Results of Dyeing Resin with Things You Have Around the House

I have been teased because much like a child I have phases. On a first date in college when asked what my favorite food was I instantly responded “corn dogs!” much to the dismay of my best friend and room mate who was also there. Thing is, I was crazy about freaking corn dogs because it was a weird phase I was going through.

If he would have asked me a week before I would have said potato boats. I guess I should have said something classy like caviar or filet mignon but we wound up dating for 5 years or so, so it’s not like my love of corn dogs was a deal breaker. I just can’t seem to help it.

Right now I’m obsessed with and totally phasing on resin crafts (get ready for a whole lot of bangles, people), chocolate soft serve yogurt and pretty things from New York and Co. Next week who knows what’ll be going on in this head of mine.

The resin thing happened just out of the blue, too. I had no bangle molds that I could find so I decided to experiment instead. Wanting to see what colors I could make with different things around the house seemed a totally acceptable way to get this phase started. Now I know that some of these things you may not have around your house but it’s what I had around mine. And since you can easily get these same things we’re going to go with it!

The things I found around my house to use were:

• Castin’ Craft Transparent Dye
• Acrylic Craft Paint
• Sally Hansen Nail Polish
• Bombay India Ink
• Airondack Alcohol Ink

I mixed up a batch of resin in a paper cup and poured as close to the same amount in five different plastic medicine measuring cups (I LOVE these things and use them all of the time!)

I tried to get the same intensity of color in each cup and kept track of the number of drops used and you can see those above. 3 for dye, 3 for paint, 6 for nail polish, 3 for india ink and 3 for alcohol ink.

Now I found that within 24 hours all of these dried hard. The only one that was still tacky was the one colored with Castin’ Craft dye.

Let’s look at the individual results…

Castin’ Craft Transparent Dye – This stuff is expensive which is why I only have 2 colors. Since I don’t know of anything else it can be used for that makes it kind of a deal breaker as far as craft supplies I am going to have on hand or buy regularly… Plus the colors are limited and I suck at mixing colors myself.

Again this sucker was still a bit tacky which is why it has a piece of cat hair stuck on top. Sorry. With light shining behind you can tell that the color is not perfectly uniform.

It is, however, incredibly transparent!

Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Fingernail Polish – I have lots and lots of fingernail polish from back when I suddenly stopped biting my fingernails. Since I’ve once again picked up my bad habit they get very little use around here. There are tons of colors at all sorts of prices but I went with something I think is middle of the ground as far as polishes you’ll find at superstores.

Light does come through but it’s very, very slight.

This yielded a highly opaque but very evenly colored sample.

Bombay India Ink – I bought a whole mess of India ink ages ago for a project and I can no longer remember what it was. In fact, it never even happened which is a total waste of craft supply funds! Looking for a use for it, this seemed like a good a time as any to bust the stuff out!

The color that came through was really pretty uniform and really, really pretty!

The end result was slightly transparent. You can make out the words but it’s not easy.

Acrylic Craft Paint – Figuring I didn’t want to use the bottom of the barrel stuff I busted out my Martha Stewart craft acrylic in satin. To be honest, these are my favorite craft acrylics because the quality is great. I’m not sure what kind of results would have yielded from my 50 cent a bottle stuff. Perhaps that is an experiment for another day!

There is NO light coming through this sucker.

There are dots in the color where it looks almost gritty, like the paint wasn’t able to completely mesh with the resin. The color is super great though.

Adirondack Alcohol Ink – To be honest I had really been hoping for great results here because I have TONS of alcohol ink and very little use for them. Plus the colors I have are all so pretty and in my experience with this brand they all are pretty dang gorgeous.

The color is fairly uniform with a bit of swirls of darker occasionally. It’s actually more uniform than the Castin’ Craft though.

The transparency is fabulous and the color amazing. This is definitely my favorite method that I tried.

In the end I was happy with the results of all and can see uses for each result in different projects. The best thing is that all of them successfully colored my Castin’ Craft resin and they all properly cured! I’d say this experiment was a smashing success!

Be sure to check back to see how I use my new coloring techniques with some upcoming resin crafts!