A Nightmare AFTER Christmas... AMAZING Inspiration from Lara Hjorthoy

Hi Friends! It's Lara here to share some inspiration with you... how about a Nightmare Before (or is it, after?) Christmas themed art?!!!

I am super excited to share this with you! I have a show coming up in a Gallery in Portugal, called Penumbra Gallery. And being such a fan of Nightmare, as I know all the Amazing Ladies of Amazing Casting Products Team are, I was thrilled to be accepted into the "A Night at the Movies" show! 

I sculpted my version of Zero in Sculpey {polymer clay} and then cast a mold of him in Amazing Mold Rubber, then used Amazing Clear Cast Resin to cast up my sculpture of Zero, wth a bit of PearlEx Iridescent Blue Powder added into the mix. I painted him up using oil paint, and of course added a glow-in-the-dark Sculpey nose! Presto! A glittery, translucent, ghostly Zero, heading out on a long journey to Portugal! Have a safe trip Zero! 

Have you made any fan art using Resin?

Be Safe out there this winter and

Stay Inspired Friends! ~ Lara

Check out my website at www.larahjorthoy.com and YourToyCreation.etsy.com. You can follow my day to day creations on Facebook and Instagram, look for YourToy Creations!

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#Cre8time Traditions... AMAZING Handmade Pins by Lyn Gill

Hi everyone it's Lyn Gill here again. This time to share my Christmas pins for this year. As I did with a similar project last year with my Santa hats – I am continuing a tradition my Grandfather started many years ago... Christmas Pins! Now my Grandfather was a wood carver and made beautiful pins, so I thought I would continue the tradition with my own hand-sculpted trees.

First I started with an original sculpt of a Christmas Tree made of Super Sculpey Polymer Clay. Then I created a mold with Amazing Mold Putty. It is just a simple sculpt but that's part of the tradition.

  

Then I add various glitters, Alumidust and Alumilite Dyes to small batches of Amazing Clear Cast Resin and pour into the mold. I finish off the resin trees with a touch of glitter glue to add ornaments for the final results... fancy festive tree pins!

I always enjoy creating these little gifts for family and friends at this joyous time of year. I hope you'll give it a try and create a new tradition by making your own little handmade gifts.

Thank you so much for joining me today in sharing one of my families traditions. I hope you have a very Merry Christmas...  Till Next Time! ~ Lyn

What new family traditions will you

add to the holidays this year?

As usual, you can find more of my work on my blog LynzCraftz, 

or on YouTube LynzCraftz, or my Facebook page LynzCraftz.

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A #Cre8time Rain Dance... AMAZING DIY Light Sculpture by Lara Hjorthoy

Hi Friends! It's Lara here to share my latest creation. Well this little how-to project has proven to be quite the undertaking!

I'm so thrilled to get to share with you what all the fuss has been! If you've been following me on Instagram and/or Facebook, you know I've had a project in the works for a few weeks... and I'm finally able to unveil it!!!

So without further ado...

a Rain Dance!

So I've been inspired as of late, by our nearly apocalyptic amount of rain that Vancouver has treated us to since the beginning of October! On last count, I think we had three days of sun... and every other day has been rain! 

But unlike a lot of people, I don't mind the rain... and with Amazing Casting Products, I made the rain even MORE beautiful! 

Using Super Sculpey, I first sculpted four orginal "raindrop" shapes in different sizes! Then using Amazing Mold Putty, I molded the raindrops twice – to get a series of eight "drops" that could be cast at once! The Mold Putty is so easy to use and it sets up so quickly... I was able to get all the molds made within a couple of hours! 

Next with Amazing Clear Cast Resin, I mixed a batch of resin, using Alumilite Blue Dye and made my first set of blue raindrops! These took up to 2 days to cure, as it became suddenly very cold here in Vancouver. So I let them set to cure fully for 2 days – then over the next few days, made two more batches of raindrops, using smaller and smaller amounts of Alumilite Blue Dye in the resin mixture. That way, there is a variety of shades to play with when I constructing my project!

After all the drops were completed, Hubby and I spent an evening drilling holes into the top of each drop with a Dremel tool. We wet sanded the heck out of them too... to make them suuuuuper smooth to the touch!

Once they were smooth, I let them dry overnight. I took them outside on a cold winter day and sprayed the heck out of them with Krylon Triple Thick Clear Coat. That gave them this beautiful wet-like look! It was love!

Then began the slow and long construction process. For this, I gathered a foam wreath form from a dollar store and a set of LED lights (that were supposed to flicker), then wrapped the wreath with the lights and some wire – so that I had a "skeleton" of sorts to use for tying later. Then I formed some fluffy cotton stuffing around the wreath, to make my CLOUD! 

Then I began stringing the drops with silver elastic cord and added small beads for decoration. This took a couple of days to complete... a bit hard on the back! LOL!

But finally, I used an old frilly ribbon to hang

the cloud from... and presto! It's COMPLETED!

Think how pretty something like this would be... GLOWING in YOUR home! Sure makes the rain something I actually want to being into my home! 

What light feature could 

you make for your home?

Hope you enjoyed this tutorial as much as I enjoyed making it for you! 

Stay Inspired Friends! ~ Lara

Check out my website at www.larahjorthoy.com and YourToyCreation.etsy.com. You can follow my day to day creations on Facebook and Instagram, look for YourToy Creations!

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

Twitter at AmazingCasting | Facebook at AmazingMoldPutty | YouTube at AmazingMoldPutty

#Cre8time Finishing Touches... AMAZING Inspiration by Lara Hjorthoy

Hey Friends! Lara here to share a little inspiration on how I'm using Amazing Clear Cast Resin today! I'm putting the finishing touches on my Mars Attacks, Alien lady – while I work on creating my second sculpt for Penumbra Gallery's, movie-themed extravaganza this March... in Portugal! I'm adding eyelashes and high gloss to her eyes!

I've added the Clear Cast resin to her eyes. I prepared a small batch and let it sit for a bit to get thicker, then dolloped a smidge into her eyes... and let that sit and cure. Now her eyes are glistening and bright – which is lovely for an Alien about to take part in destroying the world! 

What finishing touches do you

do with Amazing Clear Cast Resin!??

Stay Inspired Friends! ~ Lara

Check out my website at www.larahjorthoy.com and YourToyCreation.etsy.com. You can follow my day to day creations at Facebook and Instagram, look for YourToy Creations!

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

Twitter at AmazingCasting | Facebook at AmazingMoldPutty | YouTube at AmazingMoldPutty

#Cre8time Monster Making... with Featured Artist Lara Hjorthoy

Hello Fellow Artists! Well, I have had SO much fun! I have a small monster army forming here at YourToy Creations, filled with colourful and now even BRONZE monsters! My children are coming to life!

So today, for this new year and in celebration of being Featured Artist with Amazing Casting Products, I'm pleased to bring you a step-by-step – making resin casts of my Baby Monsters!

Let's begin!

For the original monster sculpture, I use Super Sculpey, both original and firm. I'll first make a ball or shape with tinfoil, and lay the Sculpey over the top and using tools, my hands and beads or already shaped resin eyes, I create that days monster. I don't really use photos or reference pictures, I tend to let the original tinfoil shape dictate the direction of that creature.

Once its cooked and hardened, sanded if necessary and cleaned up, then we make the mold boxes. I use corroplast, and hot glue to make the boxes and once it's made, I glue down the monster to the bottom. Here you can see three boxes made and Floyd being measured out for his mold box!

Next step, mix up the Amazing Mold Rubber {CLICK HERE to view mixing/preparation}. I use this particular mold making material, as my molds are meant to be permanent and used frequently. Also, I like the pourable aspect to this rubber, it forms around my undercuts beautifully and really captures details nicely!

Let the boxes cure for the time suggested on the box. I live in a super humid climate so the cure time was much less than some places!

After removing the boxes from the molds, (I'm sure there is a way to do this without destroying them, but I don't know what it is, and I destroyed them!), I pop the original out of the mold and presto, we're ready to cast! 

An important feature to remember when creating monsters and creatures for molding is undercuts. Undercuts can be minimal and some can be quite severe. I keep this in mind when deciding on a one piece or two piece molds for my creatures. I prefer to have a one piece mold, so that there is no seams and a clean cast, so I usually keep this in mind when I sculpt the monsters in the first place. Nearly all the monsters featured here are made with a once piece mold, only one needed to be cut in half.

I prefer to use Amazing Casting Resin for my monsters {CLICK HERE to view mixing/preparation}. The clean white look reminds me of a clean sheet of paper, or a fresh canvas, and begs me to paint them! One box of this resin made: 12 individual monsters of various sizes, 10 skulls and 18 resin eyes for future monsters! That's a huge haul! 

Next up, I look up lizards and snakes and other cool creatures that might have cool colour schemes and use that as a reference. Line these bad boys up and airbrush them using Acrylic Inks.

Finished with a clear coat, these guys are not only super cute, but super durable too!

I hope you enjoyed this process and would love to answer any questions you may have about this process! Thanks again to Amazing Casting Products for allowing me to share this with all of you!

Stay Inspired Friends,

Lara

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I'm Lara Hjorthoy(your-toy), from Vancouver, Canada. I'm an Illustrator, Sculptor, and Makeup Artist! Also work part-time as a retail sales clerk for Opus Art Supplies, on beautiful Granville Island.

After a life long addiction to drawing and art, I spent a year in beauty and special FX makeup school and solidified another great love... sculpture... and zombies!

Now I spend my time, sculpting and molding cute creatures of all kinds, (available for sale at my Etsy Shop: YourToyCreations.etsy.com, painting calm and whimsical worlds and occasionally creating zombie madness! Learning resin and mold making is taking all these worlds to whole new levels!! You can check out my works and Blog at www.larahjorthoy.com or my day to day art stuff at Instagram.com/auntyluluscolours

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Thanks so much for dropping by! Check back next Friday for more from our Featured Artist Lara Hjorthoy! CLICK HERE to head on over to Lara's Blog larahjorthoy.com and see more of her fabulous work, or pop over to her on Instagram for her latest creations and sneak peeks of what she's working on!

Have a fabulous day! :) Sb

Make a Mold of a Sculpture... by Niki Meiners

The other day I wanted to try my hand at making a sculpted face. I had a bit of Paper Clay left over from a jewelry project. Like a kid who just received their allowance... it was burning a hole in my pocket. I had never really tried to make a face. So, I started molding and forming. (Not having any person in particular in mind gave me a little advantage.) It took me quite a while to get the proportions correct. 

After all the time and effort I spent making the face I did not want to have to do it again. That is when I decided I would grab my Amazing Mold Putty and make a mold of her. I think her mold turned out fantastic. Now I need to come up with a project to use her on. If you have any suggestions I am open...

~ Niki