I had a fun weekend with my parents for the first time since the pandemic! It was so great to be together, and my mom and I did some resin projects. I tried some new things. Some projects turned out, and I learned a lot to improve them next time as well.

Various wire, paper, mixed media and metal components.

I made a variety of wire frames to do projects like this and this. Those were a struggle. As I tried to adhere the resin covered tissue or paper to the wire frames, they just kept sticking to my gloves. One turned out great, one okay, two wouldn't stick at all. I had cut more, but decided to figure out a better way to do them before using up more supplies.

Oval wire bezel with old paper overstamped in black with cursive words.

This one turned out great. The paper was thicker than tissue, so easier to work with. It was larger, which helped, and I had hammered the frame flat, so it had a better surface to adhere the paper. The paper was from an old (like 30 years old) thesaurus, so the paper was a bit toothy with fibers, which probably helped.

Black wire formed into a butterfly wing with white tissue.

This is a version of a project from Cynthia Thornton's book Enchanted Adornments. I was telling my mom how exciting it is that when I got that book, the projects seemed so out of reach, and it was just eye candy. Now they are things I can try and work toward. Some I can even make! This wing is by no means perfect, but it does encourage me to try again, The tissue paper did actually stick with much fussing, and the wing frame is okay. I need some different wires. Some day I will definitely make the project in the book that uses these wings. I believe the instructions in the book as well as some other tutorials say to glue the tissue/paper to the frame and then after it dries, coat with resin. I watched one tutorial about a week before my trials. I meant to watch more and do some research, but I've become more of a hands on learner, so I just jumped in. I might trim this tissue and use this wing for something. I didn't remember to do it last so I could add some sparkle powder I had to the resin. I'll do that in the future.

Brass scalloped circle with old paper with text overstamped with a flora design in black.

I added old paper I had stamped an image on to this vintage brass piece. I really like how it turned out and will do this again. I love large, flat old metal pieces like this. So fabulous for many projects. I have some small vintage brass tags I meant to resin paper onto but forgot. I will do that next time. My mom loved this piece, so I gave it to her after she gave me this bracelet she made that I loved, below.

Circle bracelet links with green/rust paper and gold shards of glass glitter covered with resin.

The paper looks almost dimensional and the large glass glitter is perfect for it.

Old text paper with a burnt edge look overstamped with a black fountain pen image.

I tried just using resin on paper I had stamped. I watched this tutorial. I love the look. I added eyelets to make it a pendant (using my fabulous new Crop-A-Dile!) I will do this again. I was a little heavy handed with the resin, so it's a bit textury on the paper. It doesn't matter for this aged look, but it was a good lesson.

Ripped edge paper that looks like leather made into a pendant with two eyelets.

I tried it on this "leather" paper that is heavily textured. I also used eyelets to make this a pendant. I think this is a cool technique that could add some nice elements to a lot of jewelry.

My mom suggested using resin on paper for art journaling. I did a little but not as much as I thought I would. Not sure how much I would use that in journaling, but I do think it could add really nice texture. I also get overwhelmed trying to do too many things. For sure the 30 - 45 minute working time for Ice Resin is my limit anyway!

tan paper with ripped edges and a dark red alternating floral, circle/line border design

This surprised me the most. The paper was a plain cream background pre-resin. I really love how the resin soaked in and made darker spots and brought out a lot of fibers for a "crackle" look.

small ovals of different papers and small sections of an old yellow measuring tape

Here are a few other random things I used. Some papers that I put resin on and tried to stick to bezels, but they refused to stick (except to my glove.) I'll use them as charms. I put resin on some sections of an old measuring tape to use in a future project.

Old metal square bezel with texture frame edges. Strawberry plant design paper inside with words over it saying "reminder of home"

Last but not least, I got some beautiful strawberry paper in a paper swap as well as some word stickers. The strawberry paper is almost identical to the wallpaper in my room when I was growing up and has really good associations, so I made a pendant of that memory. I put a little Vintaj patina on the vintage bezel in the moss color. If you haven't heard, Vintaj patinas will no longer be manufactured; they are being replaced with Colorful Soul paint.

So that's the end of the experiments for this time. So fun! I look forward to our next resin adventure.