I’m not sure if I can call today’s post a tutorial per se, but I’m taking you behind-the-scenes on my journey of creating a coffin lid shaker and trinket box using Sophie and Toffee’s October Elves Box. I think it was a little misleading calling the shaker a lid for the box since it doesn’t fit over it (even if you didn’t make this into a shaker). This means the box just stays open.
I forgot to postpone my subscription for October and before I knew it, I was set to get October’s Elves Box! It definitely has some fun items in it, and the box came SO MUCH FASTER this time. I usually don’t get the box until about a month after it ships, and I think this time I got it in about a week and a half. That was very exciting! I had heard that they changed their shipping to move faster across the globe, but this was my first time experiencing it.
Here’s a little unboxing video of the October Elves box:
I decided to save the super cute open bezels for another time.
Supplies:
I used almost everything from this box for this project.
- AB epoxy
- Coffin silicone mold
- Moon glow-in-the-dark glitter
- 2 inclusion silicone molds
- Nail stickers
- Clear film
And then I added some things I either had or had leftover from other Sophie and Toffee boxes/kits.
- Paper cups (not shown)
- Scale (not shown)
- Popsicle stick (not shown)
- Green chalk pastel
- Exacto knife
- Glitters
- Toothpick
- Purple pearl pigment
- UV resin
- Orange powder pigment
- White pearl pigment
- Black powder pigment
One of my favorite Halloween color combinations is bright purple and bright green. I originally wanted to do a coffin and lid that both had purple and green crashing together, but I’ve never done this effect with epoxy resin and was worried the colors would blend together by the time it was finished curing (and I KNOW I couldn’t have poured two colors at the same time to try and keep them balanced out haha). Instead, I decided to make one piece purple and one piece green. I used purple resin pigment from last November’s Elves Box and a bright green chalk pastel for the green lid.
Mixing the resin
For the lid, I measured out 0.6 ounces of part A and 0.3 ounces of part B (this is a 2:1 ratio resin), using a small scale to weigh everything out in a single paper cup.
I then gave the resin a good stir so that everything combined well. I probably should have mixed a little longer. My pieces were still tacky and bendable after 24 hours in the mold when the resin is supposed to have a 6 to 12 hour cure time. I didn’t even notice it until after I removed them from the mold either (the weather has also been changing here, and I know that can be a factor too). It was fine after about a day and a half with the last 12 hours being out of the molds.
Then I shaved some chalk pastel into the resin. At first, I was worried the resin didn’t look green enough, but once everything came together, I really liked the color.
Don’t add too much because you don’t want to mess with the curing ability of your resin. I’ve had bad luck with chalk in the past (only because it wouldn’t shave fine enough and then you’d have specs of color in the resin), but I think the lighter color really helped everything look cohesive.
Filling the mold
Once I was happy with the color, I bent the cup to form a spout and poured the resin into my mold. You’ll see in the video that I was short on resin, so I had to mix another batch. This is taken into account for the amount I mentioned above.
Then it was time to add some glitters! I wanted to use the moon glow-in-the-dark glitter to stand out in the dark, and then I sprinkled some holo on top and let it do its thing. There are some other chunky glitters I placed individually as well.
I did the same thing for the trinket box mold, only I used resin pigment I had from a different Elves Box and mixed up 0.8 ounces of part A and 0.4 ounces of part B. I added some iridescent glitter while I was mixing up the resin so the entire thing would be shimmery. It’s a small glitter so I knew it wouldn’t sink too much.
Now we wait for it to cure. I demolded after 24 hours (I let it sit overnight) and then let it sit for another 12 or so (ended up being another 24 because then I went to bed, but it was set up before then). Once they were out of the mold, here’s what they looked like:
Time to decorate!
I used the nail decals on the inside of the lid for part of the shaker background, using a combination of regular and glow-in-the-dark stickers.
I also made some inclusions for the shaker using the little molds included in the box. One set had little jack-o-lanterns and ghosts, and the other had skull and cross bones. I used UV resin to fill them so I could make a boat load all at once and colored them white, purple, orange, black, and green.
I thought they looked great in the shaker!
Then I added some fun chunky glitter, some more holo glitter, and a few inclusions from the June Elves Box (rhinestones and pearls).
Prepare the film
This was my first time doing a shaker like this, so I prepared the film first by tracing around the outside of the box and then cut it out so it fit within the edge of the box but had enough overlap so I could secure it with UV resin.
Filling the lid
I decided to use my own baby oil for this shaker. The box came with a bottle of oil, but with it’s nice little applicator tip, I wanted to save it for when I’m filling a shaker with a tiny opening.
I made quite a mess with this part. I thought I’d left enough room in the shaker (the amount of air left in affects how the inclusions move). When I placed the film down to see how much air would be left, it pulled the baby oil out of the shaker toward the edge. I siphoned out baby oil until it didn’t do this anymore and then tried my best to dry off the edge so the UV resin would cure properly.
When I was happy with the clean up job, it was time to move on.
Sealing up the lid
I used UV resin to seal everything up. You could definitely use the epoxy resin, but after the mess I made, I just wanted to get this baby secure as soon as possible!
I laid out a thin line of UV resin around the whole edge of the lid. Placing the film, I arranged it until everything looked lined up. I wish I would have taken more time cleaning up the excess resin puffing out at the sides, but I was so nervous about the spilled baby oil ruining everything that I rushed the curing.
I tested out the box after the initial seal and touched up any areas that seemed to need it, curing as needed.
To try and cover up some of the mess, I decided to add some clear rhinestones around the entire edge of the shaker as well.
A final note I want to add before I add in the final photos. I did not realize the clear film had a peel off sheet on both sides (I’m guessing this is to protect it?). At first, it looked like my film was peeling apart inside the shaker, so I figured I’d ruined it. Then the top part peeled off, so it looks pretty again, but I’m seeing the same thing on the inside. At some point, that will probably peel off only partially and look really weird in the shaker, so that bums me out. Don’t make my mistake!
