Make a Flash Emblem

Yet another addition to our DC/Justice League wall of emblems. This time we decided to make a Flash emblem. This one was a bit more fun, especially since our family loves the Flash show on the CW. Our kids were particularly excited for this emblem. As with most of the emblems we've made we tried a few new techniques and revisited and revamped some old ones. The one thing we were most pleased with was the application of the contact paper (vinyl) backing that made the resin pouring much cleaner, as you'll see in that step. Making these has been a blast thus far and this emblem was no exception. We hope you enjoy this -ible and learn something new with us along the way.

What you'll need

• Wood of your choice (we used cherry for this emblem)
• Epoxy Resin (any will work, we used Famowood Glaze Coat)
• Acrylic Paint (we used yellow and red)
• Vinyl backing or Contact paper (if you choose to try this method) if not, check out our other emblems
• Finish (we used paste wax)
• 3M Poster Tabs

Make sure you check out the video, it shows a bit more of each step than the images do. Please enjoy and if you make it or something like it, we'd love to see it.

You can make the template for this emblem in Inkscape, Photoshop, etc. or you could possibly find one online somewhere. We just designed ours in Inkscape. To apply the template we used a temporary spray adhesive that you can pick up at most any store. After the template was applied we drilled some holes in the wood in the areas where we would be removing material with the scroll saw.

Cutting out the template is fairly self explanatory with one exception. Since some spot of this emblem had spots where the wood was a bit thinner, we decided to cut it out in stages. You'll see this as we go. We cut our emblem out on the scroll saw, but you could do it with a coping saw or possibly even a band saw if you don't mind gluing it back together. For this first cut, we only cut out the inside of the lightning bolt.

To prepare for the pouring of the resin we placed a sheet of contact paper (drawer liner, vinyl sheeting) on the back of the emblem to cover the lightning bolt we had just cut. This creates a nice seal, but it is not perfect. To help seal it even better, we clamped the whole thing to another piece of wood. This works extremely well as you'll see.

There are many different types of resin available, so I won't go into detail about the mixing, but I'll run through the basics. We use a two-part epoxy resin called Famowood Glaze Coat. It is specifically designed for bars and table tops, but works really well for casting and for applications such as this one. It gets mixed in equal parts, but since every type of resin is different, make sure you check the instructions of the brand you have on hand. To add color to the resin we used standard acrylic craft paint. Using acrylic paint to color resin works great for this application, but we don't recommend it for other projects. If you are filling something in, like we are for this project, it works great. And, of course, we are using yellow for the lightning bolt.

Once you have your resin mixed it's time to pour. Fill your cavity to the desired height and let it settle for about a minute. While it is settling, bubbles will rise to the surface. As they do, you can use a variety of methods to pop them. Sometimes blowing on them with a straw will pop them, distant passes with a hair dryer on low can as well, or even a lighter. This time we reached for the propane torch, which works really well. Just don't catch the paper on fire like we did. Once all the bubbles are popped, you need to let the resin cure for the recommended time. This will vary by brand and type. Famowood needs to cure for about 12 hours.

Once the resin has cured, you can remove the vinyl backing. It really is amazing just how well this works. It peels off really easy and it doesn't let any resin seep out, other than where it had absorbed into the wood a bit. So, now that the lightning bolt is done, we can move onto the next step, which is basically repeating the last few steps all over again. You'll want to cut out the remain cavities, which are between the bolt and the edge of the circle.

NOTE: Do not cut the outside of the circle yet. It needs to stay to keep the whole emblem rigid until the second round of resin cures.

Pouring the resin this time is the same as the first, but you'll need more of it. And you'll use red, of course. Allow for the same curing time and once it has hardened, you can cut out the outside of the emblem.

We've used other finishes in the past for these emblems, but decided to simplify this one a bit and just use some paste wax. It's not as shiny as the other ones, but it still darkens the wood a bit and gives it some minimal protection.

As with the other emblems, we used the 3M poster tabs to hang it.

This is probably the most problem-free emblem we've made so far. We've learned a lot along the way and we hope we were able to share some of that with you as well.

We hope you enjoyed this DIY project and the video that goes along with it.
If you have any questions or comments please let us know, we'd be more than happy to help you out. Thanks for checking out this Instructable.