My first bezel

Today we‘re crafting this cute heart key charm!

The metal frame comes as seen here and these kind of bezels are also part of our Deluxe Starter Kit. It lays completely flat and therefore is ideal for beginners.

First i cut a piece out of our tape in the size of the heart. The tape is heat-resistant and does not crimp when the UV resin becomes warm during curing. Therefore the backside remains even.

If you have a baking silicone mat like me you can use that as base. The shining side is static and the tape clings to it automatically. If not, then use baking paper and use some more strips to fix the tape. the sticky side faces upside and i put the metal frame on it. Press a bit on it and the resin won’t leak.

First I want to make a thin transparent layer. To do this I use the thin PixieCrafting UV resin. I place a bit in the bezel. If you don’t know how much to use, try less than you think. You can always add some later while taking it away is difficult!

Now I distribute the resin with a toothpick. The resin sticks to the frame by itself if it makes contact. If you still have holes after distributing, then add a bit of resin to fill them up. I didn’t need it here as I had just enough

This is how it should look like after the resin is fully distributed. If you have bubbles, you can pop them with your toothpick or by waving over the resin with a lighter (the temperature is enough to burst the bubbles, there’s no need to touch the resin with the fire).

Our UV resin cures (hardens) really fast! 10-20 seconds with the UV torch are enough to continue with the next layer. But please don’t put your finger on it now – that creates ugly finger prints. Btw: If resin gets on your hands (in case you don’t use gloves) you can clean them with baby wipes pretty easily. Beginners are advised to use gloves though!

Now I’m preparing the color layer. We must color our resin – on a small piece of baking paper i put a bit of UV resin and just a drop of our pink pigment. I mix it with a toothpick (for more tips look at the pigment post of some time ago) and I get a pretty transparent light pink!

I lift the baking paper and scoop the resin into the metal frame. The color turned out really pretty!

Distribute the resin to the border with the toothpick

I cure the resin with the UV torch for 10-20 seconds

Now i want to begin putting stuff in. I put some clear UV resin directly into the frame and distribute it to the borders again.

These are some fimo flowers, which i place into the resin with a tweezer.

I add some micro pearls and a tiny rhinestone – you can move all around before you cure it with UV light. Attention if you have a daylight lamp – these also radiate UV and your resin can begin to cure accidentally!

I moved all things around a bit because I didn’t like the layout before.

Now Glitter! Here I use this white glitter which looks good on everything! I sprinkle it on like i would salt with my fingers. Lovely!

I cure it shortly…

and add a new thin layer to fully enclose the glitter and the flowers.

The next thing I want to add is a sticker, for that I need the resin to cure longer. I put it into my UV box (yes, the one for the nails) with 36 watt. It just takes 1-2 minutes to fully cure our clear resin (without pigment).

I have these awesome stickers in my collection with beautiful butterflies, i think they will look good! Generally all stickers which are used for nail design are ideal for resin crafts.

With a tweezer I put on this sparkly butterfly. I could stop here and put the charm on, but i want to protect the sticker from friction and dirt – but the metal frame is almost full…

In this case our thick UV resin is the solution. With the higher surface tension the resin won’t leak over the metal border if you don’t use too much. In the picture I already placed it. Again, use the toothpick to distribute it to the borders.

10-20 seconds to fix the resin so it cannot move when I pick it up and hold it askew…

and complete the curing process in the UV Box (2 minutes). If it is still a bit sticky, just leave it in a bit longer.

Now i can remove the tape!

the backside is smooth and again I could stop now…

but i want the charm to be puffy on the backside too!
Therefore, I use thick UV resin again and distribute it to the borders.

… cure it shortly …

…and I finish curing it in the UV Box!
For the sake of the environment please always cure the resin leftovers!

This heart key charm has so many layers to introduce you to many different techniques, you can of course make less. Also, the first transparent layer can be omitted if you stay transparent in color.