School Years Themed Shadow Box

I'm sorry that I have been absent from my blog for all this week. I am my sons  "Bear" Cub Scout den leader starting this fall and in the meantime I cooridinated and attended Cub Scout day camp all this week with 9 boys at our local Marine Corps base- Camp Pendelton! Tomorrow is our last day and I'm fairly tired but I have a great tan to start the summer with!

Here is a School Years Themed Shadow box I made over at The Robins Nest blog.

I hope you'll come by to see the whole thing!
Saturday is my day off and then I'll be back to my regular crafty blog postings on Monday! :)

Freedom Resin Art

I'm so excited that you could come and visit me today! I just love anything and everything SteamPunk, don't you? I also love to work with resin and thought this piece would be nice and patriotic for the hop! Thanks to Leslie Rahye  for a great theme!

To make this Steampunk piece, you will need the following: 

1. Amazing Mold Putty.
2. Amazing Clear Cast Resin.
3. Silver Alumilite Metalic powder.
4. Fabric strips.
5. Letter beads.
6. Steampunk themed trinkets.
7. Something to make your mold, I used the wooden handle of a rubber stamp.
8. Small dry paint brush.
9. Scissors.
10. Toothpick and sandpaper.
11. Wax paper and old tray.
12. Mixing stick and small Dixie cups.
13. Metallic permanent markers, I used copper and gold.

1. If you are new to Amazing Mold Putty, I have a really great visual on how to mix the white and yellow mold putty here. You basically mix the two together, kneading it quickly until no traces of white appear. Then you form a square larger than your block. Press the block into about 3/4 of the way and pinch the corners of the mold 'snug' around your block. Let set about 15 minutes till hard. Pop out block.
2. Use your dry brush to apply the Alumilite to the entire inside of the mold. Use sparingly as a little goes a long way.
3. Set your mold on the wax paper and again onto a old tray.
4. Measure your Clear Cast Resin in the cups provided and then pour both into your Dixie cup. Mix completely with a mixing stick.
5. Pour a 'bit' of resin into the mold, using the toothpick to help get it into the corners.
6. Place your fabric strips into the mold, pressing them into the resin with the toothpick.
7. 'Color' any trinkets with the gold or copper pens to help make them look vintage if you want. The copper gear piece next to the key is really white plastic that I colored to look 'old'. :)
8. Pour in a little more resin and add your trinkets, moving them in place with the toothpick. If you happen to get resin on your hands, don't panic, alittle nail polish remover will clean up your hands just fine.
9. Add more resin until the trinkets are covered.
10. Place away from draft in a sunny spot if possible. My craft room was really warm the day I made this, so instead of the normal 48 hours cure time, is was done in just 24 hours!
11. Once set, pop out and sandpaper the sharp corners and anywhere else you see fit.

Then color the edges with your copper and gold pens. I used the copper to sign my name and date on the metallic back. I still have not decided if this will become jewelry or what. For know, I just like to look at it and add it to my shelf of SteamPunk creations!
Thanks for coming by, I hope you like this!
Please visit the rest of the Artists for more Red-White & Blue Steampunk Fun!

Easy Lanyard Key Fobs

Because Dyllan has a summer Birthday, his party favors for the class also doubles as his end of the year gift.
I'm so grateful for our new Hobby Lobby. Otherwise I'd have to buy the kids things that might break in a day or two or never make it home.
Here, because backpack decorations are all the rage...at Hobby Lobby, I found 300 feet of the sparkly tie dye lanyard for $6, more than enough for the key fobs and summer activities! Craft Beads $4 for 65ct, For $4, you get 40 split key rings, 30 lanyard hooks, and 10 figure 8 shaped key rings.
There were 3 different colors of the lanyards, I used 2 per key fob.
Measure and cut  9 1/2" pieces. Grab 2 and loop it through the spilt ring, pull the 4 ends  through the bead. Before pulling tight, loop 3" of craft wire through the split ring and into the bead. Pull the wire and lanyard tight through the bead, then wrap the wire around the base of the bead and secure so it's not sharp.
Dyllan helped add the lanyard hooks to each ring. We put these in a snack bag with a copy of his 2nd  grade photo and a nice note. :)

Yummy Candy Pendants!

Today my creations are Resin candy pendants.

 I think they are just the cutest and a great way to start off summer with sweet style!

You can see the whole tutorial over on The Amazing Mold Putty blog.

See you there!

Looking for last minute Fathers Day or Teacher gifts?

Here are two decorated tins I made. I'm thinking of filling one of them with pencils and school supplies for my sons 2nd grade teacher. Won't that make a nice end of school gift? How about cookies in the other for Fathers Day? Want to know how easy it was to make these? Come visit me on The Robins Nest blog to see how!