sbartist : painting in the dark: #Cre8time to Say Thank You... with a Special Handmade Gift!

Welcome! It's the first Monday in November which marks a new monthly Designer Crafts Connection Bloghop. This month's theme is Handmade Thank You Cards and Gifts... and today I've made both. I love to make cards and embellish them with a special handmade resin piece to add dimension and unique interest. My floral card gives a sneek peek of the coordinating gift that will accompany it... a matching ring!

With the holidays fast approaching - there are several events, birthdays and holiday gatherings and for many I use my cre8time to make special gifts and handmade cards. Today's project features a vintage drawer pull that I've molded using Amazing Mold Putty, then cast in Amazing Casting Resin to use as a flat embellishment and also a ring.

Creating jewelry and embellishments are quick and easy using Amazing Crafting Products! I gathered a few molds and cast resin pieces leftover from previous resin play. Moldmaking and casting can be a little time consuming, so I work on several projects at a time to use up all of my resin and make best use of my limited cre8time. I'm trying an experiment with making a ring, so I also I grabbed a ready-made Darice ribbon choker {just in case} and I'm ready to start. Using cast resin pieces, a ring mold made of Amazing Mold Rubber combined with Alumilite dyes and colorants, I can make resin rings out of anything my heart desires.

First I poured and mixed equal parts of "A" and "B" of Amazing Casting Resin and added two drops of the new Fluorescent (Flo) Green Dye to 2 ounces of resin. Keep in mind, I have multiple molds at the ready that are getting this same color, hence the large amount. I poured this mixture into my vintage drawer pull mold, ring mold and two other molds to use up the resin mixture. I'm going for a pale jade coloring when the Amazing Casting Resin reaches the flash point and changes from clear to opaque.

I had a resin ring from a previous pour ready to go dyed a pale yellow. I gently held this into the wet resin to fuse the ring to the new poured cast handle. The resin cures very quickly so I only had to hold this about a minute or two until the curing completed. You need to make sure to sand and clean the resin surface that will be fused to the new casting. This saves a step in having to glue or wire the item to the ring form.

I waited about 15 minutes before removing from mold to wait for resin to completely harden. Voilá! I now have a ring made from a vintage drawer pull in a lovely pale jade color. The gold edging resulted from residue of Alumilite Gold Metallic Powder in the mold from a previous resin pour. I really love how this looks, but I've added a little color by spraying with purple and iridescent metallic mists, then rubbing the high points with silver leaf Rub n' Buff®.

To go with my gift, I created a handmade matching card by combining some coordinating cardstock scraps, and a stamped, paper-pieced flower using a doily stamp from Viva Las VegaStamps! - topped off with a matching resin drawer pull as the flower center {this one inked pink}. My simple color blocked cards are completely transformed with the added POP's of dimension.

A perfect matching set...

and a quick and easy

Thank You at the ready!

Thanks for visiting. Please drop by this Friday, November 7th as the Designer Crafts Connection takes on a new challenge - you don't want to miss it! Sb :)

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