Jade Rimehardt

Hello! o/

I am the hostess of this Tumblr, Jade Rimehardt 😊 I have many aliases across the web (i.e. my main is TekuTiger), but for the sake of simplicity, let’s just go with Jade or JR while we’re here, shall we?

I’ve created this side-blog with every intention to be creatively unhinged- of sorts. Personality-wise (mbti), I’m an INTJ 5w4 514 sx/sp ILI EVLF OCIAM. My posts can get long and rambly, be prepared for that 🙂

I’m not the type who takes requests. Mostly because I don’t feel confident in doing so, and I’m the type who doodles/draws via motivation and within my free time. It’s the same for most other things. I try to balance my hobbies with real life and that can get challenging at times, but I do what I can ☯️

Quick Navigation

💠Paper to Camera to Art Program 💠Draw Scallop Shells 💠Cold Brew Tea! Swapping away from one-time-use Bottles & Sodas 💠PPE Shopping & Suggestions (second half of the post) 💠Mica Water & Acrylic Water w/ ResinCrete or Eco Pour Technique 💠Watercoloring ResinCrete or Eco Pour Technique 💠Adding magnets, jump rings and/or pendant bails with UV Resin 💠Faux Geode appearance with ResinCrete 💠Upcyling with Goo Gone 💠Bookmarks pt.1 using Watercolor Paper + UV Resin 💠Bookmarks pt.2 using Watercolor Paper + Mod Podge + UV Resin 💠Making Mica Powder Watercolor and Acrylic Paints 💠Making Watercolor Paints pt.1 💠Making Watercolor Paints pt.2 💠Making Watercolor Paints pt.3 💠Watercolor Eyeshadow Paint & Swatches

My Mission, My Passion, My Goal...

All of my resin creations are made with a heavy emphasis on reusable tools and not one-time use items. I want to stand on an Eco-Friendly platform and spread awareness. I do NOT use plastic or paper cups. I do NOT use construction paper, parchment paper or wax paper surfaces. I use silicone mats, tools, cups and molds wherever possible. (Which is cheaper in the long run if you think about it.)

[The paper stuff isn’t that bad, it’s the plastic that’s terrible.]

There are a couple of things that I cannot get away with reusing and they are: my Black Nitrile Gloves, Baby Wipes (for cleaning my silicone tools, mat, cups, molds, any other silicone things I've missed), and Paper Towels (I don't use these as often as one might think but occasionally I'll need one or two while working).

If you don’t think it’s that big of a deal, I implore you to educate yourself and take a look at a couple of pages:

🌊 https://oceana.org/our-campaigns/plastics/ 🌊 https://usa.oceana.org/our-campaigns/plastic/ 🌊 https://www.4ocean.com/blogs/notebook/the-state-of-the-ocean-plastic-crisis-2025

Please Note: I’m not attacking anyone who uses or does these things- it may even seem hypocritical considering some types of resin are a type of plastic. But there's a place for resin and using certain items in the creation process are, imo, unnecessary. It’s never too late to change behaviors or the things we do. It doesn’t have to be all at once either. Taking one step at a time, one thing here- one thing there, or changing things out as we feel comfortable to do so can do so much more than you realize. A little goes a long way! ✌🏻 Keep moving forward 🫶🏻

However if you are a Resin Creator who claims to love the ocean and all the critters within it and then proceeds to continue using disposable plastic cups- sorry, but not sorry, I’ve lost quite a lot of respect for you. You are not protecting the ocean or saving the sea life you claim to love. And you are not doing the same for humanity either.

There's been a couple of ideas I've been toying around with and I've got one to share!

Remember that charcuterie board I mentioned last post? We're turning that into a paint palette 😇👉🏻🎨

You could do other things with it too, if you want to, but I'll leave that up to your imagination. A paint palette was what I personally wanted.

Going back to this post a bit, and this post, or maybe even further back (Oct & Nov last year 2025). I don't exactly recall when I made my own Alcohol Inks because I guess I never made a post about making my own and I thought I did?

I probably felt it was unnecessary because it's so simple; just mix some mica powder + 99.9% isopropyl alcohol in a needle tip bottle and mix it together. Add a ball bearing weight if you feel it needs it.

For a while there I was using them in darn near everything, lol.

I got my Egyptian Bronze by Dianka Pours ink back out again for this along with my squeeze poof that I use with alcohol inks and watercolor ⤵️

You can get some really cool effects with these in resin if you know how to use it.

Take note if you're using metallic anything- don't spray isopropyl alcohol over the surface after you get your desired design. You don't have to take my word for it and you can go ahead and see for yourself why I say don't do it. But what'll happen is, it acts as a reset or pools all the metallic into a pool/puddle.

I had some really nice floral or bloom patterns and I was aware it did this last year, but because I hadn't worked with it in so long, my goldfish brain decided not to recall the information. I used IPA to spray over my project to remove bubbles and just like that, poof, the pretty "elegant" design I had worked to achieve was gone in an instant.

So, don't do what I did 😅

Last post I used a color combo I really liked and wanted to make more things using the same colors. You'll be seeing those too 😊

This is the first day, and layer 1 of the paint palette ⤵️

I backed some of those circular disks for the wind chime with midnight dream by Matio to match the larger coaster and I wanted to add some UV DTFs in a couple and some crushed glass in others.

I have this box of assorted colors by renfio that I've had for... who knows how long. And I use some every now and then, but I've never fully ran out of 1 color. Honestly I should use these more because they're nice and they dye the resin ever so slightly. I'm not sure if they're meant to. But I like them.

The other things that were in the color palette I liked, came out like this ⤵️

I still need to sand them down and paint them.

The next day got a little more experimental because I broke out these makeup paint tray molds, a cabochon cured on a popsicle stick and some silicone oil ⤵️

This probably seems odd... We're going to experiment by molding the resin, using the silicone oil and the cabochon, after the resin has cured about 60-90 minutes.

[I wasn't watching the clock that closely because I stayed in the room, with PPE on and the Resiner's filter going, while working on other resin projects. But checking the mold to see if it was "far enough along" or not to proceed forward.]

What I did here was, added silicone oil on top of the cabochon, dipped it into the mold where I wanted, enough to leave an indent. Twisted it as I raised it out so it didn't leave behind a bubble. Added more silicone oil, rinse & repeat until it was the depth I wanted it. (I hope my wording here doesn't get me that tag again 😖)

I probably began this too early because the resin kept settling back down like it was trying to return into it's normal position. But as this was my first time doing this, mistakes happen, you learn things, you test and trial things. And I kept pushing my boundaries with it and I definitely went a little too close to the bottom. I should have been a little more mindful of the depth of the mold.

You can see how I started in the first picture, and then I was like "well.... what if I made them wider... 🤔"

It did get to the point where I started to worry they wouldn't cure because they never felt warm or hot. But they did cure!

And I wonder if I should have stopped when they were smaller circles because they look like creepy ghoulish faces in small paint palettes 🤣 but you never know unless you try things and I swear, that's slowly turning into my motto in life.

The second layer on the charcuterie paint palette/board looked like this ⤵️

With this, honestly, I loved the shell part, but I wanted the bronze flakes to be more concentrated and they were when I put them into the resin. But we all know resin does what it wants and over the curing process it spread out like that.

I've grown to like it a lot, so it's okay.

And I added my cute slime baby to it on the following day ⤵️

This is also when I add the wells.

Your imagination can go wild here. Remember that moon phases mold I showed last post? That could potentially work in this, I think. Or my star one. Maybe even flower ones, or bee ones... (I'm referring to the ice cube tray molds but anything small/silicone that would rest on the last cured layer or would float would probably work well).

For this though, I used the basic, standard, little cups you typically get with UV Resin ⤵️ (there's another UV silicone cup you could use too but it'd leave more of a frosty/matte impression)

I placed them down onto the fully cured resin FIRST so they'd adhere/stick/cling. Then I placed in some lapis lazuli beads to add some weight incase they decided they wanted to float for whatever reason. After that, I sprayed some IPA around the bottom of the cups and on top of the cured layer so no bubbles would form when I added the clear resin on top.

Very simple. It's possible I didn't even need the beads for weight but I was just being cautious.

[Better safe than sorry!]

Here's the paint palette today, every step of the way demolding ⤵️

And here it is demolded ⤵️

I'm incredibly happy with how it turned out. I had a general idea of how this would go in my head, and I had so many scenarios for how this could go wrong foreseen in my brain that I absolutely expected the worst. But it looks so wonderful~ 🤗💓

I did get a little overpour because the mold itself is uneven, but it wasn't due to the cups or anything. Next time I could try to place it on a different spot on my table but my table is supposedly level 🤷🏻‍♀️.

There is another thing I'd like to show incase anyone wants to try this ⤵️

You will get raised walls around the cups or any silicone type thing you use.

They're not sharp, per se, but some people may not find them particularly pleasant either.

Personally I don't mind them, especially as a paint palette, because it helps keep the paint in the round tray(s) and prevents other paints from leaking into it if they're up on the flat area.

But if it's a problem for you, you can sand the whole thing down and then use a sealer to bring back the shine. Though that's probably more work than anyone would want to put into a project like this unless they intend to cast their final piece (make a silicone mold using it), i.e. turning it into a master.

Oh yeah, and lastly here's my cutie slime baby! ⤵️

Do any of you reading this believe in synchronicities? Sometimes, I do. And most times I believe that there are no such thing as coincidences and there is a logical explanation behind everything.

I know that seems like a random thing out of no where, lol. But sometimes it seems like us resin creators are on the same wavelength and I have no way to explain it 🤷🏻‍♀️ because I stay in my own little bubble and I don't socialize anywhere. I'm not a fan of drama so I intentionally stay withdrawn.

Another random blurb: ignore my nails in all these photos 😅 I just re-did them but I've been practically living in water and doing a lot of cleaning so they're already chipping 🙃

So, I got some new molds (to no-one's surprise) and had some new ones sitting on the backburner that I've been waiting to use... ⤵️

The charcuterie board mold had to be replaced unfortunately, because it had some debris embedded into the silicone itself (in addition to being warped). I had never seen that before but there's a first time for everything. I got a new one yesterday and I can pour it sometime in the future but that's not going to be this post. My intended purpose for it, is not a charcuterie board though, so we'll see if I can pull off my vision for it 🧐

The water ripple coasters were also kind of bleh. I bought them off an Amazon listing that stated they were "new" but it was clear that they were not new. It took about 3-weeks for them to get to me and they were very matte, roughed up, patchy, smudged, looked like someone had used them 200 times to the end of their lifespan. I tried to use silicone oil in them for 2-weeks to bring them back to life and I casted in them once. The cast came out decent, but not great. After that however, they were back to their original state of looking extremely worn. I wasn't going to do the replenish with silicone oil 2-weeks just to use them once thing on loop, so I returned them today. The sad thing is, I cannot find this mold anywhere to buy them again. It is what it is, and I guess it wasn't meant to be 🤷🏻‍♀️

I can try~ to cast the "decent" casts I got but if there's any silicone oil remaining on them, it might hinder the silicone casting or curing. I'm not sure I like them enough to try but I'll give it some thought.

And then we have those round prism edge "coasters". Not sure what they're called exactly because I bought them around 3-years ago and I'm just now getting to them. But what happened was, I bought them because they were called "coasters" and they were cheap, so I bought many. When I received them, they were a lot smaller than what was listed/advertised on the page ⤵️

They absolutely do not fit any cup I own, at least 😅

I stashed them away knowing they could still be used for things like Christmas ornaments, I've just never gotten around to doing that.

A lot of this seems like discombobulated parts, I'm sure, but the whole picture will become clear soon. I think my multiple sessions of casting resin is making this more complicated than it needs to be 😅😂

There's been something I've been wanting to show for a while, that I'm going to toss in here.

When I decide I'm going to work with resin for the day, I set out my resin molds/projects on the table before I even pick out colors or mix up any resin, like this ⤵️

[Kind of like "mise en place", but not cooking. For resin.]

I put everything in a designated place that it's going to remain in and I don't move it, because it doesn't need to move. That's its spot until it fully cures.

I'm throwing this out into the universe because I see a lot of content creators pour something and then move it away from them and on rare occasion it topples over on them and resin spills everywhere.

Yes, I'm aware they usually do this because they have a camera clip or tripod (like I do in my photo) holding their phone and they're trying to move stuff out of frame, to move more things into frame. But if you're getting the whole table, I don't think swapping things in and out are necessary? This is one of those, you do you, situations. And if you aren't a content creator, this is an easy thing to do.

Next I'll decide the colors ⤵️

And usually put them near the molds I want them in if it's a LOT of projects I'm going to do. Like in this photo here 👆🏻

As I mix up resin and use the colors, I slowly put them back so they're not taking up so much space (like when my resin is in the bubble-remover, that's a good time to put things away but don't totally walk away and leave it unattended incase your resin bubbles over). But everyone has a different craft area and that might not be feasible for everyone 🤷🏻‍♀️

And now off of that little tangent 👌🏻...

The main project I'm wanting to do is a Wind Chime. All these little pieces that seemingly make no sense, are adding up to me making an Aesthetic Wind Chime. It's not going outdoors but in my room, from my ceiling.

These are going to come in handy with this project ⤵️

Hole makers from Little-windows. I've had these for a long time (I'm talking 2ish years) and they're surprisingly still working but I did have some trouble with a couple falling as I was mixing resin (from their own weight and height I think?), and one fell after the resin was in it but I was able to stick/prop it back up and it still cured with the hole intact. Definitely worth getting if you need holes in your projects.

I think my last post was where I mentioned the slime UV DTFs I had bought. I'm bringing those back out- I need something big enough to fit one onto and it seems only a coaster will work. But ofc I don't want just any plain ole coaster ⤵️

I brushed this one with Midnight Dream by Matio.

It came out like this ⤵️

That line in the photo is the reflection from my camera. But this one caught a small little fabric fiber in it so I made a second one. It's not incredibly visible but I still made another anyways. I'm debating if I want to make it again, fill it less, add the UV DTF, and then dome it so it has that protective top coat...

And then we have these ⤵️

Not loving these, or even liking these. I only considered these because those edges have that rainbow prism effect but you can see the cloudiness left behind from the mold itself- that is NOT the resin. Some of my other ones were even worse with mold impressions.

Going to scrap this mold idea for my Wind Chime and use these for other things... again, lol.

I've been looking at a lot of Wind Chime molds and there are some really neat ones out there, but you can improvise your own molds, the same way I am, to get shapes you want for custom wind chimes.

Which brings me to some stars and moons using the hole makers ⤵️

I like the way these came out and I think the sizes match perfectly. For my tastes anyways.

Here's how my table looked, though I've shown some things already ⤵️

The water ripple coasters were poured with clear resin and I dropped in alcohol inks, swirled them around a bit, and then added white sinker alcohol ink on top. I do that sometimes with smaller extras just to derp around. This time I thought it'd be interesting to try it on a wider mold to see how it'd turn out.

Usually I see content creators do this intentionally trying to get petri effect or they'll use an icing bag to add white pigmented resin to create blooms. Don't take this as me being close-minded or gatekeep-y or whatever, it's just a personal preference, but I honestly don't like blooms so I've never bothered trying to learn how to do them. But what I do like is the petri effect. Probably because it truly looks like science-petri. And I genuinely love when it DROPS and touches the surface and yet I so often see people say they hate it and call it a failure. It makes me sad because I find those pieces beautiful nearly 100% of the time.

So often that effect looks like flora in a miniature diorama, moss in a lake/river bed, or baby's breath flowers, or cherry blossoms, or something genuinely unique. I don't comprehend how people "hate it" or can call it a failure. But I guess that's why, psychologically I'm the weird one? 🤷🏻‍♀️ I don't get that either.

[Now I'm just rambling.]

Here's the petri from those water ripple coasters ⤵️

These are the ones that I may potentially cast in silicone for new molds.

I tried making yet another tea light candle set of 2 stars and 1 moon to match my room ⤵️

I like them a lot, but I'm not in love with them, y'know? They don't match my living space 😅 Which means I have to try again.

Round 2~

I made more of the Wind Chime pieces ⤵️

I'm going to need 4x to 6x more of these circular pieces so I literally ordered another mold to speed things along 😵‍💫🫠. It's not getting finished this post, unfortunately. If you'd like the mold, it's this one here and it DOES come with directions.

Color choices for the next wave of tea lights are these ⤵️

The Dianka Pours mica powder there, is Dark Matter.

With all of our color options out there (to buy) it's easy to just grab a color and dump spoonful's or ink drips into a cup and stir the resin. But after so many attempts of trying to get the elusive perfect color combo for this star and moon tea light set, it was time to get a little more inventive.

I mixed that Fun'iki Pink together with the Magma Magenta, 1:1 (I also added glue to this mixture). And I mixed all 3 of those blues; Nokon Blue + Opulent Tanzanite + Dark Matter. Also added glue to the glitter, but none to anything else.

[The Magma Magenta had to be dissolved with Isopropyl Alcohol because it's a fluorescent and very grainy.]

This time, they came out PERFECT and I love them~. Omg I couldn't be happier with the results ⤵️

I don't know why these last photos are so glaringly bright 💡🫣

And with that, I'm all caught up again!

Whelp, I haven't been idle, I just haven't been posting, lol 😅

There are a lot of things on my to-do list today so I'm going to try and make this post quick, probably very crammed as well, but it's still going to be lengthy as I have 2+ weeks worth of things to put here 😅

So, I made a whole bunch of trays and more of those mold housing borders ⤵️

I wanted to show my cluttered mess and my non cluttered mess here. With square/rectangular molds, I tend to box them in or use heavy-flat sided items to help give them a straight edge as they cure. In one case here I even got to use the mold housing borders I've been making with those molds but because the mold was slightly too small, I had to include some popsicle sticks to fill in the gaps. It worked like a charm though!

The only actual issue, if you can spot it, is the rectangular gem/cobblestone mold on the right side there is *incredibly* deformed (from how it mailed to me) and I've been trying everything I can think of to fix it. I still need to add some foam squares or something to help it back to its intended shape but I was hoping the heat from the resin curing would do that. It didn't unfortunately 🙃

I bought some UV DTFs from a company of some of my favorite game slimes and I wasn't sure if they'd actually print them. Being 100% transparent and honest, I'm not selling these, they're going to be for personal use only, but they have no way of knowing that.

It's not like they have a comments or notation section where I can let them know that and even then, they'd have to take what I say for face value. And even then, I don't know if they could get in trouble for making them for me? I think it faults back on me because you accept agreements and such. But I know people do this stuff all the time and I don't study law. Etsy and E-Bay are riddled with items like this from 3rd party vendors (print on demand) or they have their own UV DTF machines/printer or sticker machines or cricuts. It doesn't make it right, but when the owner company doesn't produce a product for you to represent it themselves, what else can you do?

I did name the custom order document of the slime and the game so if they wanted to do the research, they were more than capable and could deny/reject it (because I wanted to be upfront and honest). But seeing as how I received the item, they clearly did not deny it. It could have been a number of things; either they didn't have the time to look into it, they chose not to deny it, or they chose to send it to me regardless 🤷🏻‍♀️

So, that's my long spiel. I'm not going to name the company but if you recognize it and order from them, I recommend not taking advantage of it because you might get away with it once like I did. But not a second time. This was a one-time thing for me. One and done.

I'm going to make personal use trays, journals, ornaments, wall decor, you name it- everything I can think of with these. I love my cutie slimes 🥰🤗💓 and I reiterate, I am not selling these with anything, or on anything. And I'm over the moon they actually made them and sent them to me 🫶🏻. In doing me this favor, they have earned my favor (unknowingly or not). I'll be using their UV DTF services again in the future for my own graphic art that I've drawn myself or maybe watercolor scans.

If the gaming company who owned these slimes made these- I would buy them directly from them in copious numbers, they have no idea. I'm not the only one, I'm sure. They should consider getting a print on demand supplier, lol, and make all the things. I'd be so broke 😂 because I'd buy so much. I even gifted both their games to ALL my friends because I love it so much and wanted to support them somehow. But enough about that... (and my terrible spending habits and obsession.)

[I do want to note, however, that I'm not encouraging or condoning this in any way, but I do love seeing people supporting their favorite and beloved things; be it sports, charitable causes, events, hobbies, games, anime, cartoons, movies, comics, book series, etc. Sometimes it's just difficult to do it because of limitations. I try to support the things I love and believe in, in the ways that I can and am capable.]

I did find a couple cute things at the dollar store!

I've heard a few content creators mention that their dollar stores have a resin section and just like Hobby Lobby, I go there once in a blue moon so I had never seen it. I finally found the section in mine and it was small. But those itty bitty bottles with corks? They have those. They also have those small itty bitty bottles with the silver screw tops you can put additives in (like bubble beads, or polymer clay slices). It's a cute section!

I also went to Hobby Lobby, I'll show that later.

Backing up a wee bit to the slime UV DTFs- I wanted some trays to put them on ⤵️

The game they're in is very vividly colorful, so I went with fluorescent colors. Somehow my purple got lost on the bowl, it's all underneath it but I didn't want to try making it again in fear I couldn't match the colors the exact same again. The powders are the same but I mix them with a little bit of white pigment paste to make them slightly more opaque. (The powders are very transparent alone.)

Here is the tray and bowl after the UV DTFs are added with a top coat also added ⤵️

They're perfect. I love them 🥰💗

Can't wait to put them in my room. I need to make space first though~

Pretty sure I've posted a screenshot of them in the game here before but here's what these cutie slimes look like in the game ⤵️

They're bouncy, cheerful and playful 😋. Absolute adorable babies and I love them 🤗💝

[I'm avoiding mentioning the name of the game so this post doesn't end up in the tags, lol.]

Before I get to the Hobby Lobby stuff I got, I wanted to show a couple journals I found on Amazon for a fair price ⤵️

The alchemy bottle one is 300gsm, perfect for watercolor (and only has 2 left in stock as I write this). The ginkgo leaf with bees and butterflies one is 80gsm (so think of it like printer paper). I got the bee one for my alcohol markers but it does need an extra sheet of paper behind it when I color on those as the alcohol markers bleed through the pages. I just couldn't resist the design and the price tag for both. If you buy watercolor paper, you know 300gsm paper can get pricey. And cute journal covers can make things even pricier.

And here's what I got from Hobby Lobby ⤵️

That baking mold caught my attention immediately and I actually wanted to get 2, but that was the last one they had in stock so I got lucky. I rarely go there and it seems like their glitter section shrunk since the last time I went? So, I tried to double up on the ones that interested me more. I kind of wish I doubled up on 1 specific glitter the last time I went and I didn't but c'est la vie.

And I keep saying this, but I really really need to STOP buying resin stuff, lol. I am overly stocked on glitter, mica, foils, embeds, everything. So much so, that I need to re-organize my resin room, shelves and organizers to make all this fit again, lol 🫠🙃. I even have 2 mica powders arriving tomorrow 😖

I just need to go craft me a huge red stop sign and put it on my door or my computer that says STOP!

I do this way too often 🫠

We're back on the subject of the little Owl Tealight Candle Holders! The other thing wrong with those molds were... they don't actually fit tea lights, lol 🙃

But, they will fit fairy lights.

Unfortunately, I don't have any so I had to order some 🙃

This morning I broke out my ResinCrete, for the first time in a while, actually... was kind of like seeing an old friend, but an old hobby that you missed doing, if that makes sense? Because it's been at least half a year since I've used ResinCrete.

Don't take this as me complaining or ranting or whining, but they kind of jacked up the pricetag on ResinCrete by a whopping 20$ USD or something crazy. It wasn't a small increase. So, I just stopped buying it.

I took economics, I have a degree in accounting, I took business classes, I get it. It's called supply and demand. When your product is doing good, you raise prices. And then there's other economic and political things you take into account and add onto it that I'm not going to dive into because I'm not trying to turn my blog into some controversial debate club or woe-is-me hotspot but what I am trying to say is- it's not in my budget unless it goes on sale.

[Which hey, right now as I'm writing this, it is on sale on Amazon. I'd order more but I have a brand new bag still waiting for me 🙃.

Edit: I ended up buying another bag after all, Lol 😅😋.]

I also wasn't using it as much as I used to, so 🤷🏻‍♀️

Because it's been a good while, I actually had to look at the back for ratios. I couldn't remember 🫢

I didn't know how much these took and I'm bad at guessing, so I went with 300g ResinCrete and 90g Water. Though, I like to add a bit extra water to make the ResinCrete a little more crepe-like consistency and easier to work with. It also allows me the ability to work with it a bit longer and removes more bubbles, AND gets into nooks, crannies, grooves, crevices, etc better.

Just take into consideration not to add too much water. You'll make the ResinCrete too brittle or ruin the molecular structure of it and you definitely don't want that.

Another thing I've noticed that I do differently from a lot of people who work with ResinCrete or other art cast-like mediums is that I add my powder... to my water. Re-read that if you need to.

A lot of people will add their water... to their powder.

Nuh uh. I can't stand that. Gets way too many lumps doing it that way.

I'll also add about 1/4th of my powder at a time, mixing it completely before adding more. I know it risks curing because I'm taking longer by doing it like that, and maybe that's why I like adding in more water, but I really do get out all of the lumps by doing it that way.

Everyone has their own way and that's mine 🤷🏻‍♀️

This was after pouring the first 300g + 90g ⤵️

I was prepping another 150g ResinCrete + 45g Water for the last owl. Thing is, I ended up making extra things and if I didn't make the extras, I probably could have made ALL the owls with just 400g of ResinCrete and 120g Water. I'll try the next time I make these.

You can see I have some leftover ResinCrete in my bowl there. This is what I do with it ⤵️

Let it finish drying/curing, crunch it up, break it up, save it in a container for later use like Terrazzo.

If you don't want to leave it in a silicone cup like I did, you can spread it out on a ziplock bag, or a piece of cling wrap and wait for it to dry/cure and then break it up.

I'd advise to wear gloves or something before breaking it though. It can get sharp. I know in the photos I did not- mine was still on the hydrated/wet side, barely dry/cured, when it wasn't sharp but it's better to be safe than sorry. This is one of those cases where I'm doing that "do as I say, not as I do" 🙃

Here's the owls demolded after 30 minutes or so ⤵️

That's one of my favorite things about ResinCrete; Quick demold.

And here's the Owls after cleanup ⤵️

I had a LOT of overpour because this was my first time pouring them, so there was a LOT of cleanup involved. They came out super cute though! I can't wait to paint them, seal them and add fairy lights to them 🦉💗

Oh and I want to add this as my last blurb (for this post); ResinCrete Related.

There is a Content Creator out there, I will not name-names- and they are telling people in their videos that you CAN wash this stuff down your sink when you are finished working with it. As in, to clean your cups, tools, work station, yada yada.

Do not.

I'm refraining from being blunt and unfiltered here- but this stuff is a powder that you literally mix with WATER to turn into a dense ceramic, equivocal to plaster of paris. What do you think is going to happen if you run it down your sink with MORE water? Please use your brain.

And it's not like they're new to working with this stuff either and they're giving out this misinformation.

As content creators, especially on platforms like Youtube making videos, if you guys do not know something, for the love of God either say you do not know something if you insist on saying it and you do not have all the information, or don't say it at all, or do the research, rather than spread misinformation.

Because new people come into these hobbies weekly, daily, hourly, by the minutes. They look up to you. They listen to you. They take your word as gospel and truth. When you say something as idiotic like "run ResinCrete down your sink to clean it out" and it clogs their plumbing, and they end up with thousands of dollars in bills and repairs, it's not going to fall back on you (the content creator), it's going to fall back on them. You're not going to feel the repercussions, but it could be enough to push that person who was already stressed and just needed a cozy hobby outlet- over the edge. So, stop being irresponsible.

And yes, that was a rant. That was my version of sugar-coated, you do not want to hear my raw-unfiltered rant. I'm tired of people NOT taking accountability for their actions.

How to clean ResinCrete properly? Use a damp paper towel with water to clean your tools and then throw it in the garbage, or use a baby wipe. Wearing gloves is preferred because as mentioned above, when dried/cured it can get sharp.

You might be thinking, well, what if I take it outside and hose it down? I'll say to you, what about the birds, cats and doggos that walk around? This stuff gets sharp, you want them walking on top of that? Spraying that stuff into the street, onto the ground, where do you think it's going to go?

So, the part that's going to confuse myself by splitting things into two posts, is that I got these 4 molds from AliExpress ⤵️

They came in the mail several days ago and I was super excited to get them and cast in them! They're called Owl Tealight Candle Holders.

Well, there's a lot of things wrong here, and I'll be coming back around to that in my second post. But as I was opening them and laying them out to decide colors for epoxy resin, I noticed they weren't "up to snuff" for the epoxy medium- exactly.

Here's what I mean ⤵️

I tried to take several photos so you can see what I see, because I know my camera is outdated. But these were clearly created by a 3D printer and the filament lines are obvious and super visible. If I were to pour epoxy into these molds, those lines would cast onto the epoxy and be equally as visible.

It's not a total defeat though, I can still cast ResinCrete in these and sand down the filament lines, or paint over them and then seal it. They'll no longer be there or visible at that point.

I'm not the type that likes to give up on molds right away, but if there's something wrong with it and it's outside of my ability to "fix" it, I'm going to throw in the towel rather than waste my time, lose sleep, and fuss over it.

it's a bit odd because usually when I order stuff from AliExpress, they're impressive quality. I'm not going to say this is the first thing that has disappointed me from their site (that I've ordered from them), but it's maybe 1 of 3 out of soooo many things I've ordered over the years.

And not to spoil it, but I do cast this in ResinCrete (which I'll show in my next post) and they come out super cute! The price on the molds were fair, so I'm not that upset. Just means I have to use these molds a little differently than how I originally intended. Life works that way sometimes... actually, a lot of the time 🤷🏻‍♀️.

Onto the main content of the post~ ⤵️

I bought these Adjustable Mold Housing Borders, but they're molds? You can buy the housing borders straight up, already made, but I didn't want those.

Why buy 4 of them already made (for a higher price, mind you), when you can buy the mold itself and make as many as you want? Let's Resin has a pre-made mold housing frame too.

So, I got the molds and I've made 2 here, and later on I make 2 more. And in the future I'll make another 2 for a total of 6 so I have the option to make a large rectangular silicone mold whenever I want to. But at some point I'd like to have 8 or 10 total at least, so I can make 2 molds at a time, 1 square, 1 rectangular. Things will just be ready for me as I need it.

I also made those obnoxious crystal tea light candle holders again because the last ones I made got 1 singular bubble in it, lol. These ones turned out perfect! Good to go for making my own molds 👌🏻

Oh and I got that Celestial Lantern from AliExpress also! Poured that in what I felt were "Celestial" colors- so a tealish blue, I think I used my Black Diamond brand teal that literally does not have a name because it's so ancient. Used my Pearl mica powder from Renfio, and Golden Labradorite by Meyspring.

I used my left over resin for another pencil holder because it's literally impossible to have too many of those. As soon as I fill 1, I need another, I don't know how it keeps happening but it does 🤷🏻‍♀️ I swear someday I'll make some to sell for other people 🙃🫠😵‍💫

[I'm running out of countertop space so it's an inevitability, and people to gift them to.]

The crystal candle holders came out a lot nicer this time, probably because I poured them once before and knew what to expect this time.

My next pour was this ⤵️

The 3rd & 4th of the mold housing borders, a bunch of flowers that can be used for various things. Like lid toppers, inside of trays, embedded into trays, or into bowls, or jewelry boxes, you name it.

I also made another Octo pencil holder (and I'm going to watch my verbiage here 😖).

There's a bunch of jewelry tags- those were made with my extra resin, and I finally finished off my sphere! That's the mold I've been putting a lot of my extra resin into when I didn't know where else to put it 😅 I need to figure out a new mold for my extra now or make another sphere.

A lot of those flowers are cherry blossoms/sakura, and 1 is a rose. I love cherry blossoms and roses, though my all time favorite flower is a different one.

I wanted to show this incase anyone gets that particular cherry blossom mold I'm holding in my hand.

It has thin walls that you can/should pull or cut off with an X-acto blade to make it look as realistic as it does. There's an example in the following picture along with tool examples ⤵️

Oh and yes, I'll be coloring all of the flowers to give them more detail 😊 I can't just leave them monotone 1-color like that.

[I say that but I actually poured them using 3 different mica colors.]

Here's my Octo pencil holder 🐙 ⤵️

With this, I added in 3 separate colors of alcohol ink with 1 pearl mica powder and this is how it blended together (you can see the 3 colors more clearly in my housing borders). Looks very satin and whimsical, right?

I'm kind of blown away at how it blended. A lot of white went to the bottom as it cured (which is now the top), and a lot of white-as I was pouring it, blended into the alcohol ink, making it look like sunlight shining and dancing through the water. I love it, and I'm going to color ~certain parts of it~ (again watching my verbiage) ~eyes tumblr~ 😑.

And then we have my sphere~ ⤵️

It looks so cool, I absolutely love how it came out!

The NicPro Acrylic Pouring Oil is in one of the photos because this is what I use to bring life back to my molds when they're looking dull or have scratches or feel dehydrated, or whatever else.

I added some after I demolded my sphere because it's been sitting out for weeks, maybe over a month, while I've been adding to it all this time and it left behind these line marks from where I poured each layer.

The oil didn't remove the line marks after cleaning it but it does feel more hydrated and restored, so hopefully there's no damage done to it.

Amazon has been having this Prime Days sale and I ordered some things off AliExpress that just got here so I have a bunch of new things to play with 😊

There's this Youtuber that I watch named @ResinMessExpress, who somewhat recently got affiliated with this glitter company called Glitter Hippo. Their glitters are super pretty and interesting and she has a coupon code so I ordered a few.

Ngl, I've been ordering a lot of things this month so I had to limit what I got otherwise I definitely would have gotten WAY more but there's always the future 😋

They sent me a freebie! It's that thermal light purple/lavender one at the bottom. Very pretty 🫶🏻

The Cherry Blossom/Sakura one caught my eye the most. I can always use rainbow shards, and that mount olympus one changes colors depending on the angle you look at it.

And next we have my casts/pours for today~ ⤵️

I don't remember how long ago it was, but months & months ago I poured this octopus jar with red ink pigment (not alcohol ink but the other clear type ink) by Limino, Tiffi Blue pigment paste from Eye Candy, and White Chalcedony mica powder from Meyspring.

The result of it wow'd me so much that I was like, I'm keeping this jar, lol.

Well, it's sitting on my bookcase now, but I wanted to make some matching pieces so I poured those same exact colors again in three of the pieces ⤵️

The bottom of the Octopus arm pencil holder one is rather sharp and ALL of these need to be sanded down still. I'll get to that tomorrow but it's already so late tonight.

And then I ordered some crystal tea light candle holders and I attempted to use the same colors I had used for a coaster set I just made. But I made the colors lighter so when the tea lights are on, the resin would be transparent enough for the light to pass through the resin/crystals ⤵️

These pictures don't show the colors well, but perhaps that's fine. It's genuinely hard to see the color separation.

It was also ridiculously hard to get these crystal tea lights out of the mold. If you get these molds yourself, prepare some alcohol or soapy water, let these fully cure before even attempting to demold them, and BE PATIENT. Or you will 100% either tear the casted resin piece, or the mold, or both, trying to remove the piece. I'm half tempted to make myself a new mold set with these two using a softer silicone- they were that difficult.

[They took 60ml each btw.]

It wasn't just me having a difficult time demolding these. The comments on a listing for these on Amazon has people mentioning their struggles too. Here's the listing. I got my set from a different seller on AliExpress but the molds seem to be identical.

These were extras using my extra resin ⤵️

Not sure how I feel about the crystal being matte because I kind of wanted that to be a little shinier. Didn't have to be totally shiny, just shinier. Love the shell, it just needs to be painted so the Octopus and other detailing shows.

I got a little Kyubi mold! Or as others know it, a nine-tailed fox ⤵️

This cutie needs some eyes painted onto it. But my color attempts were a bust, lol. Though you wouldn't know that unless I told you because it honestly looks totally fine.

I attempted to make the tips of the tail, clear with gold flake, followed by orange mica, followed by red mica, followed with a white pearl body. But the white completely sank. The clear and gold flake completely merged with everything else... 🙃🫠.

I gave my resin about 20 minutes before pouring and usually that's good to keep colors separate, and I guess I could have used glue, and I guess I could always paint it, but I don't mind how it turned out. It's super cute. I love the white ears and white tips of the tail.

There is a video I want to share that I probably should have shared ages ago back when I was making my UV Resin painted bookmarks because that's when I found it.

Every time I think about detailing, like I am now with my Octopus Arm pencil holder way up there 👆🏻 I think back to that video.

It's regarding mod podge and how you can mix things with it and paint it onto stuff for a permanent look. Like glitter for example. I could mix glitter or some glow powder into a bit of mod podge and paint it onto the suckers of that pencil holder. It'll add some sparkle or glow in addition to some shine (because it's a matte mold).

Here's the vid ⤵️

I got this new tray mold! Actually I was aiming to get several but this 3-tray mold set I ordered came in a really bad condition, so I tried to order a replacement, went rounds with Amazon about the replacement, finally got a new order, that set was in terrible condition too, returned both sets back, and ordered a whole new set from a different seller that only cost like 2$ USD more and has like 5 bonus molds included, and wow. What a hecking difference in condition.

The first seller's mold set had dents, warps, scratches, buffed out marks, you name it (even a whole palm print on one of them!). Sorry but not sorry, they looked like they were used or stored horribly 🤷🏻‍♀️

The second seller I went with... I'm not going to say they're perfect, because they stacked the rounded molds on top of each other and they have some indents because of that, but they are shiny, no scratches, no warps or indents, and I'm totally okay with that. The set also came with 8 molds for 17$ rounded up. I can always top coat. It's this set here.

[It's on a -23% discount atm so the price may change.]

I mean, I could have top coated the other one, but the 3-tray rectangle mold set from the other seller was not deep enough to do that with.

I'll take my wins where I can.

That whole ordeal took a few days to manage and I was hoping to get it done before Father's day but in the end I chose to just make the larger tray anyways. But now, expect to see a lot of trays in the future lol, because I have many molds 😋

The first pour came out looking like this ⤵️

For the tray I used these ⤵️

My thought process was to see how much it took and to find any trouble spots, because the first pour never really comes out right- usually anyways.

For the other items, I wanted stuff to match that jar I made not too long ago for potential toppers.

This is how things turned out ⤵️

I really liked how the tray came out! The pearl really blended but that's probably because I used my heat gun to blend the colors a bit.

The potential toppers came out nice! ⤵️

I threw some of my extra resin into my drip mold and this is how it blended together ⤵️

Thought that was curious and pretty.

For my next pour, I wanted to try making the tray for my Dad, finally. But using his favorite color, Blue. His house has dark gray carpet and white walls so I wanted to incorporate that too ⤵️

And then I wanted to make this coaster set I just got from AliExpress using some colors that reminds me of my cutie character from a game I play ⤵️

I also needed to add a doming coat to my lid jar with all of the decorative toppers added ⤵️

This is how my table looked this morning after everything was cured ⤵️

And here's everything demolded ⤵️

I still need to color the chain around the lid jar with metallic paint pen but the hardest part of it is done.

I'm so happy with how the tray came out, it looks like blue slate. And those coasters... probably my newest obsession. I can't get over the textures on those. They will probably look better in transparents/alcohol inks but I intentionally used mica powders first because I wanted that cobblestone one to look like... well, cobblestone.

My camera is absolutely not doing it justice because that dark matter mica powder is in there and the camera isn't picking it up. Normally I try to use a color corrector to fix the yellow lighting (from my yellow walls) but it wasn't fixing it this time so I left it out of these photos. I couldn't find a filter/color corrector that'd correct the coloring 🤷🏻‍♀️

I also haven't used most of them for the first time, so a lot of it is a learning experience. For example, some of the flowers have deep petals that I had to make sure the resin would sink down into and didn't get bubbles. Same goes for some of the octopuses and their arms. Another thing is some of the molds are really shallow/thin and using mica powder to coat it will give you over pour so when the casting comes out, I'd have to clean it up gently and patiently with an X-acto blade to remove that excess overpour.

I'm explaining most of it now because I'm likely going to photo dump below, there's not much else to say 😅

Here's a mold of some jellyfish 🪼 ⤵️

This is an example of one that had really shallow/thin casting with the mica powder that I had to clean up afterwards. These lil jellies are so ridiculously small but I love the way they came out 🫶🏻

These Octos were the same way too 🐙 ⤵️

You can see before the clean up and after the cleanup.

[I found a listing for this octo/jellyfish mold today as I was browsing Amazon.]

I moved on to some slightly easier molds ⤵️

The lotus flowers gave me a little bit of a hard time. No matter how much I tried to get the bubbles out, they refused. Between using a dotting tool, a long neck lighter, letting it sit for a few minutes... they were just stubborn, lol. Think I have to go at it one petal at a time next time or something. Some of these silicone molds are truly a trial in patience.

The easiest ones I think were these ⤵️ (but I'm not saying they were easy in general)

Cute lil koi fishies!

I made several~

By the time I finished with everything you see in this post, 5 hours had passed.

This was from over a week ago ⤵️

I went on this weird "let's try this" adventure with sea salt and the tea light candle holders I've been using lately.

My Cousin recently graduated High School and I was trying all sorts of things to make my Mother and I a jewelry set that looked nice- not cheap or like costume jewelry and I figured sea salt gives that nice natural but clean and sophisticated look.

[No, I'm not saying resin looks cheap or like costume jewelry nor am I implying it. I feel like people are on a witch-hunt recently and put words into your mouth that you literally don't say so I'm making that point perfectly clear. *Points to INTJ mbti* ☝🏻]

This is what my set ended up looking like ⤵️

[The set I made my Mother was similar but a Purple Sea Salt Sphere and Butterfly earrings using Chameleon Flake Powders.]

I was severely lacking bead caps that'd fit over the size of the sphere molds I used and only had this ONE option. Not the best choice for "upscale" but it was all I had. The octopus earrings... I mean, it's me. I love octopuses and if I can find an excuse to squeeze them into my attire somewhere, I'm gonna do it. 🐙💓

At some point in the near future, I'm going to coat the lil octo earrings in that coating UV Resin, I think, so they have more of a finished look. Though, I may try that on a different pair first just incase it doesn't come out how I think it'll come out, lol. But yeah, the time crunch my Mother and I were feeling was kind of rough. We were given short notice and we were scrambling to get stuff together 😵‍💫

The entire ceremony was nice and we had a great time spending the day with our family. We don't get to see them often or spend much time with them when we do actually see them.

The lil sea salt octo will make a reappearance later.

My purple mica is getting low so I bought some more. Actually two colors but I forgot to take a picture of one of them. The one I forgot to snap a picture of is from Meyspring and it's called Dusklight Crystal. At the time of me writing this post, they have an 18% off promo on Amazon for most of their Mica Powders, so check them out if you're interested.

I almost got their White Pearl today too, but went with another brand that sold 100g for cheaper than their 50g. I just hope I don't regret passing up their White Pearl for the cheaper one because I love Meyspring's mica powders. They do say you get what you pay for 🤷🏻‍♀️ We'll see when I get it, but if you're interested, it's this one here; Pearl White by Renfio.

I've gotten a yellow mica powder from Renfio before and I think a couple glitters. Not upset with them at all, so I'm hoping this pearl white lives up to my expectations.

The other purple I got was this Dazzling Purple from Luckymica, the same brand as the red I just got from a post or two ago ⤵️

It's a very pretty purple 🟪💜

And then I ordered a bunch of new colors (and one restock) from Dianka Pours ⤵️

I feel like I have way more colors than I'll ever need now and I really just need to stop buying mica powders 😅 (as if that'll ever happen 😋)

The 8-in-1 Little Octopus Mold from Into Resin also arrived! ⤵️

And I got a new jar mold that I poured yesterday that I'll show lower down. But first, there's something I want to put out there.

I noticed something happening to my silicone mats and for the longest time I was baffled why it kept happening. Honestly, there are times where I'm a royal derp and it takes me way too long to realize things- I think this is one of such cases.

If you scroll back through my posts, I had that fancy silicone Resiner's mat, but it kind of felt like it was faux leather on one side. I'm not entirely sure what it was made of, but I preferred that mat most out of every mat I have ever used.

Edit: Here's a very old link of it on Amazon. They no longer have the link on their direct website. It's "currently unavailable" and has been for a very long time but I have it in my shopping list incase they ever decide to bring it back. Confirmed it's made out of "PU Leather".

When I swapped to regular silicone mats, similar to baking ones with high heat resistance, I started encountering a problem with warping, or bubbles, wrinkles, or rising pockets. However you want to describe it. I'd chalk it up to the resin's heat, from curing, causing the silicone mat to warp and cause the bubble/wrinkle, or what-not. I'd get disappointed, a little annoyed, move on, deal with it, work around it, some odd months later buy a new one when I could no longer work around all the many wrinkles, bubbles, warps, etc.

Well as I'm procuring more and more molds, I'm noticing it's a certain type of silicone mold that's causing this and it's frustrating MYSELF that I didn't notice it sooner. You would think I would notice a pattern like this, but I didn't.

It was thanks to those Small Octopus molds from Amazon that I realized it because they're made from that super soft flexible squishy bouncy and hydrated silicone (I'm trying to think of every descriptive word I can use here).

For whatever reason, that type of silicone causes the warps on the silicone mats. Probably because it suctions onto the mat? And then add the heat when the resin is curing and it "irons" it out and warps the area under it and around it...? 🤷🏻‍♀️

Regardless the case, I can't keep buying silicone mats like they're Vitamin C packets during Flu season so I made some laminated cardstock paper sheets to go on top of my silicone mats, for those specific molds to sit on. ⤵️

At the time I didn't know if one or two would be needed (or enough), so I made two. I stacked them when I went to use them because they didn't exactly "slide" across my mat when it was just one laminated sheet on top of a cardstock sheet. So it's basically two laminated sheets of cardstock paper, on top of two sheets of cardstock paper. Like this ⤵️

I think youtubers get away with just adding paper towels under their molds but they also use heating mats, and I don't use a heating mat. Maybe I'm missing something somewhere, I have no idea 🫠 This isn't something that's been talked about, afaik.

And now we move onto today's projects~ are you still reading this? 🙃

I added a filter to the photo to lighten it but it appears to have washed out some of the colors 🫠

Here's the cute Into Resin octopuses ⤵️

I still need to give their expressions some details with a black paint pen.

That jar mold is very nice 💗 I got it because it has this paper clip-like chain detailing that I love and for a very long time, I couldn't find anyone carrying it here in the US for anything- like bag straps, necklace chain, chain on spools, finished jewelry pieces, etc. For that reason, I turned to AliExpress and was buying a lot of my chain from them because they were the only suppliers I could find for that type of style I love.

So when I saw that jar, I was like 🥰💗 mine~ 🤗

It comes with two lid types, which I'm a fan of. You can choose if you want to be super creative with the blank top one and add stuff to it like a UVDTF, sand + shells, a knob, a pendant, and then add an extra top coat. You can gem/pearl the border, or add twine, flowers, ribbons, bows, etc if you don't like the idea of adding another topcoat. I might be adding something + a top coat, I have some pictures with ideas that I'll add below.

Or you can choose the lid that matches the rest of the jar and go for simplistic because that looks nice too.

It's a decently sized jar! I chose red-purple-blue because it's one of my favorite 3-color palettes, along with yellow-green-blue. That combo reminds me of magic I think 🤔 (the red-purple-blue one, I mean). I did toss in some clear with bronze flake. Orange-purple-red is nice too- think that one reminds me of Skittles, lol.

Here's some ideas for the top ⤵️

Obviously these aren't the exact ones I'd be adding on top, but the shape/mold. I'd recolor them to match more.

Here's the other lil doo-dads I made ⤵️

I tried making the shells look abalone again but using a different combination of colorants.

This is supposed to be a candle mold and it's fairly obvious ⤵️

But I got it because it's a really cool mold of an octopus/kraken taking down (or playing with) a boat (whichever your interpretation is). This is another one I get to color later but it got a lot of bubbles likely as I was adding in some vase filler to the resin as I was filling the mold.

I was attempting to get a "wave" look as the light passed through it but the vase filler kept floating up and I kept having to push it back down. It was kind of obnoxious if I'm honest, lol. Probably wouldn't go that route again, or I wouldn't fill it 100%. Maybe 90%, let it float and mostly cure, then add that last 10% so it's flat on the bottom. But I'd also have to coat the sides better to prevent all those bubbles.

There are a lot of 3D Printer lines and other unknown scratches on the mold that I cannot do anything about unless I spray seal it or something...

Not too long ago, I ordered this 8-in-1 Little Octopus mold from IntoResin and I've been waiting for it to get here. Most of their molds are hand-made so they take a bit to be created and then shipped out. I'm aware of this, I can be patient, don't take this as me complaining or anything. I'm just stating what is. The mold is adorable and I'm anxious to get it. Anytime they get something Octopus related, I go to their site and snatch it up (majority of the time anyways).

Funnily enough, 3 days after I placed the order for their octo mold, I found this Tiny Octopus mold on Amazon, and that same listing has a Tiny Dumbo Octopus mold. They're not identical to the IntoResin mold, don't misunderstand. But they are both tiny octopus molds and super cute. The one from IntoResin has expressions; you can see their emotions. The ones from Amazon are more simple. But me being me, wanting all things octopus, ofc I bought them 🐙💗

Here's what they look like ⤵️

I haven't colored in their eyes with black acrylic marker yet so they do look a little lifeless but at least here's a general idea. Unfortunately, a couple of the cute little mendako (dumbo octopus) got bubbles in their ear flaps despite me literally putting 2-drops into each ear (making sure they were filled and without bubbles) and then proceeding to fill the mold so I don't even know how that happened, but resin does what it wants 🤷🏻‍♀️

When I get the octo mold from IntoResin, I'll be sure to show those too.

Another thing to note is that these are neither shiny, nor matte. They're something in-between, like a semi-shiny, or semi-matte. I actually like it.

Many months back I ordered that Tropical Sunset Mica Powder set from Rolio and nearly every time I go to make some epoxy project I look at the set trying to find some way to incorporate it somehow. The colors in it are so vibrant and pretty but they haven't fit into the projects I've been working on. But yesterday I was finally able to use them.

This is what my table looked like ⤵️

[I got a new lamp! Turns out my old one, despite it saying it had a UV protective glass screen on it, wore out, and was curing my UV resin and my gel nail polishes on me as I was working with them 🫠]

Demolded ⤵️

The Rolio colors I used were these ⤵️

And I chose to use a very small amount of each so that the colors would remain very translucent- almost as if I were using alcohol ink ⤵️

I know that may seem like it defeats the purpose of using mica powders but I wanted to see what it'd look like. Honestly I think they came out very pretty especially in the tealight candle holders that I chose to pour in.

They remind me of a Sunset, as the name of the set implies. And I'm just now thinking I should have taken a picture of them with a tealight in them. Darn, missed opportunity 😵‍💫🫠

The whole day was centered around tealight candle holders and I had this "set" of 2 stars and 1 moon. I figured I could make some to match that Moon & Star shelf I've been casting in my past few posts ⤵️

These came out nice but what puzzles me here is... the glitter in the moon dropped a bit? I used 16oz of resin combined to make all 3 tealights, and used the same amount of glue across all 3, but only the moon had some sinking glitter. The only differing variable is the colorant.

I used Let's Resin Purple alcohol ink to color the moon, and TeeExpert blue pigment paste for the stars. It's true that pigment paste is heavier than alcohol ink but I used such a miniscule amount, it shouldn't have affected it that much 🙃 So weird, I have no idea. Maybe it did, I don't know.

And lastly, we have the pink tulip tealight candle holders ⤵️

At least, I think they're tulips? 🌷🤔💭

These did not turn out how I envisioned them, but I love them way more than I envisioned them. They look like blown glass.

[Oh and those are not micro-bubbles you see in the picture- those are from the irregular glitter flakes and the other type of iridescent glitter I used. I don't know why the camera is picking it up like that, but it doesn't visually look bubbly like that in person.]

I did the simple 1. Pour clear with Cellophane Glitter Flake and glue (in this case I used Eye Candy's Rose Quartz) 2. Pour Color second (in this case I used Eye Candy's Fun'iki Pink) and it just blended like that.

Usually when I do that, they stay somewhat separated- the glitter+clear concoction at the bottom and color at the top. No idea how I got this effect, this time, unless it's the mold. Or, maybe the weight of this mica. Or maybe because I ran the glitter+clear through my bubble remover for a whole 15 minutes, lol. It kept bubbling like an active volcano so I kept adding 5 minutes 🙃

Whatever caused it, I really like it.

At first I was searching companies that are my go-to but the colors that caught my eye were either insanely expensive because of supply & demand, or they were out of stock. So, I decided to search elsewhere.

Finding reds is a bit tricky if you're looking for a true red. They're often saturated with pinks or they arrive darker than they appear, and on rare occasion they have burnt umber/brown undertones, leaning towards looking like garnet gemstones. The pink under-toned ones looking more like ruby gemstones. I think many people often think Rubies and Garnets are true reds with no under-tones but I learned at a young age when picking them out for a ring (because it's my favorite color) that ruby has a distinct pink hue and garnet has a distinct brown-ish hue and if you want more red-red, go with garnet or a very pure & expensive gem quality of either stone. The cheaper of either of these gems will lean towards pink (ruby) or brown (garnet). But that's running off on a tangent into gemstones, lol.

It took me a while but I found one type that was a good contender to the current red mica I have so I bought it and I wanted to compare it in a small project. I'll be sharing those in this post. I also got an "emerald green" because I've been trying to find a vibrant bright green. There was a third color I bought but I won't be getting it until June 2nd or later due to shipping.

This is the new Red from Luckymica and the new Emerald Green from Baltic Day ⤵️

And here's the other Red from TechaRooz that I own compared to my new red ⤵️

The only reason I intentionally included my nails/nailpolish in these was because I wanted to show these compared against another true red- which my nailpolish is, lol. They're just a tad on the darker side because of layers.

As mentioned above, I added these reds and the emerald green into some small molds to see how they look in resin and compare to each other ⤵️

They're actually really close to each other! So I wanted to see if they had more of a difference in natural lighting ⤵️

It's still really difficult to notice much of a difference because of my camera, but in person the Luckymica red is slightly more orange and slightly lighter. The Luckymica red one also took a bit more mica to color it when I added it to resin vs. the TechaRooz one which took less to pigment the resin.

They're both very pretty though and I feel like they both can be considered a true red, it just depends on which shade you're looking for. Though in the sunlight, I can see the faintest bit of pink, and in artificial lighting I don't see that pink at all. I don't know why I can only see the faintest trace of the pink in the sunlight. In-fact, it's almost like that trace pink undertone turns more of an orange once indoors.

Here's a better picture of the emerald green in the kitty ⤵️

I made some more things yesterday to fill my table ⤵️

I've been trying to get those star and moon tealight tent silicone molds back up to par for several days now, using silicone oil.

After letting them soak for about 3 days in the oil, I washed them thoroughly with dish soap 2 times and then wiped them down again gently with a baby wipe, and it still wasn't enough to remove all of the excess silicone oil, but I wasn't aware of that at the time. To me they just look fully revitalized and shiny 😅 so I went ahead and used them.

When I unmolded everything this afternoon I noticed the silicone oil marks. It doesn't look "wow" or "fantastic" or "correct" but it's not "this is a failure" either. I made them for myself and from 2-feet away you don't even notice, so it doesn't bother me. And now after demolding it once, the excess silicone oil that was in there, that I couldn't get out before, is gone, so I won't have this problem the next time I go to use those molds.

But this is how they look, unmolded ⤵️

Can't really tell, right? Unless you're right up on them and inspecting them.

Some are missing tips, that I didn't know they needed because I've always used this mold with ResinCrete prior to this and they NEVER got tips with the ResinCrete. In the future I know to squish every corner of the triangles, lol.

I also need to sand the other sides of every triangle, that's normal, to fit better into the base. But here's a preview of what this looks like ⤵️

It'll fit together WAY better when it's sanded. It's stiff right out of the mold without that wiggle room. They have this type of silicone mold in snowflakes also and I think there's a third type? But I bought this off AliExpress over a year ago and then the seller stopped selling it for a while, then someone else made a new listing of it and now I think it's on Amazon somewhere also. So if you like it, you can choose where to grab it.

[Just be aware to use battery operated tealight candles in these and NOT real candles. Real candles will melt resin and create hazardous toxic fumes in addition to many other negative outcomes. I don't care if your epoxy resin says it can handle up to 500° F heat resistance or whatever blah blah. There are specialty made epoxys that are "fire retardant" and I guarantee you, the people using this stuff are not using it to make tealight holders, lol, it's not cheap.

That's a tl;dr but look it up if you don't believe me. Flames reach temperatures of 900°+. Even small little tealights get that hot.]

And then we have these scallop shells ⤵️

I tried my best to imitate abalone and I think I got as close as I'm going to get with resin colorants. I'm racking my brain on how I can get closer... maybe brushing the mold first and then pouring this color, but these molds are SO THIN that I can't really brush or burnish them. Even pouring resin down them was a task 🤷🏻‍♀️

[I'm going to be using these for another project along with all my other shell molds, that's why they're somewhat plain.]

Here's the cute lil octo I poured with my leftovers from the moon and star tealight tent ⤵️

I feel like he looks a lot prettier and cooler in person and again my camera is just awful but when I was pouring him, I didn't have quite enough resin for him- I was super close.

At first I wasn't really going to post some of these things but as time moves forward, it's occurring to me that I'll be making posts about future projects and they'll have no context without these posted, so they're kind of necessary to post now.

A bit back one of the Youtubers I watch got some items in happy mail and I was impressed with them so I went to their website (Counter Culture DIY) and ordered some of their glitters and micas myself. They have a listing for "scoops" that are random items, kind of like a mystery box, but 1) it was out of stock at the time and 2) I wanted specific things, so I went directly to the glitters and micas.

Prior to that, I had ordered some stuff from Rolio and got a free glitter. Coincidentally enough, the free glitter they gifted me was the SAME glitter as one I had ordered myself from AliExpress, lol ⤵️

I guess me getting that glitter was just meant to be, lol. The universe knew 😋

I've been trying to find every excuse in the book to use these glitters in ways that fit my tastes because I'm not really a glitter person and I'm very picky. So far I've been using them with some A6 notebook silicone molds that I can't really remember if I've posted here or not. I don't think I have, sorry about that 🫠 The past 2 months have kind of been a blur with all that's been happening. Family drama and health things are never fun (and I try to be reserved so I don't talk about it online either hence the silence).

I'll get back to resin stuff in a moment but I've been trying to upkeep with making bread too!

Robyn on the Farm recently came out with a new bun recipe and the day she put it out, I made it that evening ⤵️

She uses all cast iron and I use all metal so with this in mind, I increased my bake time on these and I might have overdone it a bit. The first night they were perfect but the next day they were a teeny tiny bit stiff or dense. I probably could have only added 3-minutes extra bake time instead of like 7 minutes, lol. But these were great! Absolutely making these again.

I also tried making that Vegan bread again with the Organic Coconut Cream because my household devoured through our bread supply this month and we're devouring through the new loaves again too. I have some new things to say about that one 🙃⤵️

When I was slicing through this, I was like omg, they look like mushroom slices 😮 My Mother said they look like when you bake a muffin and it overflows out of the muffin pan, lol.

So, the recipe says to mix all the ingredients together and let it proof for 90 minutes. I let mine rise for about 60 minutes because I noticed it was already peaking over the pan and jiggling around quite a bit. If I had let it rise any more than that, it'd grow WAY over and flood out of my pan.

As it was baking, that's what it started doing. About 5-10 minutes through, it was rising up and flowing over the sides and I was starting to panic thinking what do I do if it doesn't stop? Luckily it did stop around 15 minutes but then I had to wonder if it'd fully bake through, because last time, the baking time on the recipe didn't work for me. This time I baked it an extra 10 minutes and it DID work. The crumb came out perfect, imo. But it definitely over-rose for some unknown reason. Perhaps the temperature in my house? My pans were supposed to be the correct size so it's not that 🤷🏻‍♀️ lol... I always seem to have some issue with baking bread, goodness.

[I say bread specifically because I don't have this problem baking or cooking anything else. Not even pizza crust.]

I'm wondering if it has something to do with the yeast I'm using? There's a blue quick rise and red active instant yeast. As far as I'm aware, from reading the instructions and from listening to bakers on Youtube, the red one you dissolve into warm water, and the blue one you can add straight into your mixture. Hopefully I don't have that backwards, I have it written onto my bottles, lol.

But lately I've been lazily using all of my blue one because it's easier to just add it into my mixture and then add the melted butter & warm water + honey/oil for the yeast to "feed" and activate. This time around however, I was low on my blue one and used my red one instead so I had to directly dissolve it into my warm water and then add my honey. Maybe the red one is more efficient? Or more fool proof? At least for me, lol.

🤷🏻‍♀️ I don't know. But I probably could have made 3 loaves instead of 2 with how much it rose and waited out the whole 90 minutes. And I think that recipe could use some salt added to it. It's a little on the bland side. But overall it's not bad, it's quick, it's vegan and if you're trying to get your allotted honey in for building allergy tolerance- it's a good choice. I think I'll be sticking with other bread recipes though.

And back to resin stuff.

Honestly I should probably make a new post at this point because this is where things are going to get lengthy. I'm going to revisit that Star & Moon shelf in addition to some new molds I bought at the start of April + some that I just got today from the same seller.

These are the first 2 molds I got ⤵️

This is their Etsy if you're interested in looking at their shop.

I was basically shopping around every website I could think of that sold silicone molds looking for molds that could do something very specific. If you read my blog, I'm sure you've seen the keyboard keys I made several posts back? (This post here) Where I'm using tiny embeds from silicone molds meant for nail art inside the keys, to give them depth. I wanted molds that gave me the opportunity to do that. Much like sphere molds do, or cube molds, or pyramid molds, but to be used for jewelry or soothing stones. Think dioramas but on a very small scale and not as detailed or tedious.

The hexagon shape was perfect for me because- bees. I've been wanting to spread awareness about bees. The bar mold is simply because I love that shape and I don't see it used often. I think the bar shape is sophisticated, classy and elegant and you can do a lot with it. But that's just my personal opinion. You can always make it whimsical or magical too with the right touch.

I've only made one thing in those molds so far and ofc it was a bee.

Isn't it cute? I got that mold here at Resin Mold Box. I've had it for a while and I don't get the chance to make the little bees in it that often. I do make the honeycombs themselves quite a bit though, they're great for holding watercolor like a makeshift palette.

I put him inside the largest hexagon with that Counter Culture DIY Beehive Glitter ⤵️

It came out so cute! It's honestly one of my favorite pieces now. I have it placed in front of me near my keyboard next to one of my octopus plushies. The only thing I would do differently next time is make the first layer (back of it) a little thicker, so that there wouldn't be so much clear covering him because the bee does look a little clouded due to all the clear and crushed gold flake (similar to crushed crystal) I added in there.

Just goes to show how much room and how many layers you can potentially add into these molds.

A couple days later I decided to play with those molds again ⤵️

These are going to be pendant + matching earring sets and don't mind me showing the glitter in the second picture. That's another glitter my Dad's Girlfriend gifted me and I was showing her how they turned out in resin 😅

But after seeing how nicely all of these came out, I knew I wanted the other molds from this seller so I went back to their shop and ordered more ⤵️

These just came in today and I was floored that they gave me a freebie mold. I truly mean floored, completely shocked. Before I even saw the sticker that said "free gift" I thought they made a mistake and accidentally sent it to me. My past couple of months have been rather under the weather so this was a very kind and generous thing for them to do and it raised my spirits. Truly grateful they sent it 💗🫶🏻

I have so many ideas and plans for these that I don't even know where to start. And I have some small, but important things in transit from AliExpress too that'll tie everything together.

Lastly, if you're still reading this, lol... the Star & Moon shelf! The foam reinforcement worked!

This was my table earlier today ⤵️

The top left is some molds getting a nice good dose of silicone oil because I've used them for ResinCrete so much that they're now dull looking. I'm trying to restore them. It's working but I only added the oil yesterday and they need another day or two. So if you have a similar problem, you can TRY that. In my case, it usually works, but it also depends on how damaged or dull your mold is.

Here's the shelf ⤵️

I used the same exact everything. Same glitter, same mica, same pigment pastes, same crushed crystal and foils that are similar to crushed crystal in size. The only things I did differently this time aside from adding the foam inserts was- I added 1 drop of glue to the Dianka Pours Dark Matter mica powder I used in there and 1 drop of glue to the crushed crystal concoction I made (I mixed crushed crystal, a crushed bronze, and a crushed gold together for a milky way). I also did NOT use any isopropyl alcohol to pre-dissolve my micas this time.

Got zero bloating, or bowing, or sagging, or whatever word you want to use. None.

But I'm not sure how I feel about some of the hard lines I got, probably due to the small amount of glue I added. 50% of the time I look at it, I'm like hmmm it looks like a nebulae, it looks kind of neat. The other 50% I look at it, I'm like ehhh, it looks weird, not really a fan. I don't know, lol.

Oh here's the other things I made that day ⤵️

I almost forgot 🙃

The black stand there is for a sphere mold I'm going to slowly fill up in layers with extra resin, which WAS originally going to be that shell mold but I swap-a-roo'd my plans on that quite quickly.

I've still been making resin stuff, just not posting them. Things have also been a bit busy.

I got this mold a few days ago that I wanted to cast for myself and then figured I'd make more to sell in my shop or at craft fairs but I ran into a problem with it. The support in it is kind of non-existent 🫠

When I was reading the comments under the item description for this particular mold, this problem didn't seem to be a thing for anyone else. All that was said was that it took 20 oz of resin, which was inaccurate- after pouring it I learned that it actually takes 16 oz of resin so yay me, I had 4 oz of resin left over 🙃 I have no idea what possessed me to take an amazon comment at face value so lesson learned on my part, lol 😅

I'll prattle on in a moment, here was my table the other day ⤵️

The shell mold is going to be for my small amounts of "extra resin" and I'm going to see if I get the neat looking layered effect I see a lot of youtuber's end up with in their castings with their extra resin. Sometimes I have WAY too much extra resin but I end up with around 20ml I don't know what to do with so it ends up going to a smol pendant or something... I think this is better.

The mold I'm having support issues with is that Star & Moon shaped shelf there on the right side.

Honestly it could have been something else that created this issue but I'll need to re-cast it to figure that out. I tried something I normally don't do, but a lot of resiners do- and that's mix their mica powder with Isopropyl Alcohol before putting it into their resin.

Doing this helps it dissolve better, prevents clumps and keeps it from flying everywhere. I've done it once before with neon powders because they are difficult to dissolve and they are grainy, but this time around I noticed that adding the IPA changed the consistency of my resin entirely. It made it almost like an alcohol ink and I didn't even add that much. I was actually concerned it wouldn't cure completely.

Luckily, it DID cure completely, but did that cause my mold to bloat? 🤷🏻‍♀️

This is how my shelf looks out of the mold ⤵️

It's a little hard to see the bulging/bloating on the bottom two shelves because the colors are dark. And don't mind the glitters. I propped them up like that because my Dad's long time Girlfriend (potential Mother in Law?) gifted me them and I wanted to show her how the craft turned out with them added.

So me being me, I'm trying to solve how to fix this problem, regardless if it's an IPA being added to the resin issue or if it's a flimsy mold issue.

I decided to use some foam to reinforce the mold while it's curing.

First I found some tracing paper to get the general shape of the shelves ⤵️

And then I cut out 1 piece of the foam because the foam pieces I have are thin and I'd need to stack 3 of them for this to work ⤵️

These are common foam sheets that come in boxes. More on the fragile side of things, like electronics, bakeware or IKEA bookshelves (these are just examples). We tend to save these in my household because you never know when you'll need them.

I had to cut all the foam down smaller than my traced paper to fit perfectly into the mold because I didn't want them pushing onto the mold itself. That'll indent the resin as it's curing and leave an impression on the cast.

This is how it looked when I finished ⤵️

They were all loosely inside, but still snug enough that they'd provide the support I need. I really wish the company I ordered this mold from had thought of this themselves because it's such a large mold and holds such a large amount of resin, but it is what it is. I'm just hoping this fixes my issues with it.

I'm back with more home-made bread, from scratch~

Here's the links to Part 1, and here's Part 2 if you want to read them or reference back.

In part 2 I linked to a 1-hour bread recipe by Robyn and actually liked it quite a lot but I used a LOT of substitution ingredients. This time I wanted to try baking the same recipe but closer to how the recipe was written or intended and without all of my personal substitutions. Mostly out of curiosity and to see if the texture would turn out differently.

Though I say that, the substitutions that remained were my Oat milk in place of Cows milk, because that's all I buy, and my Monk Fruit in substitution for white sugar- simply because I prefer it. I do have white sugar in the pantry though for large batch baking, so I suppose I could have tried it 🤷🏻‍♀️

But last time I subbed out the Eggs with Oil, and I subbed out the Butter for more Milk. Doesn't seem like a lot of changes, right?

I can't believe I haven't posted for a whole month (again) 🫠

Here's Part 1 if you're looking for it!

In my last post I mentioned I wanted to make two bread loaves a month and I was on the search for a bread recipe that I like and preferably fits my schedule- i.e. it doesn't take 24+ hours to ferment the dough. I know a lot of professional, purist, or hardcore bread makers out there will ferment for days or even weeks, and I'm not looking to go that deep into it. I just want a simple, everyday, go-to bread that I can make from scratch.

There was also one I tried last month that was vegetarian with the option to go vegan that I was going to try revisiting, but when I made four loaves last month, I ended up with so much bread that I couldn't eat it all (even with the help of family). I'm still trying to go through it (I froze it) 😅 So, I'm not making it again at this time. I'll be postponing that for a later date (TBD).

I did make two new loaves though! Here's the recipe I went with this month ⤵️

She has several bread recipes so if this one doesn't suit you, you can surely find one from her that will. For this recipe, I did swap around some ingredients with some substitutions that she mentioned were optional. For example, I swapped out the eggs. I drink Oat Milk instead of cows milk so I swapped that around, and I used Monk Fruit as my sweetener instead of white sugar (can be used the exact same way as white sugar but it's a healthier alternative and not as sweet).

In addition to that, I added sesame seeds on top because last time I made bread, one of the recipes I really loved included them on top and one of my family members plus myself loved the flavor of them.

I will note that I had to bake both of these an extra 10ish minutes longer than the directions stated to make sure they were fully done. I didn't want a repeat with the vegetarian bread to happen to this one and I did my research on why "gummy" bread ends up happening, or why "dense" bread ends up happening, among other common bread mistakes. They just weren't looking done at the 30 minute mark and I'm going to blame this on my pans being metal because I don't know what else it could be. Unless it was all the ingredient substitutions 🤷🏻‍♀️

They turned out great! They're slightly "moist" but I think they're just "fresh" and I'm not used to that, lol. I'm so used to store bought, fake/overly processed bread. I made a sandwich several hours later for dinner and the bread slices felt more aired out by that time.

When I researched this before, I found this video ⤵️

My oven temp is spot on. I usually wait 2-hours before I cut into my bread so it wasn't that, and I follow baking recipes to the letter (usually) unless something feels insanely off.

[If it's a cooking recipe I'll sometimes go off script, but baking is a science. Have to be more precise when it comes to baking.]

So, if there's any advice I can give you about bread making, it's to be mindful about what pans you use and to look up the common mistakes and how to fix or prevent them.

I also made some pizza bagels! ⤵️

Originally I was going to make some small 1-person sized mini pizzas, but then I decided to give this a try. They're currently in the freezer getting frozen solid so I can vacuum seal them in bags tomorrow and I'll likely still make the 1-person mini pizzas at some point in the next few days.

The recipe I use for the pizza dough is here. I've been using this same exact recipe for years now. It's versatile for so many things. To use it for freezer pizzas like this, simply par-bake the crust for 5 minutes, freeze it or let it fully cool off. Add the toppings, and then freeze it. Seal it in some form, be it ziplock or a vacuum sealer bag. When it comes to bake it, bake it at 425° degrees for 15 minutes. That's what I do and it has been working perfectly fine. Adjust to your climate/humidity/altitude, etc.

Edit: I made the 1-person mini sized pizzas today (4-8-26) and this is what they look like ⤵️

Four mini pizzas is with the recipe doubled btw, but you could definitely roll these out larger if you're okay with or want thinner crust. The 24-count bagels I made above is with the recipe doubled as well. That recipe makes one decently sized large pizza when it's made as is (not doubled, one portion).

I'm not a professional pizza maker or anything but if you're wondering why I sprinkle some cheese over the top of my toppings, I was taught years ago that it acts as a glue for your toppings- to hold them together and on top of the pizza. And the reason I added a different type of cheese is because I like a little variation in flavor, no other reason 🙃

Oh yeah! I found this recipe too. It's probably the easiest to make so if you want to make bread but don't really have the time and want to use the least ingredients, check this one out ⤵️