DIY Katy Perry Candy Buttons Costume!

As I've written in past posts, last year I went to a Katy Perry concert. So when it came time to find a costume for Halloween, I knew just what I should be, but picking just ONE outfit out of all the fun costumes she wears was pretty hard! All the packaged Katy costumes were pretty pricey and I wanted something I could get more than one use out of. I'll note where to get the same or similar items at the end of the post so you can put your costume together too!
I wanted this look:

So I ended up getting a petticoat tutu from the Leg Avenue brand, this is especially useful because you can decorate it up any way you want. I got some colored sheets of sticky glitter foam from Michael's, then cut them into circles and sewed them on with a couple of stitches since the sticky backs weren't enough to hold them on.

And voila, there's the main part of your costume! Now you just need to add a blue wig, sparkly shoes and fun candy accessories and you're done!

Here was the final product the way I wore it:

And here are the sources for my main items!

*White Petticoat tutu: Party City
*Colored glitter foam sheets: Michael's or most any craft store
*Headband: Katy Perry Web store (not necessary but held my wig on nicely!)
*Candy Buttons Jewelry: I made my own and wrote a post about it last year, seen HERE.
*Glitter Heels: I wore silver sequin ones from Rampage, style name: Greer
*Blue Wig: I got mine from a random store here quite cheap but Party City has them and I've also seen them on eBay.

A note about the tutu petticoat, the tank top part is rather thin so I added another white tank top under it. I also suggest a pair of white bike/running shorts under the tutu as it's quite short.

I hope this helps you come up with a totally Katy costume for Halloween or other fun events!

New Molds Can Be Hard to Get Used To!

I've been taking LOTS of custom orders lately, hence my lack of blog post updates! I had quite a large order for 12 of my dress form necklaces, then another 12 after that. Normally that would have been no problem except BOTH of my lovely, high quality dental grade silicone dress form molds (made by my dad; thanks dad!) decided to basically crumble as I was pulling the pieces out of the molds. Any mold will break down after a certain amount of uses and unfortunately, these molds chose the middle of my large order to break.

Now as I mentioned, the dental-grade silicone my dad had made my molds with is VERY expensive and he ran out of it, so I decided to try out Castin Craft's Silicone Mold Putty. The directions seem simple but the working time is VERY short, about 5 minutes, if that, so if you don't get the putty mixed quickly and press your item in it, you end up with a dried up, rubbery ball. I managed to mess up the first two so again, my dad helped me with making the molds and I used up all the material but I got four molds out of it.

I have to say, I'm not TOO happy with this material, it may be okay for clay pieces but with my Castin Craft epoxy resin, it creates bubbles all over the piece even if you let the resin sit and de-gas itself for a few minutes before pouring it.

It looks like this, you mix the purple and white until the color is uniform.


I Googled for a good hour and didn't find a thing about how to get rid of the bubbles other than not using a wooden stir stick as it introduces moisture (didn't help) or to pop the bubbles with a pin (only helpful for a few bubbles, not hundreds as I had in every piece).
I finally found something somewhere that suggested using baby powder or talc and powder the mold to get rid of some of the moisture in the material. It helped to an extent but not a whole lot. I did have some bubbles but at least the pieces no longer looked like a freshly poured glass of Sprite.




Final piece:



If you have any ideas or know of anything that works for sure for keeping bubbles out of pieces made in the Castin Craft Silicone Putty molds, please feel free to comment!

Making of...JRandall Resin Necklaces!

Being a JRandall fan, I wanted to make something for myself and other fans to help spread the word about JRan! Naturally, I figured a resin jewelry piece. I really need to get another mold because these take FOREVER as I only have one square mold and can only do one at a time. Once you see the steps, you'll see why this is frustrating. So, next step for me is to get another mold! The steps below can be used for any paper item you want to preserve in resin.

Step 1- Find pictures you want to preserve in resin. (Since these are printouts on computer paper, I gave them a little more thickness by gluing them to cardstock first.) Coat the pictures, back and front with at LEAST 2 coats of Modge Podge. I did the first two coats, then cut out the pictures, then did the backs and the edges.



Step 2- Mix your resin according to the instructions. I use epoxy resin, so I mix equal parts of resin and hardener. Fill mold just enough to hold the picture in, then place picture in and gently push down to force out any air bubbles. It looks goofy but I have the stir stick anchored to hold the picture down until the resin has thickened enough and I don't need to worry about air bubbles anymore (usually about 4 hours.)



Step 3- Wait...and wait...and wait until the resin cures. If it was mixed properly, you can usually feel that the piece is solid the next morning, but wait at least 24 hours to be sure that it really is cured.


Step 4- I wanted to use a solid colored back but didn't want to wait another 24 hours for the second layer, so I mixed my quick-cure Alumilite polyurethane resin (again, equal parts A and B), with a bit of shimmery white powdered color (I use powdered eyeshadow, works perfectly!) and quickly poured into the rest of the mold. This resin sets up FAST so you have to work FAST. The fun part of Alumilite is that it cures completely opaque and pastel colored depending on the powdered pigment you add to it.

In 10 minutes, the piece is ready to pop out! After that, I superglued a bail to the back and here is the finished piece!

Gold Glitter Resin Torso Pendant!

It seems like lately I've been prefacing every post with how busy I am, I feel bad about it! But sometimes life has a way of sneaking up on you and piling everything on at once; the last few weeks have been no exception.

I did manage to get lots of my new absolute favorite items poured, my resin torso pendants! I think these are the most unique things I've seen in a long time, hence the reason why I was so excited to get the mold and get started! I was a tad hesitant at first because as resin jewelry makers know, different molds can affect the curing process of the resin. For example, the mold I use for these torso charms is silicone (rather than the non-stick plastic of the Castin Craft/ETI molds) and will sometimes give the resin an opaque appearance. I fixed this by using a layer of Diamond Glaze over the piece which works out really well, as it brings out the sparkle and color more!

Here's a group picture of all of the pendants I've completed so far:



And my first one I'm trying out on Etsy, hopefully people like these as much as I do! I have many more ideas for colors and things to embed in this particular mold, I might just have to buy more molds to try all the ideas I have in my head; I can't wait a whole day for them to cure before wanting to try something else haha.

Gold Glitter Resin Torso Pendant!

Spam Spam Spam

I had a lovely morning trying to figure out why my mom's email was sending out spam to everyone. Think I got it figured out, hopefully it was a one-off and it won't happen again. If it does, then I'll delve into it more but I hope I won't have to. *fingers crossed*

Other than that...here's a newbie I posted yesterday, a fun "Sorry...closed" sign resin pendant. I think it's pretty funny. Click the picture to be taken to the listing!

New Stuff!

In the midst of lots going on, I've been able to make a few new things. I've been making lots more resin pieces and finished a few that I am REALLY happy with. The heart is kind of an "oops" because there are 2 pieces of glitter in it that shouldn't be there, but it's still cute. I'm partial to all the sign pieces!
Additionally, the felt pieces are of a nesting doll/matryoshka and one of the well known "We Are Happy to Serve You" takeout coffee cups.




I did get my very first resin piece listed on Etsy today, just click the picture to be taken to the listing!

Trying Something New...Resin Jewelry!

I've decided to try making resin jewelry! I love how quirky the pieces are and I also love the idea of embedding practically anything in the resin to be preserved forever! I tried to make a few pieces last year but it was one disastrous FAIL after another. So after making cloudy piece after cloudy piece, I gave up and put my resin away. It wasn't until my mom was looking for something a few weeks ago that she found my resin and molds and it sparked my interested again so I tried to give it another go.
Oddly enough, it was on my second attempt that I realized it was actually the mold release that was making each and every one of my pieces come out cloudy in some spots. Plus, I didn't have my hardener/resin mixture exactly evenly measured so everything was turning out sticky. Unfortunately, when you don't get the resin mixed properly, you're wasting a good chunk of money (depending on your brand, I use Castin' Craft) on failed batches of resin and hardener. So needless to say, it makes me wince every time something comes out less than perfect. *Fingers crossed* that I have it figured out now! Here's a little progress timeline:

Here was the first batch, before I realized the mold release was making them cloudy...



Then the second, no mold release, trying out separate layers of glitter with the sticker in it's own layer in the front!





And third...trying transparent color resin dye...another thing that kills me to waste..too much and the resin will not fully cure, but turn out flexible instead. Too little and the color is barely visible. These turned out great!




And just a few of my latest! I actually colored a couple with just a touch of tempera paint to make them opaque and did more layers of glitter on the others since I'm a sparkle girl. I already put necklace findings on the rectangular ones and a ring back on the green glitter one. LOVE them, may list them soon. Or not. ;)




Any thoughts?

Happy St. Patrick's Day! (Psst, Cupcakes Here!)

Lol, sorry for the weird title. I've been trying out some new stuff besides my felt items, this time I'm trying resin jewelry! I've just been practicing making pieces that are clear, bubble-free and now I've experimented with color! Anyway, I've been meaning to post more but haven't because of that. So sorry!

Just also wanted to say Happy St. Patrick's Day and post this yummy picture of cupcakes from Sprinkles (Dark chocolate with Bailey's Irish Cream frosting)! If you're in the area of one, have one for me please!