My First Resin Project!

I may or may not have accidentally prematurely posted this before :) so you may or may not be confused! We'll just pretend that didn't happen OK? 

I have LONG wanted to play with Resin, but have been intimidated to try it. When I recently had the opportunity to try Envirotex Lite by ETI (Environmental Technology Inc) , I was so excited to jump right in! I am not always good at reading instructions…ask Mr. Chocolate. But I CAREFULLY read the instruction sheet that came with the package which was super easy to follow.

EnviroTex Lite has many many uses from finishing furniture to home dec uses to jewelry making. I decided I would do a pendant.

I bought these fun bezels from the Bezels, Frames and Filigree collection by Bead Landing at Michaels. I was so excited I pulled them off the card before I took a picture! I had this great collage paper in my stash by Kand Co so the hardest part was deciding on a focal image.

Decided on this one (you can’t go wrong with Paris) and punched a circle out, then using PVA glue, glued it to the center of my pendant (you can see the glue’s not quite dry here but it dries clear) . Make sure you coat it really well so you don’t get any edges coming up

I also had some glass micro beads in my stash. In doing some prep reading about using resins, I followed the advice not to use plastic or coated beads because of interaction with the resin. I poured some in this bezel as well as a smaller bezel from the same package.

OK GO time on the resin. READ THE INSTRUCTIONS CAREFULLY! Just sayin’…if you’re like me and usually don’t. Mix your resin. Oh man. I was nervous. And I should NOT have been! You mix the two components together in a clean cup (ETI provided plastic cups and wooden stir sticks). When I thought it looked ready ( which I based on stirring it for the two minutes the instructions said) , I was ready to pour!

Sorry , no pics of this part of the process because I was so focused on not goofing up! A little goes a LONG way. I used an ounce each of the resin and the hardener and had leftover.

It’s hard to tell from this pic but this is after the resin has been poured and set. Mine bubbled when I first poured it and the instructions said to go over it lightly with a match or butane lighter.  I chose to do this project when hubs wasn’t home in case it came to this! Also in case it was smelly…he doesn’t do smelly. It was not at all but I ensured good ventilation just to be safe.
I just waved my pencil torch lightly over the top and voila, the bubbles disappeared! You can see the micro beads floating in the resin.

You can see the depth of the resin here a little better on the smaller pendant. I filled it w/ micro beads, poured the resin on top and then sprinkled a few more micro beads on top. Why? Cause I did.

Once my pendant had set and dried ,  I went to work on the necklace, just wire wrapping a collection of crystals, pearls and agate, and using different lengths of chain. But the focal is this pendant which I’m so happy with and LOVE LOVE LOVE working with this resin!

Thank you SO much ETI for the chance to experiment with Envirotex Lite. I am HOOKED!

ETI sent me this product to try out. You won’t believe all that you can do with this product.  Envirotex Lite was created by Environmental Technologies Inc. (ETI), which is the home for many resin and mold making products.
 

The use of resin in jewelry making, mixed media and paper arts continues to grow in popularity. Today, artists are using ETI’s products in many crafty ways and they will be showcasing these works of art on their new blog "Resin Crafts".

Check them out on:
Resin Crafts Blog
ETI on Facebook
ETI on Twitter

  

Eating On The Run...Ritz Crackerfuls

I've been running back and forth to Michaels a lot ( ok a lot more than I usually do) lately trying to get ready for graduation. I'm sure normal people just have a dinner or something and don't feel the need to have coordinated scrapbooks, cards, favors, decorations etc. But we are CRAFTERS and I'm rarely accused of being normal.

Needless to say with all that back and forth I'm not always eating properly. So when I had a chance through my affiliation with One2One Network to try Ritz Crackerfuls, I jumped at it. If you aren't familiar with these they look like this :

and can be found in the cracker section of your grocery store. I usually keep a protein bar in the car and these are the same size . Multigrain crackers with cheese and high in fiber which is always a good thing! Tasty, portable, and sigh, even I have to admit, better for you than a chocolate bar. OK eat BEFORE the chocolate bar :)  They are available in four flavors: Classic Cheddar, Four Cheese, Garlic Herb, and Cheddar Bacon. Certainly not a meal replacement and everyone should eat according to their own health needs, but for me these are a great snack on the run. To Michaels. Or other places! 

While this was a sponsored post through my affiliation with One2One Network, the opinions are my own. 

Father’s Day Printable

I’ve been heads down doing last minute scrapbooking for my son’s graduation party ( because I had four years to be doing this along the way and it made much more sense to wait til the last minute right? ) Of course!

Then the calendar smacked me in the face and I realized Father’s Day is the week after graduation! So in between scrap pages, I made up this printable ( no honey, it’s not your present…..ask me again in a week) that I thought I’d share:

Click to enlarge then right click to Save As.

Linking Up At: 

BFF Link Party#4 Wrap Up and Features!

Thanks everyone who linked up last Friday and over the weekend to the BFF Open House! Once again, wonderful projects and I’m excited to watch this party grow each week! Last week I seemed to zoom in on black and white. This week, I seemed to hone in on re-purposed, upcycled or materials used other than for their intended purpose.

Caroline, from Artfully Caroline, linked up the CUTEST apron…upcycled from a pair of jeans!

Michele, from The Scrap Shoppe, linked up an adorable pin cushion made from a frame that I may or may not have in my Michaels stash

Another Michelle, Mich from LA who is a genius at transforming ordinary objects that NO ONE would think of using into extraordinary jewelry, shared a bracelet for which you will not guess the secret ingredient so you’d better go check to find out:

And did you know you could spray paint tissue paper? Me either! But Vivienne from The V Spot shows us how!

So many creative people out there! Keep the ideas coming! For those featured, please feel free to snag a featured button from my side bar.

BFF Link Party #4 and Blog Feature Friday: Inside BruCrew Life

Happy Happy Friday ( long weekends always get an extra “Happy”) and thanks for coming to another Blog Feature Friday and Open House Link Party! WARNING: Temptation WILL follow with this week’s BFF, Jocelyn from Inside BruCrew Life. You’ve been warned!

Jocelyn never ceases to tempt, I mean amaze me, with her delectable and usually chocolate concoctions. When she’s not busy being wife to her hubs ( they just celebrated their 13th Anniversary this week) or mom to 3 kids, she’s busy whipping up deliciousness. I don’t stand a chance. I mean look:

Peanut Butter Explosion Chocolate Cake

Uh huh. Resist that. You know you can’t. And she shares the recipes and wonderful tutorials. Not tempted yet. OK fine….

Coconut Cream Cheese Brownies. Still not tempted?

Caramel Caffe Mocha Cupcakes. Uh. Huh. And on the off chance you don’t like chocolate ( let me just recover a moment please) she’s got some non-chocolate wonders too. But wait…she’s not only an artist in the kitchen, she and I share a love of cardmaking:

And she has an Etsy shop called The Trendy Owl with the cutest headbands and accessories!

So go visit Jocelyn ( but not on an empty stomach) and you won’t be disappointed!

Now, on to this week’s party! Memorial day ideas? Link ‘em. Father’s Day or Graduation ideas? Link ‘em. Re-furb / up cycled / re-styled? Link ‘em. Just no advertising or selling please and please link to your project page and not your main blog.  The party will be up through Sunday so you have time to go visit at least two other links (hint hint). Party On!

Graduation Card and Gift

Other than food, I won’t get to make many grad presents for my son’s guy friends but I will for some of the girls. 
I used the Graduation Subway Art printable I did on this card, along with some embellishments from KandCo’s “Life’s Little Occasions” collection.

This is the Graduation Medley Collection

For the present, I decided to make a necklace and I used Blue Moon’s “Lost and Found” collection of metal pendants as the focal. They come already stamped with different sentiments. I thought “Inspire” was a good choice for a grad.

I used two of Blue Moon’s metal chains and head pins and strung onyx, opalite and quartz beads on the headpins along with bead caps. I secured those to different lengths of chain with jump rings.

I wire wrapped some of the opalite beads and placed them randomly throughout the chain:

I hope the wonderful young lady this is for likes it!

Linking Up At: 

 

Graduation Party Favors: Votive Candles

So…I was trying to think of what party favors I could do for our family gathering to mark our son’s HS graduation. I was perusing the internet and saw some votive candles…an idea I loved because you can always use another votive, but they were $3 each which was more than  I wanted to spend.
I knew Michaels had these:

Clear glass votive holders, 16 pc for $7.99 ( $4.79 w/ 40% coupon) .
While wandering through the wedding aisle, I found these great print yourself votive wrappers for $4.99 for a sheet of 25 ( $2.99 w/40% discount that you have to make a separate trip through the checkout line to use but it’s worth it to me so I did). That just gives me more $$ to spend at Michaels!

These are really easy to use because you go to the Gartner Studios website and download a template you can edit in Word that’s sized / spaced to fit the blank spot on your wrapper. Before I printed the actual votive wrappers, I printed mine out on a blank piece of paper and layered a sheet of the votive wraps over it just to make sure I got the spacing right.

They come perforated for you so you can just print and tear. They also come with double sided adhesive to secure them to your votive.
Our school colors are red and gold / red and yellow so I put some gold bag stuffing whatchamacallit in a clear cello bag, tied with red or yellow ribbon and then attached a little “graduation cap” tag.

For the tags, I started out with a great printable that Diane at Pittypat Paperie created:

and added a laurel wreath and diploma to it. For the original, please go visit Diane to download! At less than $1 per votive, I like my price!

Oh and Michaels has the motherlode of coupons this week: Motherlode Of Michaels Coupons

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