Hi There! My name is Karen Bearse & I am new to the ResinCrafts team of guest designers. I am very excited to be a part of this team as I love, love playing with resin. Some of the ETI products are new to me so we can get to know them together.
For my first few posts I will be doing a series on creating and designing with resin and paper. These 2 are a match made in crafting heaven! I will also be doing some posts where I use the resin/paper I make so stay tuned!!!
Here is what I started with. The EasyCast clear casting epoxy, rubber gloves, measuring cups with stir sticks, a piece of kitchen sponge.
I simply followed the easy directions to make the resin - read the instructions for full info- pour 1oz each of resin and hardener and mix together with the stir stick for 2 minutes, then pour into a 2nd new cup and with a new stir stick, stir for 1minute.
With this project we don't need to be concerned with bubbles. Use a cut off piece of kitchen sponge & gloves apply a thin coat of resin to each side of paper and than set aside to dry overnight. I used tissue paper, book paper and paper napkin as my substrate, each turned out very differently. This can be a bit messy but trust me is worth the results! You do have to be careful what surface you set your piece to dry on, so read on.
First the tissue paper- this was probably the coolest. I used a beige piece of 7gypsies tissue paper and ended up with a completely translucent piece that was much like a piece of light composite mica used in collage etc. It made the tissue paper stronger with a plastic finish but it will still tear.
Next up a paper napkin. I did not pull apart the layers but left it in one piece and applied my resin. This piece is less translucent, sort of like a frosted glass but is much stiffer. It can be torn but not as easily. It feels even more like a plastic than the tissue paper.
The next piece was a learning moment. I used a piece of Asian book paper that had a bit of a glossy finish. I left it to dry on a piece of plastic garbage bag. The bag would not remove from the paper and I had to leave it attached and cut it out. The resin/bag/paper is a lot like a lamented piece, is hard to tear and the bag is bubbled and crunchy on the other side-hum could be interesting.
Here is the backside, you can see the bubbles in the plastic where it did not adhere to the paper. Yet the front side is very smooth.
Lastly I took a regular piece of book paper. I added a drop of green transparent dye in the final mix stage.
The resin made the paper translucent, in fact you can see the back page of the writing through the sheet. The ink gives it a tinted look but doesn't take away from the translucency- very cool! I had put this piece to dry on a different store plastic bag & while it did peel away from the bag it left the back side embedded with the creases from the bag.
I learned a great deal with this simple process so lets just finish with some tips.
a)I was tempted to touch the resin/paper after a few hours just to test- this resulted in a very sticky finger! Let dry over night to prevent sticky fingers!
b)The best surface to let your paper dry is the non-stick craft sheet by Ranger. Once dry it is very easy to pick up the resin/paper. You can easily clean your craft sheet by scrapping off any resin that is left. I tested both plastic bags and wax paper and the results were not as simple. One of the grocery store plastic bags adhered to back of the paper while another one didn't- no idea why. The wax paper fared a little better but it was tough to peel off in places. I think if you pick the resin/paper up once it is partially set and set it back down it might be easier. I will test this theory next time. For me I just went and bought a second craft mat!
c)applying a heavier amount of resin gave the paper a more plastic like feeling that was almost impossible to tear-fun!
d)if I pulled away apart the layers of the paper napkin and only used resin on the image piece my resin/paper was translucent and reacted much like tissue paper.
You can use your resin/paper for cards, art journal to die cut images the list is endless. Join me next time as we further investigate resin/paper!