Hi everybody! Hope your week is going great! I've been crafting night and day the past 2-3 days! I have so many projects and cards to make and share! Stay tuned! Today's project is something completely new and different for me! I made a resin/paint/wax project a couple weeks ago! My first one (except for the one I made in a class to learn how)! SO EXCITING! I have been a stamper and card maker for 28 years!!! Yikes! So I loooove making paper things of course. But I have been an overall crafty person since I was very small. I remember one time when I was around eight years old I made my own magazine. I still totally recall sitting on the floor gluing and pasting and writing articles. I used to do loom beading as a little girl too! And pretty much anything else. When I got to high school I discovered photography and that became my first artistic soulmate. I used to make cards from my self printed black and white photographs. Man how I miss being in a darkroom! Anyhoo I am doing the time machine rewind with you! All this is meant to say that it's time for me to explore again, and try some new things. Get the creativity flowing in new ways... Well, I have discovered resin and molds and chalk paints and transfers - oh my!! I'm having a lot of fun, and maybe I'll inspire you to try something new too!
Today's project started out as the necessity for a nice gift for my friend Liz. I bought this GORGEOUS orchid at the nursery to give her as that gift. But, me being me, I wanted to make her something... The idea came to me to 'make' her a pot for the orchid. The pot that the orchid came with was a plain white ceramic pot. I changed it into a faux stone French Fleur-de-lis pot! Let's look - lots of pictures ahead.

This was literally the most perfect orchid I have ever seen! Pristine and beautiful!

And here is the white pot that it came with....


So now the fun part!!!! Look at all these fun supplies!!!

I decided to use that big chunky Fleur-de-lis mold!!!! It was the perfect size and scale for the pot.

The resin is a two part mixture. You mix equal parts of two different liquids and still it well... It pours into the mold totally clear, and then over a period of about ten minutes it turns white! It's realllllll fun to watch this happen. It takes around 10 minutes is all.

Here it is ready to pop out of the mold! At this point, it is still malleable so you can curve it or make it form to something else. But you only have a little bit of time before it hardens.

I used Lock Tite Glue to affix the Fleur-de-lis to the pot. It has a gentle curve to it so I taped it while the glue dried. This is how it looked before any paint, etc.

I used Annie Sloan Chalk Paint to paint the pot. I used three coats and let it dry in between each coat. I was surprised how nicely the paint 'took' to the ceramic.


Here are the supplies and colors I used to make this project...

I painted the pot with gray and green paints and then splattered on white and black spatters to make it look like stone. Then I put on two coats of clear wax over the paint.


The final step after everything is completely dry, is to put on black wax!! I rubbed it with a stipple brush and a q-tip into the crevices and joints.... Looks so cool!!


It's amazing what a difference the finishing touches make... This is the pot with only paint on it....

And this is the pot after splatters, clear wax and black wax, and just a touch of gold too!!


That's it for me today, friends! Hope you enjoyed something a little different from me! It was such a cool project to make and I'm very happy with how it came out. Now I want to make all the molds and paint all the things. I just need more time!! What have you discovered lately? Do you have a new crafty hobby you're loving? I want to hear - leave me a comment! I'll be back soon with some paper projects. Until then, take care and keep on creating! XOXO