#Cre8time Halloween Decorations... Fabulous Faux Eygyptian Scarabs by Tanya Ruffin

I wanted to make dozens of scarabs for Halloween decorations, but I didn't realize how much resin would be involved until I started. So I have devised a way to make an original in resin and then make copies of it using plaster and sand.

Things you'll need for this project:

• Found object to use as body of scarab
• Air dry clay
• Amazing Mold Rubber
• Amazing Casting Resin
• Alumilite Black Dye
• Interference Green Alumidust
• Hot glue gun
• Playground sand (I used a 50 lb package – approx. $5.00)
• Plaster
• Large box for sand
• Small box to use for mold

Steps:

1.) First create your original.

I found a Transformers toy in the close-out section that came in a cool egg shape. I used the egg shape as the back of the scarab. I used air dry clay to sculpt the rest of the body. The legs are very delicate so it I had to make them thick enough so they wouldn't break when dry. The scarab is 7 inches long and 5 inches wide.

2.) Create a mold.

I then used a small cardboard box to be the base of my mold. I hot glued the scarab in the bottom of the box and mixed up the Amazing Mold Rubber and poured {CLICK HERE to view mixing/preparation}. 

The mold came out great!

3.) Make a casting in resin.

Now to pour some Amazing Casting Resin {CLICK HERE to view mixing/preparation}. I originally thought I would be making dozens of these in resin, but then realized how much resin I would end up needing. Sorry, but I have more crafty things to make with my resin! 

So I cast just one to use as as a decoration. I mixed Alumilite Black Dye with the Amazing Casting Resin and used some cool Alumidust on the shell... this Interference Green is awesome!!!

So you may be asking – why not just pour the plaster in the rubber mold? Well, to get plaster out of the mold you pull back the mold and you get this... 

Unfortunately the plaster is too fragile and the legs broke off as I removed it from the mold. 

4.) Make many from one.

So I came up with another way. I will use sand to serve as a mold and pour the plaster into that. To get the plaster out of the sand you just brush away the sand. So I ran down to the building supply store and bought a 50lb bag of playground sand for a whooping $5.00. 

**TIP** also buy your plaster at the building supply store {not at the craft store} it is way cheaper.

I had an old box that a dozen glasses came in so I put a garbage bag inside and dumped in the sand. Then add some water so that the sand will stick to itself and pat it down to make a flat surface.

Press your object {I used the piece cast from Amazing Casting Resin} into the sand and gently pull it out. If the side walls collapse, then you need to add some more water to the sand. Repeat to make as many that will fit in sand box leaving ample space between each.

Then mix up your plaster and pour into each void. Wait for plaster to harden.

And then... Tada!!!

The legs were rather fragile being cast in plaster, so I poured it thicker and that is why there are more places that need clean up. These will embellish a wall in an Egyptian haunted house, so I am not too concerned about them being perfect.

The thing I love is the sand that is embedded in the hardened plaster. It looks like an ancient relic of sorts.

What handmade decorations

will you create for Halloween?

Now go and Craft Your Own Way! ~ Tanya

Please visit my site to see more of my inspiring
creations at www.tanyaRuffin.com

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#Cre8time brings Flight to a Vintage Illustration... by Isabel Villarreal

Hi there crafters! This is Isabel with my latest artistic endeavor. And trust me when I tell you that this project was long overdue! This is packed with lots of pictures to show you how a little fabric, some clay and nail polish can help breathe new life into an old papyrus illustration. You can do this with any unframed piece of art or even precious photos.

An Egyptian Winged Scarab brings
new life to an old papyrus illustration.

In 1987, my older brother was fresh out of basic training with the US Navy and headed to Egypt for his first assignment. Lucky for me, he was able to get some tourism in while he was stationed there, and, knowing of my love for anything Egyptian, he returned with this papyrus drawing along with some other items. Since then, this papyrus has been stored by my parents and then moved to various states with me before finally being rediscovered about 8 months ago in a box of random items during my latest move. I found it in it's original plastic sheath, thankfully undamaged, though the plastic was now dull, shredded and pretty much falling apart. Yes, after 27 years of being shuffled around and put into various boxes, it's definitely time to dust it off and get this illustration properly displayed on my wall.

I really like to use fabric in my projects as often as I can, so I went over to my trusty fabric stash and after some searching, found these 2 pieces that I think work well together and with the papyrus theme and colors. I chose a black woven fabric with gold dots and a Batik print that reminded me of lotus flowers. 

Afterward, I went through my art supplies and found this piece of foam core that was the perfect size for a background. I won't be using the foam core for this project, I'm just using it for the size. It will work as my template when I'm cutting the fabric pieces for the background later. Once I had my size and fabrics selected, I put the fabric and foam core aside while I worked on other parts of this project.

In order to add a little "something" to this piece I made this open winged scarab, representing rebirth and renewal, to use as a decoration. I thought the symbolism was appropriate for this project. The scarab and wings were made using sculpey clay. I just rolled it out flat and, using the point of a sewing machine needle, I etched the clay surface, cut out the shapes with an exacto and baked them for about 7 minutes in a toaster oven. I really fell in love with this and immediately thought of some other projects I could use the scarab in so I didn't want to use it and then not have it for other things.

This is when Amazing Mold Rubber really comes in handy. I can use Amazing Mold Rubber to make as many duplicates as I want so I don't have to make a new scarab set for every project. I found a box, lined it with clear packing tape to make final removal easy, and used hot glue to hold the 3 pieces in place. After mixing up some Amazing Mold Rubber, I poured it into my lined container and left it to set while I went back to play with the fabric. Please CLICK HERE to view mixing/preparation.

I started with the Black woven fabric. Turning the fabric face down, I placed the foam sheet on the fabric and cut it slightly larger than the piece of foam. I cut it a little larger so that I would have spare fabric to fold over along the 2 longer sides of the fabric, leaving a raw edge at what would be the top and bottom of the fabric frame. After folding and pinning the sides, I placed it on the Batik print and cut a piece to the exact size of the folded Black fabric. The Batik fabric will also be folded and pinned along the 2 longer sides. These 2 pieces of fabric will be layered and act as the background on which the drawing will be mounted.

Next I cut a second piece from the Black woven. I turned the fabric face down and placed the papyrus drawing on top, this time cutting the fabric slightly larger than the papyrus. This fabric piece will be used as a frame to hold the papyrus in place on the background fabric. When the papyrus was positioned exactly the way I wanted it on the fabric, I used pins to mark the corners and edges of the piece, then drew lines about 3/4" smaller than the marked edges.

Once the lines were drawn, I carefully cut along the lines and flipped it over. When I placed it over the papyrus- VOILA! A fabric frame! I love it when things work out as I planned. The frame overlaps the illustration about 3/4" all around and will hold it in place on the background, without using adhesives or damaging the papyrus in any way.

Now pin the 3 layers of fabric together making sure they lay nice and flat...and sew! The finished product should look like the image on the right after you finish sewing. The illustration will be inserted in the center Black frame. I'm showing it here without the papyrus illustration.

During the sewing part of my adventure, the Amazing Mold Rubber cured, YAY!!! The sculpey pieces came away with the rubber when I removed it from the container, but that's okay since it will only make it easier for me since I don't have to scrape the original pieces off the bottom of the box. I was a little worried that some of the finer details would be lost, but Amazing Mold Rubber captured every intricate detail of the wings!

Here I used a small soft brush to coat the mold with Alumilite Gold Metallic powder. You can really see all the beautiful detail I was able to capture with Amazing Mold Rubber! At the last minute I decided to also use part of a mold I made for a previous project-a trinket box with a scarab on top...for this papyrus project I only wanted the scarab, so I made sure to coat only the part of the mold that I would be using.

Time to break out the Amazing Clear Cast Resin. This is a 2 part resin that is mixed using equal parts {click here to view mixing/preparation}. Once the 2 parts are combined, the mixture will be a little foggy. Just stir slowly for about a minute or until the mixture is clear. Once it was properly mixed, I put a couple of drops of Alumilite Black Dye (literally! A couple drops of this dye goes a long way) into the mixture then poured it into my molds and left them to dry. The black dye is to give the castings a little opacity. If the resin is left clear, the metallic looks a little translucent and that is not the effect I was going for. I wanted these to look like carvings with gold leafing.

The next morning I removed the cured resin from the molds. They look great, but I really want to make this scarab pop. Nail polish to the rescue! I picked out some vibrant jewel tones and went to work using a small brush to apply the nail polish to my resin castings. Gorgeous!!

Finally, I folded the top and bottom about an inch and sewed it, leaving the sides open then slid a dowel through each opening. My open winged scarab was attached to the fabric above the papyrus illustration and my last-minute scarabs were added to the bottom dowels using E6000® adhesive. This is now ready to put into a shadow box on the wall.

My favorite part of this project was the challenge of coming up with a way to frame the papyrus in a non-traditional way and, I have to say using Amazing Mold Rubber made it easy for me to create the eye catching scarab details I needed to make this fabric frame different and AMAZING!!

What AMAZING things will you make
with Amazing Mold Rubber?

I'd love to see what you create! Please upload and share your creations to the

User GALLERY on the Amazing Mold Putty Website for all the world to see.

~ Isabel Villarreal

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Creating Ancient Artifacts for Mold Rubber Monday... Golden Scarab Trinket Box Tutorial by Isabel Villarreal

My niece has spent the last three months throwing parties, entertaining and organizing for family and friends and has had very little time for herself lately. I know that she adores anything with an Egyptian flair so I figured that, in appreciation for her selflessness, I would take some time and make something special for her that speaks to her heart. Scarab beetles are a popular and common theme in ancient Egyptian art and culture so when I was trying to decide what to make it wasn't difficult to decide on a trinket box with a scarab beetle embellishment on the lid.

I had a carved stone scarab that I bought at the Egyptian Museum in northern California during a trip about 10 years ago and a small plain alabaster trinket box from a flea market - VOILA! The makings for my decorated gift box. The box was plain so my plan was to make it a little fancier during the molding process using some cord and a few well placed drops of hot glue. Since I wanted my scarab to be highly detailed I chose Amazing Mold Rubber for creating my mold. Amazing Mold Rubber is a silicone product that starts as a liquid and solidifies over time so to begin with it must be poured into a container. Possibly the most difficult part of this was finding a container in which to mold my trinket box. I settled on a cardboard box that I covered in packing tape to keep the silicone from soaking through or working its way out through any openings in the corners of the box.

I used hot glue to cover the hole that runs through the beetle. It had to be covered so that the silicone would not fill it in and make it difficult to remove the piece after making the mold. I then glued the scarab onto the lid of the alabaster box so that I could mold them as one solid piece. Hot glue is my adhesive of choice for this since it is temporary and will be easy to remove from both the box and the beetle when I'm finished with the molding process.

In order to make the box a little less plain I'm using nylon cord that will act as a decorative edge along the entire outside. On the base of the box I once again used a thin line of hot glue around the entire box to hold the nylon cord in place during the mold making. Since alabaster is a very cool stone the glue dried very quickly on the surface. Working in small sections, I laid down a line of hot glue and quickly placed the cord, pulling it tightly and pressing it into the glue at the same time. Once I worked my way around the entire box I used a lighter to burn the ends of the cord to keep them from fraying and dropped some glue at the spot where the two ends met, rolling and pressing the ends at the meeting point to make the line break less noticeable on the finished piece.

Once my trinket box and lid were ready, I glued them to the bottom of the pouring box. This is to keep the pieces from moving around or floating while the silicone sets. Since I had a little extra room in the box, I added another piece that I've been wanting to mold. I always want to make as many things as possible at once, so if I have space in the container while molding I will always add a few other pieces to save time and molding materials.

And now it's time to mix up some Amazing Mold Rubber and let it do its magic. Amazing Mold Rubber comes in two parts: One is the base and the other is the catalyst. Because I knew I would be using the whole thing, I poured the catalyst right into the container and mixed it well using a wood stick. As you mix it, the silicone becomes thicker, so make sure to scrape the sides and the mixing stick as you are stirring to be sure that it mixes well. Once it is a nice even color, just pour it into the container, making sure to completely cover the pieces you are casting. It usually takes between 4-24 hours to set depending on the temperature/humidity, so once it's poured you can just walk away and come back the next day.

   

Success!! My silicone mold set overnight and releasing the originals from the mold was easy since the silicone is so flexible and resilient. The pieces that were held together with hot glue came apart while I was removing them from the mold, but it was simple enough to pull them out as individual pieces and it also left my originals intact, which is what I was hoping for. Now came the good part-testing out my mold to be sure that it would work. For my initial test I used Amazing Casting Resin because it sets in about 10 minutes, leaving me plenty of time to see the results and make any adjustments. It turned out that I had to trim away a few pieces from the inside of the mold-once again, the flexibility of the silicone made it super easy to twist and manipulate the mold in order to cut away the excess pieces. After my adjustments, I ran another test using Amazing Casting Resin and (yay!) the mold was now ready for the final casting.

   

Many Egyptian artifacts have gold detailing so the first step was to coat some parts of my my mold with Alumilite Gold Metallic Powder using a thin soft brush. Using the metallic powder straight out of the jar causes a lot of mess and even though I adore sparkles floating in the air, it definitely doesn't work well when you're trying to keep things neat. I find that pouring a little of the powder into a small plastic bag makes it a little easier to work with and it keeps the mess to a minimum. Some alcohol on a cotton swab helps to remove any stray powder from the mold so you don't end up with unwanted gold spots in random places on your finished cast piece.

After preparing my mold I mixed up some Amazing Clear Cast Resin for my final pour. Amazing Clear Cast is mixed using a 1:1 ratio but before mixing I added a couple of drops of Alumilite Blue Dye to the "A" side of the mixture. Seriously, it only took two drops to get the perfect cobalt blue color for my trinket box. After getting a nice color consistency I combined parts "A" & "B" of the resin and stirred for about a minute and poured the mixture into my silicone mold. Amazing Clear Cast takes 12-14 hours to set. Usually I pour Amazing Clear Cast Resin in thin layers to be sure that there will be no bubbles but this time I wasn't thinking clearly so I poured to the top and I'm not really sure how it will turn out but I'm excited to see the results.

   

I'm happy with the results of my final pour, but I would I would be happier if did a couple of things differently on my next pour: 1) I would use one less drop of Blue Dye in the mixture so that it's a little more transparent and more obviously a Cobalt color. 2) I would pour in layers instead of filling the mold to the top. This will prevent the Gold Metallic Powder from being lifted and spread onto unwanted areas of the box. 3) I would experiment with different ways of joining the ends of the cord around the the base of the trinket box. The joint is a bit obvious and I'd like it to be less noticeable.

In all, not a bad result for a first try! I will definitely be recasting this and playing around with different ways to finish it but I really enjoyed making this trinket box and now I have a few ideas of how to rework my mold to make the end result more like what I imagined.

Do you have projects that you

would like to remake?

I'd love to see what you create! Please upload and share your creations to the

User GALLERY on the Amazing Mold Putty Website for all the world to see.

~ Isabel Villarreal

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