Mail Art Friends reap #Cre8time Halloween Goodness

Hello everyone! I have a Halloween make to share today-- one that I was inspired to create. I haven't made any jewelry lately so I was excited and inspired by the theme and jumped at the chance to make some new Witch-worthy jewels for a "Witch's Cupboard" charm swap with some art friends hosted by Michelle Frae Cummings. 

I knew immediately that I wanted to create some glowing apple charms. I have an old apple pin that I found at a thrift store in my "TO MOLD" box that is a nice size and would be a nice pendant or charm made in resin... and with Halloween just around the corner, perhaps a POISON apple??!

I would normally break out the Amazing Mold Putty, but with the high gloss enameled surface and the fact that I wanted to make multiples -- I decided on using Amazing Remelt to create molds for my Cre8time Witchcraft!

Amazing Remelt is a Non Toxic, one-part reusable mold making material for room temperature or low exotherm materials. Amazing Remelt softens at 120˚F and becomes liquid at 135˚-140˚F. It can be remelted and reused to make new molds time and time again. This is ideal for making molds for smaller items such as jewelry, embellishments, and chocolate molds. YES, this stuff is FOOD-SAFE and it works great with chocolate and fondant!!

Before making a mold I need to add some tape to the backside so that the molding material won't flow through the hole where the stem touches the apple. I burnish the tape down really good with a bone folder to ensure good adhesion.

A couple criss-crossed recycled stir-sticks through the pin back will help suspend the original over a small silicone bowl that I will be using as a mold box.

Amazing Remelt is easy-to-use but you need to be patient. Amazing Remelt requires melting... the best way is in the microwave LOW and SLOW {CLICK HERE to view preparation}. It can be melted in the container it comes in, but for molding small items, I prefer using this cup fashioned with Amazing Mold Putty which I formed around the outside of a shot glass. I like this cup because it can be baked up to 375º F, is easier to pour from, and it helps keep the melted material from cooling off too fast.

I place the mounted apple over the top of a small silicone bowl then pour the melted Amazing Remelt over the top, completely covering surface of item. I stop for a brief moment after first coating, then repeat with a second layer. The overpour is collected in silicone bowl below which will be the mold box in the following steps.

After cooling off for a couple minutes, the Amazing Remelt hardens, and I have a skin layer which helps prevent air bubbles from getting trapped on surface of original.

I fill the bowl and flip the mounted pin with remelt skin layer over, then place face down into the liquid Amazing Remelt. After leveling it on the bowl, add more remelt to fill up to edge of suspended apple pin. Mold making doesn't always look pretty... it just needs to WORK! I set this in the refrigerator for about a 1/2 hour to cool and harden.

My little apple mold is hardened and ready to pop out of the bowl and demold.

I love how Amazing Remelt gives you the detail quality of Amazing Mold Rubber – and it's reuseable {you know how I love GREENcrafting}!!

I can make my charms, then melt the molds down and mold something else later. I don't have to store umpteen apple molds for eternity. I plan to make a few extra molds for FOOD USE ONLY to make some poison apple Halloween treats with chocolate melts. YES, this molding product is foodsafe and is perfect for chocolate and fondant.

With molds ready, it's time to fill with Amazing Clear Cast Resin colored with Alumilite Fluorescent Green Dye and Alumilite Phosphorescent Powder {an additive that glows in the dark}. CLICK HERE to view mixing and preparation.

I mix up the resin and set aside to rest for about 15-20 minutes so the resin can COOL and DEGAS {letting the air bubbles escape}.

 

 The addition of phosphorescent powder makes magic in the dark.

Most of my time making these charms was spent on mold preparation. I made 16 molds which took me a a couple hours one morning plus a whole entire day. Making one mold takes about a 1/2 an hour... the time consuming part is melting the Amazing Remelt slowly and then waiting for it to harden to demold the original. 

Before pouring resin, I gently cut a slice in each mold where I suspend a headpin with two glass beads {these will be embedded in the resin}. I will use this to form a loop at the top to affix beads and a jump ring for hanging on a chain. With a tiny brush, I added a bit of color to the leaf and stem using Alumidust.

I gently pour resin, guiding it with a stir stick to fill each mold. I cover the tray and set aside to cure overnight.

VOILA... my apples are cured and are ready to embellish! I decided to use a glass leaf bead, so I bent and broke off the leaf of each resin apple. I gave each a light and quick sanding around edges with an emory board, then I finished each charm with 2 wire-wrapped beaded danglies placed onto the embedded headpin. I close headpin off and form a loop for a jumpring... these gorgeous glowing apples are complete.

How charming is the glowing green apple?!

After making the green apples... I couldn't stop there! I took this idea further by altering the original, then remolding/casting to make a glowing resin POISON apple! This right is a one-of-a-kind, but if anyone would love a custom pendant, I will entertain custom orders for with drips in your favorite color.

Here is mine with an accompanying ATC {artist trading card} as part of swap rules.

"Dip the apple in the brew,

let the Sleeping Death seep through..."

Here are the ghoulishly glam charms made by all the players. I'm going to have fun dressing these up into finished pieces and having SpOoKy jewels to wear for the coming weeks up to Halloween. CLICK on NAME to pop over to a tutorial {if available}.

Michelle Frae Cummings {hostess}

Kathleen Sites

Lyn Gill

Ashani

Erin Reed

P.J. Waldrop

Carol Hoffman

Thank you ladies for participating in this swap and for your beautiful work and craftsmanship. I look forward to joining in another for the holidays {ideas for themes are being tossed about}. 

I may have one or two Halloween makes up my sleeve before month's end. Thanks for dropping by and Happy Creating! :)  Sb

#Cre8time Love is in the Air... Valentine's Day Projects with Designer Crafts Connection

Hello friends and Happy February... the month of LOVE! This month the Designer Crafts Connection is feeling the Cre8time "Love in the Air" and sharing Valentine's Day projects. CLICK HERE to hop on over to the Designer Crafts Connection blog and be inspired!

Today I'm sharing a super fun and easy way to dress up your morning coffee for your Valentine with some custom shaped sugar cubes... and this is certainly a project that you can do with the kiddos.

Using some heart-shaped chocolates from the Dollar Tree {my favorite guilty pleasure}, I created a mold with Amazing Mold Putty. I hot glued four of them onto my glass craft mat and pressed the mold putty around them. I didn't even bother unwrapping them. I love the texture of the foil on the chocolates. To view how Amazing Mold Putty works... CLICK HERE.

By the way... did I mention

that my new DIY mold

is FOOD SAFE!!!

Next thing I did was rummage around my pantry for my collection of Wilton colored sugars for cake decorating and grabbed a couple recycled wooden coffee stir sticks and mini silicone mixing cups.

Quick and easy indeed! I poured a little bit of each color into a silicone mixing cup, added just a couple drops of water and stirred until the sugar was the consistency of wet sand at the beach.

Then I poured the mixture into the mold and pressed the sugar making a compact cake. This is just like packing wet sand to make a sand-castle... and just as fun – tastes better, too!

A little *TIP* – if you heat your Amazing Mold Putty mold up in the microwave a minute or two {test this first at 15 second increments to see how hot your device heats it and please use oven mitts} before putting sugar mixture into mold, it will help them dry out faster. Do not cook the sugar in the mold... it will melt or burn giving a completely different result.

**PLEASE NOTE** For your safety - please don't use a mold for food items if you have already used it for resin or other art products.

I didn't have any pink sugar... so I easily whipped some up using my natural cane sugar and one drop of red food coloring and a couple drops of water. This project took about half an hour and I made several of each color - and a couple different shapes from other hearts previously molded. My hubs will be quite surprised when I have some of these on the table for Valentine's Day brunch.

Sweetheart Sugar Cubes

How do you take your sugar...

one heart, or two... red, yellow or blue??

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day! CLICK HERE to hop on over to the Designer Crafts Connection blog for more fabulous Valentine's Day projects! :) Sb

I'm having an AMAZING #Cre8time Moldmaking and Casting... Day three of the "See You at CHA Blog Hop"

Welcome to day three of the "See You at CHA!" Bloghop. This upcoming CHA Mega Show will be it's 75th year celebrating creativity. Yes this is a party and there are plenty of chances for you to win the AMAZING bloghop prize. To get back to the top of the hop and catch up on day's one and two CLICK HERE to jump over to the Craft and Hobby Association's Blog.

CHA has been an event that I have attended as a retailer {when I was an instructor at my local scrapbooking store}, and now I attend as a CHA Designer Member with my business SMBdesign, and also as a working artist demonstrating at the big event. This upcoming CHA Mega Show will be my 5th year attending. I travel cross-country from Florida, the land of Disney World to attend this event that happens just steps away from Disneyland. Can you believe I haven't been to Disneyland yet?? My first time attending, my sister and I drove down to Huntington Beach for dinner and put our feet in the sand {it was way too cold that year to put our feet in the water}. 

You can find me demonstrating at the Amazing Casting Products/Alumilite Corp. Booth #2400... come and try out Amazing Mold Putty and see the other products in action.

For the celebration I'm sharing this mini pumpkin project using Amazing Mold Rubber, Amazing Remelt, and Amazing Casting Resin. 

I love creating molds in Amazing Mold Rubber and I decided to make molds of three different mini pumpkins {please CLICK HERE to view mixing/preparation}. This project shows how I made a mold of the smallest of my teeny weeny pumpkins – it's not a pretty mold on the outside and I had to do a little extra work to make this mold usable. 

Amazing Mold Rubber is a liquid silicone which is fast curing and captures every little detail. I figured since it was starting to thicken up really FAST {it's still super humid summer time here in South Florida}, my pumpkin would stay submerged... NOT!! Before putting the pumpkin in the mold rubber, I dipped the top with the stem into the liquid silicone and let all the airbubbles dissipate before fulling submerging into container. So I had to sit there and keep pushing it back down and dragging the liquid silicone over the top.

**A TIP** Don't use a SILICONE spatula in liquid silicone – use a plastic knife or spoon. If you don't clean it off immediately, the liquid silicone fuses to it. My nice purple spatula now has a pink tip.

In preparation, I had a couple sections of old cut up molds submerged to keep the pumpkin from settling all the way to the bottom {you can see the yellow peeking through the mold}. I planned setting it upside down so the stem would be at the top of the mold and I would cut a nice size "X" at the top to gently free the pumpkin from the mold. Since the cured mold is all bumpy at the top, I need to backfill to make it level. I could do this with another pour of Amazing Mold Rubber... but since I had a mold fail on a previous pour, I'm fresh out of my pink magical goop and my local store was out - yikes! So I can fix this in a jiffy with Amazing Remelt, so I can use my mold right away - and I can go back with another layer of mold rubber later for a permanent fix.

I melt down some Amazing Remelt in the microwave and pour on top of Amazing Mold Rubber, filling the bowl to the top. I set this in the refrigerator for a bit to cool off and solidify quickly. I was busy messing about with other molds I was casting so I wasn't paying much attention to how long I left it in the fridge {sorry}.

So now my mold is level and the Amazing Remelt formed exactly to the shape of the Amazing Mold Rubber mold... and it doesn't stick to it permanently. When I'm done casting resin, this can be cut up, remelted and reused for something else!

I attached a mini binder clip to one of the sections of the "X" cut at top of mold, prepared a small batch of Amazing Casting Resin and then poured into the mold. I set aside to cure for about 20 minutes. I let cool a bit and removed first casting from the mold. The detail is so AMAZING!!! But I have a couple large air bubbles that were trapped in the mold – I forgot to poke around inside with a toothpick before the resin solidified. No worries... this baby won't go to waste! I filled the holes with some air dry clay and sanded back the edges – all fixed.

The paint I wanted to use wasn't a bit too fluid for this purpose, so I gave the entire resin pumpkin a coat of clear gesso – an easy fix! Once dry I rubbed on some Ranger Distress Paint in Cracked Pistachio {a lovely teal green}... I'm in LOVE!!

When dry, I mixed another small batch of Amazing Casting Resin colored with some Cotton Candy Alumidust. I poured some off into molds and saved the rest for topping my pumpkin. This is what I did... I waited for the resin to start to get thick and I dipped the pumpkin into it a couple times right as it was about to solidify. As it started to turn opaque, I turned it upright and sprinkled a rainbow mix of seed beads to serve as sprinkles {I mixed these myself from my 30 separate colors of seed beads}. This is so adorable... but it needs a little something, right?! I wanted to add a little more.

I waited for resin to fully cure and gently rubbed off the seed beads. They came off pretty easy. I mixed up another batch of Amazing Casting Resin with the Cotton Candy Alumidust and dipped again. Now the stem was completely covered. I used a mini file to make little hole in the top of the pumpkin to accept a piece of wire and wire-wrapped a stem to hold a candle and attached a glass leaf bead. Perfect!

This pumpkin is ready just in time for the See You at CHA Celebration! What item have you been dreaming to mold to use for your creative projects?

• • • • •

Now for the giveaway instructions... there are three ways you can enter via Rafflecopter below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

There are just three entry options to win our $500+ $650 Visa gift card:

• Leave a comment on this blog post below (mandatory) answering the question - "What is your favorite "can't live without" craft supply or tool?"
• Tweet about the giveaway (tweet text includes #CHAshow hashtag; you can tweet daily for extra entries)
• Answer a multiple-choice poll about how often you "cre8time" for crafting (double entry value).

Anyone and everyone in the US and abroad is eligible to enter, even you and your team. CHA staff are the only folks who are not eligible.

• • • • •

Thanks so much for dropping by! I hope I get to meet you at CHA next month. I'll be demoing with my fellow amazing creatives at the Amazing Casting Products/Alumilite Corp. Booth #2400. Stop by and say HI! See you at CHA!!!  Sb :)

#Cre8time Life Loves a Box of reNEWed Crayons...

Welcome! It's the first Monday of August an it's time for a new Designer Crafts Connection Bloghop. This month's theme is "Crafting with Back to School Supplies". Crafting with school supplies - who can resist?!! Even though I'm out of school, I still enjoy getting a new box of crayons, and fun colorful pens with a new composition book to doodle and sketch in.

What could be more fun than breaking into a brand new box of crayons. I remember trying to keep them so nice as long as possible... 

but all too soon they end up this :(...

My box of misfit crayons

are ready to get

a new Cre8time

lease on life!

The solution is so fun and easy - and something that the kids can get involved in {except the melting part}. Create fun shaped molds using Amazing Mold Putty - a 2 part molding putty that is not only food safe, but you can bake in the molds up to 375ºF... WOW! I grabbed an assortment of my stash of fun molds and began filling each with combinations of broken crayons while I heated my toaster oven up to 325ºF {you want to test your oven to see how hot you can safely melt crayons and not burn the wax}. 

You want to line a pan with foil to place the molds on... this does get a bit messy - as careful as I tried to control the mess and spillover, the liquified crayons came alive and liked to travel.

At this temperature, it didn't take very long. I stood at watch adding more wax in some and taking out the completely molds as they were filled. **A NOTE** the Amazing Mold Putty Molds retain the heat for quite a bit - you don't want to pick them up with your fingers or let tiny hands handle these until are completely cooled. When cool to the touch, I transferred the molds to the freezer for about 1/2 hour to fully chill the wax. Then they are ready to pop out! I scraped away any frayed edges with my fingernail and my new FUNtastic crayons are ready to play!

I couldn't resist breaking out my cherished mold of a yellow Peeps chick - it took longer to melt down enough crayons to fill, but he is so A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!

What little girl or teacher wouldn't love a beautiful box of ornate crayons packed in a recycled chocolate box - each crayon cast in a vintage button mold. What fun shaped crayons would you create? CLICK HERE to view all the AMAZING ways you can add Amazing Mold Putty to your Cre8time.

Thanks for visiting. Continue on the Designer Crafts Connection "Crafting with Back to School Supplies" Bloghop by selecting hop back/forward on the logo below.

Sb :)

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