Using temporary tattoos in resin

This year I'm trying to make as many handcrafted gifts as possible, I'm sure I'm not the only one trying to save a few pennies here and there in the wake of the economic crisis.

My mum loves all shades of lilac and lavender and I'd seen a few people using these trinket tray moulds with all sorts of waterslides and temporary tattoos so thought I'd give it a go myself.

I first laid down a thin coat of clear epoxy resin in the bottom (the top of the tray when de-moulded), let that set overnight and then applied several lavender/lilac flowers in the centre of the tray. I waited for that to completely dry before mixing another batch of clear resin and then separated this out into several containers with some sparkle mica, pale green mica and then a pale rose mica. I added the resin into the tray but it really wasn't giving me any depth of colour - so I then added several drops of resin pigment (soap colourants from Amazon) and then swirled them together.

Leaving it to set for another day, I then de-moulded.

For the second tray I applied a very thin coat of UV resin, set it with my heat lamp and then applied the temporary tattoo. For filling this version of the tray, I used ResinCrete coloured with the same liquid pigment (soap colourant) in two different shades of green. I had to add quite a few drops of each colour as it was very pale, and then added the extra water as recommended on the package. I didn't fill the tray to the top, and perhaps that's where it all went wrong....I waited a good 45 minutes before demoulding, only to watch it crumble to pieces in my hand.

Not wanting to waste the UV resin and tattoo, I quickly tipped out the crumbly ResinCrete, carefully wiped out the residue from the tray and mixed up another double batch, this time using more Mica powder with just a drop of the pale green pigment. I made sure to fill the mould to the brim and left it overnight before demoulding.

I applied another thin coat of UV resin over the tattoo to ensure that everything was well sealed.

There's a few tiny bubbles in the UV resin, perhaps because I applied it straight from the bottle without decanting it into another container first? But, overall I'm very pleased with the results this time around. The drop of fluorescent green that I added to the mixture gives it a very faint glow and it really shows off the pale rose tattoo.

I gave my Mum the option of both trays, and to my surprise she actually preferred the green and pink Eco tray, rather than the lavender one that I'd originally made with her in mind!