DIY Resin and Dried Flowers: Learn how to make Coasters, Trays, Paint Palettes and more!

1. Intro: Oh, the joy and magic of crafts. In this class, I will be teaching you how to work with resin and dried flowers. Will be learning how to make coasters, trays, pea pellets, and more. You can use dried flowers that you've gathered from a special place or saved from an event. Or you can just order some online. Either way it's going to be pretty, is class has a little bit of something for everyone and who doesn't love a craft that is both fun and functional. Also, don't forget about that therapeutic aspects of spending time on a good Kraft feels so good. So if you need a little fun and art therapy in your life, come join me on skill share. Let's play with present together. Are you 2. Overview: Hello and welcome. My name is Tiffany and I am going to be the teacher for this class. And this class is all about using resin, silicone molds and dried flowers. There's going to be three different projects to choose from. The first is a coaster, The second is a tray, and the third is a paint pounds. Now you can choose one project or all three projects, or you can do a modification and choose a completely different mold and kind of do your own project. It's completely up to you. The main thing is that you have fun and you make something really pretty with beautiful dried flowers. So now that we have a basic overview, we can go ahead and get started. 3. Supplies: So before we get started, we will need to gather a few supplies for this class. We'll be using pre-made things and they are the dried flowers, resin and silicone molds. And then we'll also need some other Google tools that I'll show you. So the first thing you'll need to get is your dried flowers. These are actually got on Amazon and I think they're really pretty and then the perfect size for these type of projects. But you can definitely feel free to gather your own flowers. Maybe you have some from an event that are significant or a place you want to dry. But because it takes about a week to dry flowers if you're doing them the old school book Method way. And I don't want to wait a week. I'm going to use these flowers today. The next thing we'll need to gather our arm silicone molds. I'm gonna be showing you three different projects in this class. So I have three different style of molds here. This one is a coaster mold which comes out looking kind of like that. You can also use around coaster mold. It's really up to you. If you want to do something more traditional. I personally like this mold that I have better because it's about larger. I think it's about five inches. And this one is about 3.5 inches. But you can definitely find larger round coaster molds for sure if you want to do something a little bit more traditional, This one is a train mode. It's kind of a small tray for jewelry. You can definitely do a larger mold if you'd like. I got all these molds on Amazon just by searching silicone molds for resin. So there's a lot out there. You don't have to stick to these. And the final one is this pink palate mold, which is kind of random. I happened to see it on Amazon and I thought it was pretty cool. But it creates a piece that looks like this is actual, actually a functional paint palette, but you can also use it as a tree. So the next thing we'll need is our resin. Most resin comes in two parts. Are resin and are hardener. This is my favorite brand to work with. It's called Art resin. They have their own website which you can order a resin.com, and they ship to a lot of different places around the world, which is great. And it's also available on Amazon and a lot of art stores as well. So this brand I highly recommend. There are no fumes. It's one of the safer to use resins out there. They do recommend you use NOL ventilated area, but you don't have to worry until later unless, of course you can't be in a well ventilated, then you should definitely where one. But there's a lot of presence out there that can be kind of harsh. So this one I would definitely recommend. Also these are giant bottles because I worked with resonant lot, most likely you will need a much smaller amount of resin just depending on what mole to choose. So after you have gathered your flowers, you're resin and your mold, and I'll just say a few more small things. So gloves is a first thing you will definitely need when you're working with resin, you have to wear gloves. It's super sticky. So these are really important. And then you'll need a either plastic or silicone measuring cup to measure it. You're resin. I also have a tiny measuring cup, which is nice for the smaller projects like the coasters, but you don't need to have both. I have some gold and gold leafing and glitter that I'm gonna be adding, which if you're into sparkle, that's always fun, but you don't need the glitter if you don't want to use it. One of the projects will be using black paint. It's just acrylic paints. It doesn't really matter the brand. You also can use any other color that you want. And you'll needed a disposable cup for that project. Other things, you're gonna need some tweezers to handle your little flowers with a stick to mix your resin. And then toothpicks are also super handy just to move your little flowers around. A final thing not pictured here that you'll need as just something to protect the surface that you're working on. Resin is super sticky and can definitely damage your table. So I would suggest either a plastic tarp or a silicone met. 4. Project One: Coasters Part A: Our first project, we are going to be creating some simple, clear co-stars. I always like to plan my floral design first. So I'm just going to pick out some colors and flowers that I think go out together. And I'm going to place them with my tweezers into an empty coaster mold. I think I kind of want a design where I have green on the outside, so my leaves and then my flowers with stems. And then I'll do some of the flower, smaller flowers on the inside. I like to do this step first rather than McBain resin first because we will be working upside down, which I will show you in a minute what I mean by that. So you can't completely see your design as you're working. So it's always good to have something planned out beforehand if you really want to know what it's gonna look like. So I'm going to speed this up a little bit just so you can see the design come together. We will get started with our next step. All right, it is time to mix our resin. I am using art resin, which has a ratio of one part hardener to one part resin. Uh, your resin might be different. A lot of them are two-to-one, so just check. But for my coaster moles, these take a 100 milliliters each, and I'm doing two. So only 200 milliliters total of my mixture. But I'm only doing one layer at a time, so I'll actually need only 100 milliliters, and that's made up of 50 milliliters of resin and 50 millilitres of a hardener. So now I have my two parts in my measuring cup. And I am going to vary slowly stir for about three minutes. Again, every resonance different. So just check your instructions and see what they might say as far as how long you need to stir. I'm stirring slowly because it can help prevent and bubbles. Another option to help prevent bubbles. If you're resin is stored in a cool place, it might have more bubbles. So you can, after you mix your resin, kind of create a little hot water bath by heating up water and putting it in another container and then putting your measuring cup inside of that and holding it down for a few minutes as the bubbles start to pop. All right, so we have our resin nice and mixed and it is time to pour down our first layer into our coasters. You just wanna make sure the entire coaster is felt from edge to edge on, but they're only going to be halfway fall because we will be adding a second layer after this first layer has dried. So that is all good in there. And now we will start to place our little flowers. So I just wanted to show you some examples of projects where I did not work upside down. And you can see these two flowers on the right to the edges. I kinda lost him a little bit and this one on the left, same thing. And then this black coaster, I actually almost completely lost elif that just sank into the resin. So if you work upside down, if those edges do go down, you'll actually, they're actually going to be going up. So you'll see more of them instead of losing those edges if that makes any things. So I'm using my tweezers to very carefully you pick up my dried flowers and you can see I'm going to flip them upside down, which is what I was talking about earlier. But now you can actually see, you know what I mean? And I created a second design which I didn't show you. But it's kind of a similar circular design. And we will speed this up just so you can kinda see everything come together. And like using toothpicks to kind of push around the flowers once they've been dropped in the resin as opposed to using the tweezers. That just so I'm not getting my increase risk for sticky that should fix. I can just turn away and it doesn't matter. Thick and sticky. Okay. 5. Project One: Coasters Part B: If you're into Sparkles, this next step is for you, but totally optional. You don't have to add glitter if you don't want to. I'm going to be using some gold leafing and some glitter. You can kinda see the two styles that I am using. I am just going to sprinkle some of this clutter around the edges of my design. This one on the right kinda feels like it needs a little bit more going on. So I'm going to add quite a bit of glitter around those edges. Another option outside of doing it this way is you could actually mix the clutter with your clear resin If you want there to be glitter more dispersed throughout the gold leafing, I'm going to kinda tear little pieces off and rub them together in my fingers to create some little, little gold nuggets. And these nuggets are bit delicate, so I'm going to be using my tweezers to place them into my design. And oxide my tweezers got a little bit sticky. So it is difficult to get these placed in my design. And maybe I will try using some toothpicks and see if that's any better. And I actually did my toothpick in the resin just so that I can have some stickiness in the right place to grab these little gold flakes. And this is working a lot better. So these are looking pretty good. I think I am about done with them for the day. And basically, for this project, we're going to be doing in two layers. And there's kind of some wait time. So resin depends on the resident you're using. But the reason I'm using cures and completely dries with and about 24 hours. So I am going to take these coastal areas. I'm going to cover them up because I don't want any dust or here to kind of come down and stuck to them. And I'm going to wait 24 hours and then we'll come back tomorrow and we will add our next layer. Welcome back. It's finally time to add our second and final layer of resin to these coasters. Now I've mixed my resonant. It's the exact same amount we did for our first layer. And I'm just going to pour it down and be careful not to overfill my posterior molds. And that's it. That's all we had to do for our second layer to finish these guys. Now we just have to be patient and wait again another 24 hours and we'll be able to take them out of their molds. Yea, it's finally time to take our coasters out of their molds. So I'm just going to very carefully kinda pull around the edges until I made it all the way around. And then we can pop this guy out and see what we've got. And this first one is looking pretty nice. I'm pretty excited about how it turned out. And I think the second one is also going to be pretty cool. So same thing here. I'm just going around the edges very carefully, pulling at this mold and all the way around the edges. And then we'll be able to pull it out and see what we've got. Bu looking good and like that glitter. And this one's more simple, but it's really pretty. That is the end of Project one. I have tumor projects for you, which again, you can choose one project or all three projects, or your own project using a different mode, totally up to you. But I am excited to get into our trade next. 6. Project Two: Tray: For the next project will be creating a small tray. I'm going to be adding some color. I'll be using black, but you can use whatever color you like. So just like our coastal projects, I'm going to be planning out my floral design in advance since we'll be working upside down. And definitely with this tray mold, you have to work upside down. So I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do. The shape is definitely different than the coasters. So I'm going to just play around and see what I can come up with. So I have just mixed my resin and not going to show that to you because you guys side on the first project. But for the small and we are going to need a 160 milliliters total. So that means just for layer one will need 80 milliliters, which is 40 of the resin and 40 of the hardener. Hurrying for now for the fun part, I am going to start placing my flowers just one by one with my tweezers, exactly like we did in our Coastal project. And I'm also using the 2D pictures to kind of scoot the flowers around to get them into a better spot. So our flowers are all placed and our first layer is done. Now I'm just going to wait about 24 hours for the resin to completely cure in dry. And then we will come back tomorrow and add our second black layer. Okay, we're ready for layered too. So I have already mixed our resin. And again, it was about 80 milliliters total, 40 of the hardener in 40 of the resin. And I am going to put a little bit of paint into a disposable cup. It's about a little bit more than a teaspoon, but it's really not an exact science. I like to put a little bit in their mixer and if it's not quite thick enough or if it's too clarified a little bit more. So our black is looking good, and now it is time to pour our second layer. Okay, so again, we're gonna wait a full 24 hours. Definitely cover your piece of the few can and will come back tomorrow and take it out of its mouth. Are i, it's time for the most exciting part in that is, taking our piece out of its mode is going to be even more exciting when there is a colour because you can't see what's going on until you fully pump it out of its mode. So here it is. We've got our black tray with their cute little blue flowers. You can see that there are some little air bubbles. But they kind of look like literally mean this piece. So I'm okay with it. And I'm really happy with how it turned out and I can't wait to put my little pieces of jewelry, earrings, and rings in here. 7. Project Three: Paint Palette: For the next project will be creating a paint palette. This can be used as an actual functioning being palette or you can just use it as another tray. Or first step we are going to need to mix in core RSA. Now for this mode, we need about 300 milliliters of resin. So just for layer one will need a 150, which means 75 of our resin and 75 milliliters of our hardener. I won't show you the mixing it because you've already seen that. But now it is time to poor. And you can see I did a bad job of prepping because I have a lot of bubbles. So I'm a cheat a little bit and use my mini torch, which I feel a little bit more comfortable with on a larger mold because there is more surface area, so it's easier, it's easier to burn. And the smaller pieces, the edges versus a larger piece where you have more surface area. But again, I don't completely recommenders. I should have prepped better, but that's what I'm doing for this one. And now it is time for some fire. It's probably good even though I'm not recommending that you see me do this, but you can see as I move my torch, the air bubbles pop. I'm moving really quickly and I'm staying at a distance as far away as I can while still being able to pop the bubbles in. I try to not get too close to the edges and kind of stay in the center. You can see I still have some bubbles, but it looks way better than it did before. So I am unhappy with this. I'm going to try a couple more, but I don't wanna get too overly confident and end up partly my mould. Now for the fun part, arranging our flowers. And I don't really have a specific design in mind, but I just have all of my flowers that I am going to use kind of around my paint palette and I'm picking them out. And it kind of go from the outside in with this design is kind of place things around the edges. First, I have a lot of surface area to work with. Which is why I kind of just want an all over design. I don't wanna do a little bouquets and kinda wanna make it organic and just really fill up the paint palette with her ton of yellow and green. Ok, I'm going to speed this up a little bit. See the design coming together. But now I'm starting to get peaceful up. I am really excited about how this is to10 account. So we will cover this up in about 24 hours. I'll come back and I will add a second layer. Alright, so now it is time to add our second layer of resin. I have done the exact same thing as we did on the first layer. I have mixed a 150 milliliters of resin. And now I'm just going to pour it. And one thing to be careful with on this mall is to leave that little the area where the finger hole is, make sure there's no resin on that which I accidentally port some there. So I'm just gonna clean it up with a Q-Tip and just make sure that areas totally clear. And again, you just want to make sure you get the full surface area covered and get all the edges. So this pieces looking really good, It is time to cover it up and wait about 24 hours. And then we can take it out of its mould and check out what we created. So it's time to demote. This is always my favorite part because especially with this two-layer process, you're waiting two days to finish this thing and you finally get to take it out of its mould and kinda see how everything came out. So I'm just going to kind of peel around the edges and we will pop this thing out of its mould and take a look. One thing I will say about this paint pellet is you can actually use it as a real paint palette. But when you're cleaning it, if you use too much water, it can morph a little bit. So just be mindful about how much water you're using and wouldn't put it under a faucet and just kinda wipe it with a dry cloth first and then a minimal amount of water. Or maybe depending on the specific type of paint or using, you might need to use something else, but that's what I would recommend. So we've got our beautiful paint palette out of its mould, and I'm so excited to use this thing. This is kind of a random Project that I didn't even expect to do. I just found this mold on Amazon and got excited about it, but I'm really just loving Hakeem out. 8. Conclusion and Thank You!: Alright, so hopefully by now you have either started your project or at least decided what you want to move forward with. I would love to see what you create, so please share in the projects. And again, thank you so much for joining this class. I really hope you had fun and I hope to see you next time.