Friday, July 29, 2016

Blog Hop With Gel Press™ and EnviroTex® Resin

Welcome to the EnviroTex® Resin/Gel Press Blog Hop. The designers for both companies have been creating wonderful projects. Please leave a comment on EACH blog. Tell us on the Gel Press blog and on the ETI Resin blog as to which projects you found most interesting or inspiring. One winner will be picked, at random, Sunday, July 31, 2016, at 10pm CST. The winner will get both Petite sets of Gel Press plates and ETI Jewelry Resin! Hop now through Sunday! Winner must be 18 or over and live in the USA. Good Luck!

EnviroTex® Resin is perfect for creating beautiful jewelry but today I will show you how to create beautiful resin embellishments and unique resin paper.

Resin and Gel Print Assemblage on Wood Blocks
Tutorial
List of Supplies
DecoArt Acrylic Paint
Old Book Text
Embossing Folders
Deli and Butcher Paper
Wood Blocks
Embellishments

Resin Embellishments
Follow the directions on the package for mixing the resin. You may want to wear gloves to protect your hands. This is a two step process.  Mix equal parts of the resin and hardener solutions in one of the cups provided.


  Stir with the stick for 2 minutes, scraping the sides to incorporate every bit.


Pour the mixed solution into the clean cup.


Stir it for another 60 seconds.


It's ready to use! According to the directions, there is about 25 minutes of open time, so work relatively quickly. Pour the resin into the silicone moulds, trying not to overflow them.  The first batch filled 3 moulds so I made a second batch and filled 2 more.


With the rest of the resin, I painted old book and dictionary pages on both sides using a sponge brush.  Place them on a non-stick surface to dry.


I did all these steps at night and left them to dry overnight. In the morning they easily released from the moulds and were soft and pliable.  According to the directions, they are soft cured after 12 hours, medium cured after 24 hours and hard cured after 48 hours. Consider these as guidelines since there are lots of variables, like humidity and temperature in your area.  


The paper has a transparent quality if you painted resin on both sides.  It is a bit brittle but tears easily without crumbling or breaking apart.

Sand any edges with fine sand paper if needed. I love how these resin pieces turned out! These Prima moulds are so unique and perfect for resin. Now they are ready for color!


Alcohol inks are perfect for smooth surfaces and I painted each resin piece with a different color.  To create depth, I layered several colors, including metallics. As a final layer, I added metallic paints with my finger to highlight the raised areas. Note: Do not use a heat tool to dry.


Gel Press® Printed Backgrounds


Embossing folders are a great way to add pattern to prints. Since I have lots of colors going on in this project, I wanted to keep the paper neutral shades of gray and black.


I also used thin deli and butcher paper.  To help the acrylic paint stay wet longer on the plate, use DecoArt Extender Medium.


I made lots of prints until I got four that I wanted to use with the resin pieces.


Putting It All Together
Using lots of goodies laying around my studio, I assembled each piece on a thick block of wood using matte medium for the paper and Beacon 3-in-1 glue for the resin and embellishments.







It's so much fun making these resin embellishments! Use them in scrapbooking layouts, cards, canvases and more! Think of all the possibilities!

Visit the other blog hoppers and see what they made using Envirotex Resin and Gel Press®.

                              Kathy <------you are here



Don't forget to comment and win this!
Blog Hop Prize

Monday, July 18, 2016

Art Journal Mixed Up Manic Monday

Thought I would share some of my latest art journal pages.
First, my latest Inspiration Wednesday pages.

July 6
Ribbon Page
I used hand painted fabric from my stash mixed with a few pieces of ribbon and denim. 




June 22
I found the leaf rub-ons that I had didn't work well over all of the texture so I used gold paint and a stencil.  The word rub-ons worked well though. Love the colors in this one.




The next two pages I experimented with image transfers using photocopies of artist, Frida Kahlo on pages in my art journal that I had cleaned off paint brushes and brayers.



I used a beautiful gift bag that I bought a few years ago at World Market as inspiration for the next pages.  I really love the way it turned out!

Gift Bag



The reason I love art journaling so much is that I can do a "test run" of something I want to do on canvas and incorporate what I learned into a final project.  I will probably do that with the last page,  so stay tuned!

What are you working on this summer?