I think I've figured out what I'm doing wrong. Essentially I need to be more patient. Which is not one of my better qualities. That's okay tho. Perhaps this is just what I need.
So according to all the websites you need to take a rubber hammer and flatten the bottlecaps to begin with. Well, we don't have a rubber hammer (well hubby insists we do but I've yet to find it) so Itried a couple of things and eventually discovered that taking pliers and "folding" the edges works well. I tried it 2 different way and I prefer the 2nd
way #1 (the one I don't like)
way #2 (much better imho)
The first 2 i did last night ended up completely screwy. I didn't remove the rubber ring in the caps and I didn't flatten out the cap properly. Nor did i seal them well enough with the modge podge. so the colours all ran and essentially they need to be thrown out, but I won't do that cuz I want reference of what NOT to do lol
This one was a pictar from a magazine I just wanted to play with.
you can see the raised part from the rubber ring still being in there. and the colors completely faded from the vibrant pinks it was in the magazine. you can also see a couple bubbles that formed ... prolly from me moving it all around instead of setting it someplace, covering it to keep it safe from dust, and leaving it the hell alone.
This one is even worse.
I didn't fill either of them with alot of resin stuff cuz I didn't want to "waste" it. You can see how I screwed with the diamond glaze while it was drying. And again the raised ring from the rubber ring i didn't remove.
So I did a little websurfing and found out how to remove the rubber rings (a couple different ways, but the way I found that I liked was to heat the caps on your coffee warming plate for about 20 seconds and the rubber will pry right off using a butterknife or tweezers)
I used the pliers to "flatten" the caps and sealed the pictars with modge podge and tried again.
unfortunately I didn't seal them enough ... or let them dry enough ... i'm not sure which ... cuz the colours bled again.
which kinda makes it look ethereal and cool ... kinda ... but I'd rather the vibrant colours it was printed with.
(and as a funny I put the pictar of the virgin on a tecate bottlecap hehehe)
I thought I had the colour problem licked but my 2 english D attempts came out funky too ... and one of them has bubbles ... again prolly from me jostling it around peeking at it when I should have just covered it and let it sit.
So today I printed out another virgin on photo paper (to see if it makes a difference from regular paper) and another english D on regular paper. I'm modge podging them both about 3 times per side (letting each layer dry inbetween) putting them inside the caps and modge podging them once more. Letting them dry overnight and tomorrow I'll put in the diamond glaze. And let them sit without moving them around. And we'll see if this makes any difference.
Once I figure this all out I am making my own damn how to guide cuz I couldn't find any information all in one place for this stuff. It shouldn't be this hard dammit.
