BELT BUCKLES

PROJECT: BELT BUCKLES

NECESSARY SUPPLIES: Belt buckle blanks; Envirotex Lite, clear pour on resin; scissors/x-acto; measuring cup, plasticspoon; cardboard; wide, clear tape

OPTIONAL SUPPLIES: 3 bottles of wine, rack with slits, magazines, books, cards, small beads, rhinestones, colored pencils, photos, jewelry trinkets, scrapbooking paper

REFERENCES: http://www.instructables.com/id/Custom-Belt-Buckle/ ; www.etsy.com (blanks) ; amazon.com (Environmental Tech EnviroTex Pour-On High Gloss Finish quart kit)

ATTENDEES: Courtney, Jessie, Melissa & Charlie, Aldrian

PROCESS:

The instructables instructions for this are great. We were lucky enough to have Melissa's boyfriend, Charlie, on hand and he used to make belt buckles for a living so there are a couple of small things here that I've highlighted that are good tips he gave us.

I had a bunch of blanks I'd purchased off etsy.com and the resin which I purchased from Amazon.com. At Michael's I bought some scrapbooking paper that I thought was fun (sparkles, robots, owls etc), some rhinestones and some puffy stickers. Before everyone arrived, I made the templates from a greeting card. I think the easiest way to do this (lesson learned) would be to cut it close to size, press it into the blank, and then use an x-acto knife to trim.

Courtney brought some cards. Jessie brought chocolate chip cookies. Melissa had the motherload with cards, books, small beads, the kitchen sink and, of course, Charlie! I ran through the house and found some punk rock history books, a tattoo book, children's books, and a magazine.

Once everyone arrived and had some snacks we headed downstairs with our drinks to start designing our buckles. This is our first crafternoon and I was remiss in taking photos in the excitement so I apologize for that and will try to do better next time. Charlie played Atari while we ladies figured out what we wanted to put on our belt buckles. We were cracking up. The funnest ones were the totally inappropriate pixs from the tattoo book. A tattooed butt with a prehensile tail was the best.

We used the template to place over our photo and trace around it. Then we cut along the line. Some cool things that we did was to use colored pencils to color in line drawings or color in certain parts of a black and white photo. Beads around the outer edge of the buckle made a cool effect. You can also create a collage effect.

As indicated in the indestructable, any paper that we used as a base we first laminated with clear shipping tape. We put two pieces down on the table and then placed the photo down on it. Two more pieces of tape over the top and it was laminated! You have to do this because otherwise it can change the shade of your paper. It creates a light line when the tape overlaps so try to make the overlap as small as possible on the top. That way, it's not very visible once the resin is on. We trimmed up the laminate to match the shape of the photo. Then we super glued the photo to the blank. Charlie said to do this so that when the resin dries the photo doesn't curl up. MAKE SURE THE LOOP IS ON THE LEFT SO THE BELT GOES ON PROPERLY! I made one of mine upside down. Next we added beads, rhinestones or other items.

The next steps are very important. You need to put something down so that you don't get resin all over your floor. We used a couple of pieces of cardboard. Next, you need your buckles to be level as it dries. I used a shelf from one of those wire shelving units. It was helpful to have the horizontal slats so that the buckle loop and little dingleberry could hang through. We let Charlie mix and pour the resin since he was experienced so this was much less eventful than it probably would have been had I tried to do it myself. Mix the resin very, very well. There will be small bubbles created when you stir the resin and these will remain when you pour it onto the buckle. Charlie only poured about 1/2 - 1 tsp of resin on the buckle. Then he tilted the buckle slowly so that the resin evened out. You don't want the resin to fall over the edges but if it does you can just wipe it off. Beading on the edge of the buckle makes it difficult to level out the resin although it can be done. Most crafters recommend using a blow drier to get the bubbles out and from all accounts this works well. Charlie used a lighter and just lightly ran it over the top of the buckle. He waited about 5 minutes and then did it again to get out any bubbles that popped up later. You might want to keep an eye on the bubble situation because they can crop up over time. The room temperature as the buckles dry should be around 70 degrees. After about 3 days they should be done. The colder the room, the longer they will take to harden completely.