Film Strip Resin Bangle Tutorial

First, we must gather our supplies...

We need some EasyCast Resin, some Castin' Craft Mold Release, and a bangle mold. Then we need some spoons to measure the resin and cups to mix it in. Stir sticks and a heat gun are optional. Napkins are also good to have on stand by.
*ETI suggests wearing gloves when working with resin for safety* Gloves also help keep your nails nice :)

For our bangle film strip design, I'm using Tim Holtz Film Strip Ribbon, Glossy Accents adhesive, and printable transparancies with some scissors too.

Our first step is to cut the right amount of film strip ribbon to fit the mold. For my mold, this was 15 frames long. Make sure that the height fits in your mold too- you can trim some of the black lining on either side of the ribbon if needed.



This is a mold from Yaley Enterprises.
They make resin and Deep Flex Resin Molds along with a variety of colorants.
Check out all the offer here: http://yaley.com/SitePages.asp?ID=46
 

Now we can pick out the images we want in our film cells. I went to Google images and limited the search to large size pictures. To get the best resolution, I picked the largest size I could, like desktop wallpaper size. Next, I copied them to Microsoft Word- I'm sure you could use your program of choice this is just the one I happen to have on my comp.
I measured the openings of the little film windows to be 16mm wide by 11mm tall this converts to .63 inches by .44 inches for Word. I copied, pasted, and resized all of the pictures I chose- I made sure I had at least 15 pictures since that is how many frames I needed to fill. You could also print a bunch if you plan to make multiple bracelets!

Print your pictures out on the transparency. Make sure to change your printer properties so it knows it's printing on plastic instead of paper. Also, be sure that you put the rough side of the transparency toward the ink so the ink will stick. You can find transparencies at office supply stores in boxes of 25ish but you can check your local college bookstore to see if they sell the individually. I found mine at the community college bookstore for 50 cents each!
Also, you'll notice my pictures aren't sized perfectly- as long as you get them close you can use the best fit as a cutting template :)

Lay out the images, making sure they are the right side up. We will use Glossy Accents to glue the pictures to the film strip. Be sure to put the glue on the rough side of the transparency to help them stick.

I used my resin and mold release as paper weights to keep the film strip flat.

I used a popsicle stick to help get all the air bubbles smoothed out. Let this dry for a while. Glossy Accents dries pretty fast so this won't take incredibly long.

Now, we've got a lovely customized film strip!

 There was a bit of an overlap so I trimmed the ends of the film strip.

You can see through the mold enough to double check how it looks.

Spray the mold with Castin'Crafts Mold Release and Mix up a batch of EasyCast Resin.

Carefully fill the cavity of the mold with some resin. Paper cups are great for this because you can pinch a pour spout.

Double check to be sure the film strip is completely encased in resin. Now, put it somewhere level to set for 24-72 hours.

Once the resin has set we can unmold our bangle. Start by breaking the air seal by pulling on either side of the mold. Do this all the way around the circle. Then press down on the mold and, if the resin has hardened, it should pop right out. If it's being stubborn you can pop the mold in the freezer for a couple of minutes to speed things along.

And Viola! A perfectly unique film strip bangle ready to make all your friends jealous!