 Hey everyone, Joanne from our resin here. So we've all been there before. You've poured your resin project only to find that you've got some leftover resin in your mixing container. So what do you do with it? Well, the last thing you want to do is waste it. So whether it's clear resin or tinted resin, whether it's a little or a lot, today we're going to show you a few different ways to use up leftover resin so you don't have to throw it out. We're even going to show you how to use resin that's too thick to spread and and how to use cured resin scraps to create a whole new piece of art. Now a lot of these ideas came from you, our community of artists, and we're going to share some of those with you too. Let's get started. Now the easiest way by far to avoid leftover resin in the first place is to only pour the amount that you need. If you're unsure of how much that is, art resin has a calculator to help you out. Simply enter the width and the length of your project into our resin calculator and it'll tell you exactly how much resin you need and even what kit you'll need to get. If you're working on a circular piece, use art resin circle calculator and simply enter the diameter instead. Okay, so back to leftover resin. So we'll start first by talking about clear resin. Now the easiest way of course to use up leftover clear resin is by pouring it on another piece of artwork. If you use resin regularly, you can keep small projects close by whenever you're resining. You can use leftover resin on small canvases, on prints mounted on wood panels, on painted rocks, on driftwood, or even on wood slices. Now an important thing to remember is that you're going to be well into the 40-minute working window by this point. So now's not the time to be running around looking for a project to resin, otherwise your resin's going to be too thick to pour by the time you find it. So make sure your small projects are totally ready to go. Paintings have dried, prints have been mounted, the project's been sealed. Whatever you need to do to have your piece ready for resining should be done already. So for example, I had a Yupo paper collage on a wood panel. I'd also applied some alcohol ink onto some ceramic tiles to make some coasters, and these were perfect ways to use up my leftover resin. In fact, if I keep this up, I'm going to end up with a whole set of coasters that would make perfect gifts. Or maybe I'll just keep them for myself. Another great way to use up leftover clear resin is to make alcoholing coasters, also known as Petri dishes. So you'll need a coaster mold and some alcohol ink. And enough resin to pour at least half an inch into the cavity. If you have enough resin, you can even make two or three, and then drop your alcohol ink colors in. And if you'd like to learn more about Petri de Charte, we've got a great video all about it. Now, if you only have a little bit of resin left in your cup, not enough to pour, you can still repurpose it using a foam brush. You can use it as an adhesive, say if you're making a collage. You can also use it as a sealant. This works especially well on wood boards or coasters. Sealing wood is important because it creates a barrier that prevents the wood from releasing bubbles into the resin. You can even use it on the back of a stretch canvas that you intend to resin to provide it with a little strength. You can also use it to give a shiny finish to something matte. Say you've poured something into a mold, not realizing it has a matte finish. Simply brush a coat of resin on top to restore the gloss. Last, if you've sanded down the sides of your piece to smooth down rough edges or cut them clean on a saw, you can restore the clarity by brushing on a little resin. Okay, so we've covered off clear resin. Now, what if you have some tinted resin left over, even multiple colors of resin? Well, one of the easiest ways to use up tinted resin is by creating a whole new piece of art with it. And one of the easiest ways to do that is by using a mold. You can get so many different varieties of molds online, so it's a really good idea to keep them handy in case you end up with extra resin. Here's an easy idea. Pour your resin into a multi-cavity mold. I used a square and rectangle mold, but you could use a circular mold or a heart-shaped mold, whatever you like. Fill the mold at different levels in different colors that go together. Do this over time with your leftover resin and assemble the pieces on the panel to make a 3D collage. Another great way to make new art out of leftover resin is to use a mold to make your own crystals and gemstones for geodart. You can buy crystal molds online, but I've got one here that I made myself using our mold-making material. So what I did was pour the mold-making material over a crystal that I really liked. I let it cure, and now I can use my leftover resin to make my own crystals anytime I want. You can use clear or tinted leftover resin or use both for a two-tone effect. Either way, they look so great and you can repurpose them to create your own geodart. If you only have a little bit of leftover resin, there are lots of small molds you can buy to make something functional. You can get molds for just about anything, from luggage tags to trinket dishes to drawer knobs to hair braids. Just keep adding bits of resin to a mold over time until you fill it. Here are some key chains I made. This one I made using leftover red resin, and then with this one I used some black and white paint markers to make the art resin heart. Now if you really want to take it next level, here's a super fun project you can try. So I've got this mold here and I have been adding my leftover resin over time until it was full. Now this is actually a soap-making mold, but this one is brilliant because the silicone piece fits inside this wooden box and it helps to keep it stable as well as helps it keep its shape. So this one is cured now, and I'm going to unmold it. You can see all the stripes here. It's super random, but I totally love it. Now this one, the resin ran a little bit because I kept peeking at the mold, but I'm going to sand it down and then put a really thin coat of resin on top to restore the gloss, and it's going to look beautiful. In fact, here's what it looks like when it's done. Now I actually got this idea from one of our customers, Lucy Pevetto. She made a bunch of these and then she cut them and assembled them and turned them into a contemporary sculpture. Now here's the same idea, but using a square mold. You can see it looks so cool, and what you can do with this one is slice it into coasters on a table saw. You might need to sand down any rough edges and you'll probably want to use a thin coat of resin on the sides to restore the gloss, but when you're done you'll have yourself a really fun set of striped resin coasters. So up until now we've been talking about resin that's still liquid, but what can you do with resin that's thickened up or even cured? Well, I'm going to give you a couple of ideas. You may have seen a video we did with Carmen Darley on how to use up resin that's thickened up in the cup. Carmen showed us how she scooped thickened resin in between silicone egg poachers, mixing the colors in no particular pattern to form a little bowl shape. 24 hours later she unmolds them, trims away any sharp edges, and once the pieces are totally dry she paints the edges gold. And you end up with something like this. They're so cute and they're made entirely out of resin that would otherwise end up in the garbage. Another way to use leftover resin is to make what's known as a resin skin. Typically, resin skins refer to the thin, flexible pieces of resin that you peel off of your work surface. Anyone who's made flow art knows these resin skins can be absolutely gorgeous. In fact, you can use them in a variety of ways to make brand new pieces of art. You can peel them off your work surface or you can make your own using the leftover resin in your mixing cup. So just pour your resin out onto a sheet of plastic or parchment paper, making sure it doesn't have any bumps or ridges on it. Then just spread it out and let the resin cure until it's dry to the touch. If the resin's too thick to spread, just scrape it out onto your sheet. The resin will self-level to some degree, but you can help it along by placing another sheet of plastic over top and laying something heavy on it to help flatten it out. Here's the sheet now that it's been allowed to cure for about 16 hours. You can see as I peel it off it's dry to the touch but still quite flexible, and now you can cut it into whatever shape you want to create a brand new piece of art. Here are a few ideas for you. If you find an interesting area, you can cut it out and place it inside a pendant basil to make a necklace. You can cut it out into any shape you like to make a reusable gift tag, or you can cut them into similar sized organic shapes and add them onto a panel to create a collage. I've been creating these resin shapes for a while now and I've been placing them on a panel and gluing each one down as I go. I love that you can create so many beautiful things with scraps that would typically be tossed in the trash. All right, let's move on to our last way to use up leftover resin. Now what if your resin runoffs have cured and they're too hard to cut into shapes? Well, I've got a couple of ideas here for you too. You can just cut them into bits and use them instead of glitter like artist Karen Lange who made earrings and a tray using these tiny pieces of resin. Another great way to use cured resin comes from artist Linda Klippenstein who saves the drips from the back of her resin paintings and uses them to create texture in new pieces of art. And you know what, even if you don't know exactly what you want to make, a lot of artists hang onto their resin runoffs and scraps and keep them in a bin to use in a new work of art whenever the inspiration hits. So there you have it. I hope I've given you lots of ideas on how to repurpose leftover resin so you can make even more art and more importantly you never have to throw away resin again. If you want any more information on the artist that we featured, please check the description box for links. And if you have a favorite way of using leftover resin that we haven't covered, please let us know. We would love to hear. Don't forget to hit subscribe and we'll see you next time. Bye!