Dallas/Fort Worth. She does a little bit of everything crafty – scrapbooking, card making, drawing, mixed media and art journaling, sewing, quilting, basket making, general DIY’s and painting canvas shoes that she sells in her etsy shop! She also is the indie crafts columnist for CraftGossip.com where she has a review of the new Amazing Remelt {CLICK HERE to jump over and check it out}. Katie is also a published artist in multiple magazines including Creating Keepsakes, Stitch Craft Create as well as a few craft books. You can see more of Katie's art on her blog: www.punkprojects.com.

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Thanks for stopping by today! We hope you enjoyed this tutorial from Katie Smith. We want to say THANKS to Katie for joining us as our Featured Artist for February... and we hope that she'll come join us again in the future. Please take time to visit her blog punkprojects.com to see more of her fabulous work. Don't forget to drop CraftGossip.com and check out her Indie Crafts column.

Have a fabulous day!