Amazing Casting Products: handmade paper

Tuesday, January 26

#Cre8time Stash Busting... AMAZING Resin Paper Jewelry by Tracy Alden

Hello! Tracy with another Amazing Casting Products tutorial! The idea of coating and sealing paper with resin is an old one and I love the look. In the process of cleaning up I found a stash of paper scraps that I just couldn't throw away but wasn't too sure what to do with. Looking at the pieces I got to thinking of how pretty they would be as jewelry, with the help of Amazing Clear Cast Resin.

Supplies:

Amazing Clear Cast Resin
Liquitex Gloss Varnish
Baking Parchment Paper
Cosmetic Sponges
Stir Sticks
Craft Scissors
Jewelry punch tool
Needle and Flat head jewelry pliers
Beadsmith 1 Step Looper Tool
Crystal beads, chain and jumprings
Paper scraps, decorative from India

I first started off with the paper I wanted to use, sorted it by size and type.

Since I wanted the colors on the decorative paper to be enhanced by the resin, by coating and not soaking it in resin, I sealed the pieces with Liquitex Gloss Varnish, coating the front and back of each piece. I let each piece fully dry.

I cut the paper pieces into smaller sizes to create focal shapes. I mixed up some Amazing Clear Cast Resin, and applied it to the back of the paper pieces with a cosmetic sponge and let it fully cure, laying it on baking parchment paper {CLICK HERE to view mixing/preparation}. Once cured, I flipped over the resin coated papers and applied Amazing Clear Cast Resin to the front of the paper, again using a cosmetic sponge. I added just a bit more resin to the front of the paper and smoothed it with a stir stick to get a nice high gloss coating of resin. Any drips I cleaned up with baby wipes.

**TIP** I use reusable dish gloves whenever applying resin with a sponge, for easier clean up and to prevent resin from getting under my nails.

I let the Amazing Clear Cast 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.

Using a jewelry punch I punched holes through the now cured

resin paper on the top corners of each piece.

I opened up a jumpring with the flat nose pliers, put the jumpring through one of the resin pieces and attached it to the next larger resin piece.

Each piece made a link creating the focal element of the necklace.

After threading several beads on to a jewelry eyepin, I used a Beadsmith 1 Step Looper Tool to cut and finish each beaded link.

Using the flat head pliers I connected all of the links

together with jumprings and chain.

The finished necklace is light weight but gives

the illusion of embossed metal!

With the addition of flat backed gems, crystals and paper embellishments there is any number of amazing paper jewelry pieces you can create!

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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Tuesday, May 12

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?