It was back to the kitchen this week to experiment a little more with Friendly Plastic. I seem to spend quite a bit of time in the kitchen these days but it never seems to be to cook (well except for family meals). I seem to craft more there than I cook and I really don't have a problem with that any more as my children are all old enough now to prepare a meal when I can't. But I emphasise prepare because they still don't clean up afterwards! But I do enjoy playing with my craft stuff in the kitchen: sometimes it's Opals, sometimes polymer clay, and at the moment it's Friendly Plastic. So, here's what I tried this week. I placed a square of Friendly Plastic over the mould and heated it with the heatgun until it began to soften and droop down into the mould cavity just slightly. With wet fingers, I carefully eased it down into the mould until I had worked my fingers across the entire mould cavity. This stuff gets very hot, so keep wetting your fingers. If you fe...

I've continued playing with the Cuttlebug and acetate this week and really love the texture it's created ( see a pic in my last post ). But I've had to put those experiments aside and concentrate on some samples using the newest Krafty Lady art moulds - and I can't even share those with you just yet. So this week's offering is a sample I made using Friendly Plastic cast in a mould with some decorative feathering on top. I finished it off with some simple beading on memory wire using black AB beads and gold spacer beads from my stash which matched perfectly. What a stunning colour combination!...

I've had a hectic week with teaching and preparation of samples for upcoming classes but I wanted to share this piece with you. It was a bit of an experiment to see whether or not acetate would turn white when it was embossed through the Cuttlebug. Well that's what I'd expected would happen, and I had some ideas on how I would use this in a project but, to my surprise, the embossed pattern on the acetate stayed clear. I could immediately see possibilities with alcohol inks and this is the result - a gorgeous tapestry look when the acetate was layered over a sheet of card from the Core'dinations Vintage Collection range. I'm really loving this look and can't wait to try out some more ideas. If you'd like to learn how to create this look, I'll be teaching the technique in a class at Stamp Antics in July. Check out my website for more details....

I've been playing with the Core'dinations cardstock again this weekend to see how else it could be used and as I rummaged through the Hocus Pocus pack I noticed that there's a nice range of colours in this collection graduationg from dark pinks, to light pinks, salmon and a couple of shades of yellow and thought this might be something interesting to work with. They looked rather nice together but they didn't blend together as well as I'd hoped. But then something wonderful happened...... I tore the edge of the deepest pink and a much softer shade was revealed. The same thing happened with the other four colours I'd picked.... each one revealed its much softer core colour once I tore it. And when they were all laid out together, I had beautiful sunset colours to work with. This was just the look I'd been after! It reminded me so much of the sunset, that I decided it would work well with something tropical. This is one of Krafty Lady's newest art moulds, ...

I really liked the colour combination of the oil slick earrings I posted yesterday, so I tried the same colours again but this time I reversed the bottom and middle layers. I also dragged a needle tool through the oil slick stripes to create a feathered look. And this is the result. Hmmm.... quite different! It's interesting how the placement of colour can deceive the eye....

Wow! Friendly Plastic is making a comeback! Well it never really went away, but it has certainly been sitting very quietly in the wings waiting for its revival. Apparently it was BIG in the '80s (a little before my crafting time) but I had seen those pretty metallic sticks of plastic at my local craft store and even bought some but I didn't know how to use them. So this week, I set out to rectify that. I'm still learning what works and what doesn't: I've tried my heat gun (which is actually a paint stripper), a hot waterbath, and I would have also tried my stove top but it decided to give up the ghost last weekend. I'm devastated to be unable to cook, as you can imagine ;) So, out came the sandwich maker (aka café press) which has a nice flat surface, but no thermostat for temperature control. It works quite well though, as long as I don't walk away from it whilst it's melting the plastic (let it melt too much and you have a very sticky mess!). Earrings ...

Well, as promised, here's that cute little frog made up into a charm bracelet. He is absolutely gorgeous and my younger daughter has already put her hand up for it. She likes it so much that she even suggested the name for this post! I like these frogs so much that I thought I'd show you another close up of the beads (the silver disks are his lily pads!)....

Yesterday I spent an enjoyable day wandering around the Brisbane Stitches and Craft Show. My girls had both wanted to come too, but one was snowed under with uni studies and for the other, it was a school day but both put in orders for me to bring them home a jewellery kit. This wasn't a difficult task because there was an abundance of stall holders vending their beading wares. I found a gorgeous crystal channel bracelet for the younger one - very delicate, lots of sparkle and in one of her favourite colours - blue! So I presented it to her last night thinking it will make a great long weekend project for her (we have a public holiday here in Brisbane this weekend). She looked at me with her puppy dog eyes and asked if I'd make it up for her! No problems, but kind of defeats the purpose of bringing home a kit doesn't it? Anyway, here's the finished bracelet - very pretty indeed...... Well that was the younger daughter taken care of. For the older one, who is quite capab...