This post contains affiliate links.
I’m a sucker for a movie themed craft, and I love giving gifts. That’s why there’s a tradition of me giving a themed gift when I head to a Disney event. (You can see all of the past gifts here.) When I received the invite to the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 premiere, I knew I wanted to make Awesome Mix charms almost immediately. I then embarked on a ridiculously long process of trial and error to get to the final version I handed out last night. I’m going to share all of the details so you can make your own-including some tips to hopefully keep you from making the mistakes I did along the way!
To make your own Awesome Mix charms, you’ll need:
- Resin
- Resin mold
- Small cups
- Something to stir resin
- Printout
- Something to seal printout (packing tape, microglaze, modpodge)
- Sand paper
- Gloss finish
- Drill with small bit
- Large jump rings
I sized the Awesome Mix Vol. 2 printout to fit perfectly into the resin mold I purchased. When you work with resin, you’ll need to seal any paper you plan to embed in it to keep it from getting water stains. I started sealing my printouts with clear packing tape on the front and back. That worked well for about half of the pendants and then I started getting water stains around the edges. I have no idea why it worked and then it didn’t, but I made a new printout and covered the printed side with a light coat of microglaze. I then coated the front and back with a coat of modpodge. I then covered that front and back with packing tape. All three steps was probably overkill, but since I was trying to knock out 25 gifts before stepping on a cross country flight I figured better to overkill than have another failed batch! Once you’ve sealed your printout, carefully cut out your Awesome Mix cassettes.
This was my first time working with resin, and there’s definitely a learning curve. It’s not hard to use resin, it’s just something that has to be done in a very specific way to work properly. I used Easy Cast, which is considered a beginners resin. It mixes at a ratio of 1 part resin to 1 part hardener. I used the caps to add three capfuls of resin to a small plastic cup, then I added three capfuls of hardener. I used popsicle sticks to scrap out the caps and then cleaned them off with a paper towel before putting the bottles away. The three capfuls of resin and three capfuls of hardener created the perfect amount to fill all six wells in my resin mold.
Stir the resin and hardener for about two minutes, then pour the resin mix into another small cup and mix again. Many people skip the second cup step, but after a few failed batches I decided it was easier to just follow all of the steps completely, even if it took a little longer. Let the resin sit for about five minutes. The resin will get bubbles as you mix. The larger bubbles tend to pop on their own, but the smaller bubbles are a little more stubborn. If you do a search you’ll find dozens of tips for getting rid of the bubbles. What I found worked the best was giving everything a quick blast with my heat tool. (You can also use a hair dryer, but it will blow the resin around so be careful.)
Pour just enough resin to cover the bottom of each well in your mold. Add the Awesome Mix cassettes to each well. Carefully lift the mold and look underneath to see if there are any bubbles. Use a popsicle stick to press out any bubbles between the cassette and the resin. Keep the mold steady of you can spill the resin during this step! Once you’ve removed any bubbles, cover the top of each cassette with more resin. Give one last check to the bottom of the mold to make sure you caught all of the bubbles. After that it’s just a matter of letting it sit for 24 hours.
Once the resin has fully cured, pop the cassettes out of the mold. If they’re being a little stubborn you can put the mold into the freezer. Don’t leave it in the freezer for more than a few minutes, though, or the resin can crack like an ice cube. Use sand paper to remove any rough edges from the bottom. Give the cassettes a quick coat of gloss sealer to give them a shiny finish. To turn them into charms, use a very small drill bit and drill a hole in the corner. Add a jump ring and it’s ready to wear!
You can follow along with all of the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 fun here.
Click the photo below to save to Pinterest:
