Starting Resin! (So much fun!)

Hi everyone! As I recieved a lot of questions about resin and my supplies since I posted a mini resin update on Instagram, I thought I would put together a blog post so that I could put all the info in one place :)

I have been dying to try resin for a while now. I watched countless resin videos from +Frainy xo , +SugarCharms808 , +CoolRiceBunnies , +crafterzdelights +PastelBunBun.com & +LittleSurprisesYT (I think I wathed them all, actually hehe) and drooled over the beautiful pastel colours, glitter & shapes. I already have a small collection of stickers, but to actually have an excuse to buy more and to finally buy glitter - SOLD. ❤

First let me show you the two molds I bought (please excuse how dirty they are):

They are both from the same seller on Aliexpress, come with free shipping, are extremely good quality and make super shiny pieces! I am very happy with these two as my first molds, and have been making a lot of use of them. The only thing that I initially thought could improve them would be if they had curved rather than perpendicular edges. I have since changed my mind about this though, as I have learned how to dome which gives a much softer look to the finished piece! Doming is also very useful when repairing overspill. What I have learned to do is to sand the overspill so that the piece becomes flat and then dome over the top to make it shiny again; it works like a dream!

❤ Love mold Aliexpress here

❤ Circle shape mold Aliexpress here

I also bought a pair of makeshift doming mats from K-mart which are actually just silicone heat mats for picking up hot pots:

They are perfect for catching any resin runoff, and ensuring that pieces don't get stuck when an overspill happens! I highly recommend investing in something like this (they were only about NZ$1 each), as resin is an amazingly sticky substance. The small amount I got on my desk is stuck fast and not going anywhere!

 If you can't find them in store, I've seen some on Aliexpress here

This is the resin I've been using:

It's called Easy Cast by Castin' Craft and I bought the 16 oz box.

So far I love this resin! It deals with anything I throw at it and hardens perfectly: acrylic paint, ink, glitter - even some water drops that accidentally fell into the molds while the resin was curing. Although it says low odour I really dislike the smell which is actually a good thing with chemical stuff like this. As it's the only resin I've tried I can't compare its clarity with others, but it looks like a really clear resin.

I bought mine from a New Zealand online outlet (Trademe) but it's originally from Beadaholique.com

❤ You can find the link HERE

White Ink & Mod Podge:

I bought this white ink on Ebay after seeing it in +Frainy xo 's videos. As you can see in her YT video here it is really opaque, and when mixed with fine coloured glitter it gives a pastel effect. The one I purchased is a small bottle (1oz) but it looks like it will go a long way. It hasn't affected the curing process of my resin pieces, which is a relief. I've taken to mixing it with my standard acrylic paints in the resin to create the pretty pastel colours which you can see in my finished pieces below :)

❤ I bought it from Ebay here

I bought the Mod Podge from a local craft store, but you can find it on amazon or Ebay. Mine is several years old but still works really well. I accidentally bought the paper Mod Podge because I didn't know that there were different variations. I have used it a few times now to seal paper cutouts in resin and where I've applied it properly it hasn't let me down! I use +crafterzdelights sealing paper stickers technique to seal them, and after trying several others including tape, I have to say it's the best way. You can view her tutorial here. I found a random sheet of clear plastic and have been using it - I don't think it's the exact correct type as it doesn't vanish completely like hers, but it's been working well enough!

Glitter & Glitter shapes:

 I got a bunch of different glitter types: fine to colour, glitter strips to add sparkle etc. I bought a few sets off Ebay which I would say avoid if you can get glitter in your local shops. They tend to sell the glitter on Ebay in very small containers like you see above, which was good for me to begin with, but will not last very long! The local stores that I have in my reach also have terribly limited glitter options. I wasted my time on some plain 'white glitter' that looks like air bubbles in my resin >.<

❤ I bought a fine glitter set here

❤ and glitter strips here

❤ and a few individual chunky glitter mixes here

I bought these glitter shapes off of Imagination station after watching a haul/review video from +LittleSurprisesYT  which you can view here. I was so disappointed that they didn't have any of the colours she hauled in stock and also wrote to them to ask if they might get more in, but never heard back unfortunately. The glitter is still great, but as I didn't want mixed glitter I painstakingly sorted each container into it's own individual colour. I would not do this again, nor would I recommend this to anyone as you are left with very little of each colour for all your hard work! I'm still trying to find a place where I can buy these colours and shapes in a larger quantity. I did find some tiny little jars of the shapes on Ebay as you can see in the first picture at the top of the page, but the colours are limited as is the quantity in each miniature bottle.

❤ You can find Imagination Station Atlanta's storenvy here

❤ Ebay miniature bottle set - star here and heart here (same seller)

Decoration:

I bought these beautiful pastel rhinestones and pearls from Ebay for decorating my resin pieces. I think they are stunningly beautiful and excellent quality! Their shipping was super fast as well, the whole experience was so good that I've just made another order with them, woops!

❤ The seller is called The Amazing DIY Shop and you can find them here

These little pearl bows and stars I got from BeadSupplies on Etsy. They were just a last minute add on to my order at just $1 each bag. I think they are really pretty, and have since ordered some similar pearl shapes from Ebay. These are high quality with no defects, so I'd like to see how the Ebay ones compare :)

❤ Find Beasupplies on Etsy here

I got some plastic cups and shot glasses from K-mart as well:

I also bought some wooden popsicle sticks from a dollar store for stirring and dolloping.

 Last but not least I got a lot of questions about where I got my cat stickers from. I've actually had them for a long time, and I got them from Ebay. I have a super soft spot for anything from Jetoy which my wallet can attest to (it's a Jetoy cat face wallet HAHA gotcha!)

The reason why I used these in my first resin pieces is that despite them being really pretty, they are terrible quality! I can hardly peel the plastic stickers of the sheet that they're on and when I get them off they quite often crease. The paper sitckers in this set are nice though! This confuses me as I do have other Jetoy stickers that are fantastic quality - maybe I got a knockoff?

❤ Anyway I couldn't find the same listing that I bought as it was a few years ago, but here is another. Perhaps you will have better luck!
  ❤

I hope this helps and answers some of your questions! I have to say that resin is JUST as much fun if not more than I thought it would be, although it is terribly messy as well! Here are most of my first two batches of resin pieces:

I used some stickers and also a lot of memo pad cutouts! I'm in love with these pieces! Only one of them (two little swinging Sentimental Circus fairies) got water damage due to my inept sealing and the big turquoise Turomi piece got a large air bubble just by his face, but all in all I'm super happy with the results! I have some ribbon and things, and am making them into adorable little finished pieces. 

 ❤

+SugarCharms808 will be making a tutorial on how she colours resin in the near future, so be sure to subscribe to her and check out all the lovelies I mentioned at the beginning to get to all the little knowledge pearls they have to offer!

❤

Two New Tutorials up on YouTube!

So I finally managed to create some video tutorials of my polmer clay creations, and they're up on The Little Mew YouTube channel!

My first one is for some very cute little mermaids:

Here is the LINK

This is the first time I filmed myself and put my mug up on YouTube for the world to see. I did this mainly because I wanted to break out of my fear doing so, and I wanted people to be able to associate a face with the unmanicured hands that awkwardly create beautiful miniatures. So far I haven't recieved much feedback but at least nothing negative. The only constructive criticism I seem to be able to take is 'The only thing wrong with it is I have no idea how you're going to improve on this perfection.' hehe （ つ﹏╰）   I think this is because I work so hard (it took me two weeks to film and edit) at making everything as 'perfect' as I can, and try to find all the faults before anyone else can point them out. Gosh, being so fragile it's a wonder that I have managed to come this far in life without crumbling! Thank goodness that I have positive people in my life and positive people reading/watching my uploads! That being said, the sound quality of my voice in this video killed me! So did the length, going back and forth between tasks, and losing some footage. But I chalk it up to experience and aimed to do better in my next one, which brings us to...

My second Tutorial for the ADORABLE Catbug from Bravest Warriors:

Here is the LINK

I filmed this so quickly, all in one go and edited it the same day! I ended up filming a bit at night as well, but it worked out OK and helped to extend my 'usable work-day time' which is awesome. I realised that at least until I get more comfortable I should make slightly simpler tutorials. Although I recorded it the same way, the sound quality of my voice improved a lot, and I am really happy with how this video turned out! 

You can check out Catbug in Bravest Warriors on Cartoon Hangover HERE
The episodes are only about 5 mins long but jam-packed full of creativity, humor & action - I finished it in two days and them moved on to Adventure Time (which I LOVE).

I really can't wait to make some more tutorials. Next on the list is this Totoro:

Wild Totoro in its natural habitat :)

Let me know any tutorials you would like to see in the future! I am keen to make anything nerdy, from Disney, Adventure Time, Studio Ghibli, any animals or any kawaii character as well!

❤

Dress Form Jewelry Stand Tutorial

 

DIY Mannequin Jewelry Stand (Painting by Emily Winfield Martin aka The Black Apple)

 Hi everyone! Today I wanted to share with you a pattern and tutorial by Marie Browning which I used to make my mannequin jewelry stands. I didn't have all the 'ingredients' available to me at the time and I wanted to make it specifically usable for jewelry (hers is a pin cushion) so I made a few modifications. Here is a list of what I used:

Base: Plastic ribbon spool (5.7cm diameter)

Arms: Double-pointed knitting needles from a second hand shop (17.5cm long)

Arm Caps: Handmade polymer clay button shapes (1cm diameter)

Stand: Craft shop wooden dowel sawed to size (21.5cm length, 2cm diameter)

Stuffing: Unbleached felting wool (it looked like this when I bought it)

Body: Muslin or floral patterned cloth

Marie's Tutorial Here

Pattern Here

Here you can see my work in progress (meaning a big mess on the floor - why must I always move to the floor?). I drilled a hole for the knitting needles in the wooden dowel 3cm from the top. I then spray painted the makeshift mannequin base (spool, dowel, needle) with white enamel paint. Cutting the pattern and hand stitching was the most out-of-my-comfort-zone part but I managed to bend the cloth and thread to my will (muahaha, you are no match for me, sewing kit). After stitching the body form I turned it the right way round and stuffed it with wool. I crafted the arm caps out of polymer clay, baked, painted and glazed them. When all the parts were ready to go I put them together: I first pushed the wooden dowel through the stuffed mannequin body and added the base to the bottom. Next, I threaded the knitting needle through a hole in the stitching at the 'shoulder' (3cm from top of pole), the drilled hole in the wooden dowel and out the other side. I then used E600 glue where the cloth opens to the arms and stand to stop everything moving around. I also glued the base and arm caps in place.

As you can see, I decorated the non-paterned mannequins with peach chiffon fabric flowers.

I used a cupcake topper tutorial from Paiges of Style blog here to create the flowers. I had two shades of peach fabric and one duck-egg - I went a bit crazy with this as I thought of a hundred different uses for these little shabby chic flowers!

Chiffon Flower Puff Hair Clips

 Some similar fabric flower tutorials from other bloggers:

Love Wed Bliss: here

Wedding Bee: here

(are you guys sensing a theme? hehe)

Love Maegan: here

Some more pictures:

Floral mannequin laden with my jewelry - "Is that a Watch-Belt? Stylish."

Displaying an autumn themed bracelet I made for my Mum :)

I hope this inspires you to get creative and make your own useful display stand! As I said, I have very limited experience in stitching but the template from Marie was really helpful. If you need any more information about my own process, please go ahead and ask :) If you want to buy a finished mini mannequin for your jewelry I will be listing some on my Etsy shop soon so keep an eye out for them!