Monday, July 22

AMAZING Retro Home Decor... by Tracy Alden

Hello! My name is Tracy Alden and I am proud new member of the Creative Team for Amazing Crafting Products! I have been working with Amazing Crafting Products supplies for many years and I am always looking for new ways to use their products. Though this time I used something old to make something new! 


I have a collection of vintage polyurethane molds. Many of them were part of my mother's collection who was a resin artist for many years. So many of the molds have awesome shapes and lovely patterns, but recently one really caught my eye, a 70s trivet mold! It got me thinking about the resin art of the 70s, with lots of glitter, mica and sparkle, so I went searching through my supplies to help me recreate this retro look. 

Supplies:


I started by cleaning and thoroughly drying the mold, making sure there was no dirt particles. I gathered up my dried flowers and cut them to size, using the mold as my guide.


I mixed up a batch of Amazing Clear Cast Resin following the easy to follow instructions. I poured a thin layer of Amazing Clear Cast Resin just enough to coat the bottom of the mold and fill the outer edge. Any air bubbles I saw in the mold I was able to remove with a tooth pick or using a heat gun to warm up the resin to pop the bubbles. 


Carefully I sprinkled Stampendous Gilded Mica Fragments into the resin around the edges and used a popsicle stick to push the mica flakes into the outer edges of the mold. I let this cure for two hours before adding the flowers. This creates a soft set of the resin but allows for quicker layering of embellishments. If you live in a humid area you will have to let the resin sit a bit longer for a soft but tacky firm set up of the resin.


I then poured another layer of Amazing Clear Cast Resin into the mold, filling it about halfway up the side of the mold. Then I saturated each flower with resin before placing them in the mold. I do this by placing the flowers in a small cup and pouring resin on top of them, waiting for the flower to soak up just enough resin to look wet. This trick this helps reduce air bubbles from forming in the mold. I then placed them face down into the pool of resin in the mold.


After placing all of the flowers in the mold I sprinkled more Stampendous Gilded Mica Fragments and Art Glitter Microfine Transparent Faun Glitter on top of the flowers and resin. I let this sit for 2 hours.


I then poured another thin layer of Amazing Clear Cast Resin and sprinkled Stampendous Tea Stained Mica Fragments on top of the resin and let it sit for 2 hours.


Using the round nose pliers I curled the edges of the wire; the curled edges will add an extra grip when placed in rest. I poured my last layer of Amazing Clear Cast Resin into the mold filling it to the edge and and placed the curved wire into the resin. I let the resin set in the mold the full cure time.


Once the piece is fully cured and removed from the mold, I used a cosmetic sponge to apply a thin coat of Martha Stewart Crafts Satin Acrylic Craft Paint in Chestnut Brown to the back of the piece. This warm color helps make the dried flowers visually pop, but you can always skip this step if you like the more see through look.


What AMAZING arts and crafts can you create???

Share them on the NEW user GALLERY on the Amazing Mold Putty Website!

Visit my blog Art Resurrected for more craft tutorials!
Until next time, safe travels! ~ Tracy

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Saturday, July 20

Edgar Allen Poe Mini Books... an AMAZING Tutorial
by Isabel Villarreal

Hi there! This is Isabel and in the next few steps I'll show you how easy it is to make your own mini books using Amazing Crafting Products, some fabric and a little imagination.


This month I'm focusing on creative things to do with old books and book pages. In continuing with my obsession for all things Poe, I'm making as many things as possible with my old tattered Edgar Allan Poe story collection. These mini books stand as individual art pieces as well as making unique jewelry pieces. As an added treat they each have their own hidden secrets inside.

  

To begin, I took some old flyers and cut them down to the size and shape I wanted for the books. I made two stacks: one thick stack for the body of the book and another thin stack for the cover. Each stack was glued together using craft glue between each layer. Once the glue dried, I used an exacto knife to hollow out the centers of both books, leaving the "covers" intact.

  

I will be creating a whole "set" of 6 books, so instead of spending hours making individual paper books, I used Amazing Mold Putty to create a mold that would yield multiple copies in minutes. I wasn't sure if the Mold Putty would stick to the paper so to avoid a set back, I coated the paper "books" with a protective layer of Mod Podge®. Mixing equal parts of "A" & "B", I made a small amount of Amazing Mold Putty to fill the hollow areas first. Leaving the set putty in the center, I then mixed enough putty to cover the rest of the book, with the hollowed out part facing down. The Amazing Mold Putty set in about 10 minutes leaving 2 perfect molds that I could use over and over again. Perfect!!

  

If you've never used Amazing Casting Resin, you have got to try this stuff! I measured equal parts of "A" & "B" and mixed them together in a small paper cup until the mixture was clear. Once it was clear, I immediately poured the mixture into my molds and allowed it to set for 10 minutes. I repeated the process for each of the books I'm making. As you can see, I'm working with 2 different book sizes. In about 30 minutes I had a complete set of 6 molded and cast mini books ready for decoration.

  

I prepared some Sculpey clay, and I cut pages out of my Poe story collection ( I used 6 different stories) and fabric pieces to size and prepared to get creative. Using the Sculpey clay, I sculpted small pieces fitting each story theme to place inside the mini books. When the clay was ready I painted the hollowed out centers of the books and painted and glued the sculpted pieces. The next step was to coat the cast mini books with craft glue and paste the cut book pages in place. For the hollowed parts I glued the paper pages in place and when they were dry I used an exacto to carefully cut out the centers.


Use craft glue to coat the outside of the mini books and press the fabric into place. Be sure to pay special attention to the "spine" of the book. The fabric will act as the binding to hold the two book pieces together and allow it to open and close easily. Now glue the cover image and you've got a mini book! As a final step I used Amazing Clear Cast Resin to seal the inside and front cover of the book. Along the white resin edges, I used Alumilite Bronze metallic powder mixed with Acrylic Gloss Medium to give the "pages" a gilded look. I made 2 sets of these - one as a complete set for shelf display and on the other set I attached bails to use them as one-of-a-kind wearable art pendants.


You can use this idea to make a keepsake box for a lock of hair, a first tooth or any other precious memento. Make your mini book personal by replacing the cover image with a baby's photo, an image of a loved one or any snap shot of a special moment.

What secrets will your mini book hold?

I'd love to see what you create! Please upload and share your creations to the NEW
user GALLERY on the Amazing Mold Putty Website for all the world to see.

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Twitter at @AmazingCrafting and on Pinterest HERE -or- join us on our Facebook page.

Friday, July 19

A Paintbrush is not just for Painting Anymore!!!
AMAZING Inspiration by Maria Soto

Hi there, my name is Maria - and I'm so excited to one of the Guest Designers on the Amazing Crafting Products Creative Team! I have watched all the beautiful and amazing projects created by everyone that I was very intimidated to create my own molds and to work with Amazing Crafting Products. Well now that I've started making molds, I can't stop!


I want to share a project I created, an altered paint brush. It is my very first altered project and decided to use the Amazing Casting Resin on the brush itself, and created a couple of flowers by using the Amazing Clear Cast Resin and made the flower molds by using the Amazing Mold Putty.

This project allowed me to use the Amazing Casting Resin in a different way so after mixing it - I just pored it over the paint handle in front and back and on the bristles in the front, waited for it to set, and the next day I used some of my Viva Decor Inka Gold in red and their 3D stamp paint in two colors. Here are some photos of the before and after. 


This is the original paint brush - the Amazing Casting Resin
was added on the handle front and back. 


This is the back of the handle, after the cast resin set, I painted over the entire handle by using my fingers to add Viva Decor Inka Gold in Red - I loved the way the resin looks after the paint was added. 


Now this is the front of the handle - the Amazing Casting Resin
gave the handle the look of wood, which I love. 


This is the front of the brush - here you can see the Amazing Casting Resin, I did not want to cover it all up, so I left some white exposed to add more color, here you can see the two blue flowers I made using the Amazing Mold Putty to make the molds and then used the Amazing Clear Cast Resin to make them. 


Here is the entire altered paint brush - it's so beautiful! I love how a simple, ordinary paint brush was used to create a decorative item to show off or to give as a gift.

What ordinary household item would you love
to alter into something new and unexpected?

To see more of my creations, please visit my blog "What is Creativity?". ~ Maria

Thanks for stopping by and have a fantastic day!
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