I'm the guest artist over at Amazing Crafts this month and I've been sharing tutorials and inspiration on their blog each week. But this bonus project is just for you! Today, I'm going to share how I made this really cool Marbled and Textured resin bracelet made with quick curing polyurethane resin. This resin cures white. How to Make a Textured Resin Bracelet You'll need to gather a few things: Alumilite Amazing Casting Resin Alumilite Red dye Alumilite Violet Dye Alumilite silver metallic powder Silicone texture mould - I used Kraft Lady AMKT 4 Rococo (edited - mould is no longer available. Try searching for silicone texture mats) Soft bristled brush Open back silver oval bracelet blank Teflon Craft Sheet Permanent marker Scrap of paper Tim Holtz Tonic Studios Scissors  - they cut through resin like butter! Stanley knife 5-minute Araldite or strong adhesive like E6000 Measuring cups and wooden stir sticks Brush the surface of the texture mould with the silver powder. ......

I've been bitten by the resin bug this week. In particular, the marbling bug. When I'm marbling, I look for a mould with a large surface to show off the marbling at its best and I didn't have to look any further than my big chunky wedge ring with the lovely flat top - it was an obvious choice! But you can't just wear your ring straight after you've cast it. There's work to be done.... like trimming it to shape with a sharp knife. And then sanding it to a smooth finish.... always with water to catch the fine resin dust. A well trimmed ring won't need much sanding but there will still be resin powder in suspension so you have to keep rinsing off the white paste to prevent it from scratching the surface as you continue to sand. And you need to rinse off the sandpaper frequently too so the paper doesn't clog up. When it starts to look like this with the grit flaking off, it's time for a new piece of sandpaper. And the final step is the polishing. Marblin......

Last weekend, I got to spend a whole day at the Bead and Gem Show in Brisbane and I can't tell you how much of a treat it was. I love talking to people who share my passion for beads, findings and stringing materials. It was such a pleasant way to spend my day off. But of course, I didn't go to the show just to chat to people.... I was on a shopping mission! I found a whole range of great tools for my jewellery studio - tools which I didn't even know that I needed until I saw them! But as they say, you can never have too many tools and I promise that I will play and experiment with them. No doubt they will add another dimension to my work. Amongst the wonderful array of beads and findings on display, I was hoping to find some glass pearls and crystal dangles to suit one of my marbled Friendly Plastic cutouts but I left it behind in my studio - not very helpful! It's really hard to "remember" exactly how a colour looks and our minds play funny tr......

In a recent post, I shared with you how I prep my marbled Friendly Plastic cutouts ready for jewellery making. And yesterday I finally had some time to transform those demo samples into pieces of jewellery so that you can see how your marbled cutouts can be utilised. So, today it's candy time..... some super easy and sweet ideas to turn your marbled Friendly Plastic into gorgeous jewellery! First up, a simple pendant hanging on a chain. For this piece I've used findings from Plaid's Fresh range: a petal shaped pendant, a circular frame and silver chain. Plaid has done all the hard work here as these components are designed to work together. To personalise the piece, I added some white rub ons and clear crystals to give it some added interest and complement the Friendly Plastic hearts without overpowering them. Aqua Hearts The second piece was a lucky find. This bracelet watch (minus its workings) was the perfect size for the small oval cutout - it just snapped into place......

It's time for some Friendly Plastic eye candy today. You've seen some of the jewellery pieces I made using the demo samples from the Brisbane Paper Crafts Festival but many of you have asked how you can use Friendly Plastic in your papercrafting projects. Well, let me share some of the things that I like to do. For the first one, I've used cookie cutters to cut some letters from a marbled strip of Friendly Plastic and layered them on a textured strip of gold. Adding texture is one of my favourite things to do with Friendly Plastic Designer Sticks. You can either stamp into it with a rubber stamp or press a texture into it as I did. This one is a silicone texture mat from Krafty Lady. I've layered the Friendly Plastic embellishments onto a piece of stamped acetate which I've coloured with Pinata alcohol inks... the vibrant colours certainly are eye popping! Fun in the Sun To add to the fun of the card I tied a polka dot ribbon around the embellishments before assemb......

For all you Friendly Plastic fans out there here's a couple of techniques you might like to try. FaveCrafts.com has just uploaded these projects to their extensive craft library along with full instructions. The first card, called Three Kings , involves casting Friendly Plastic into Krafty Lady Art Moulds. Friendly Plastic and Krafty Lady Art Moulds are a match made in heaven. The flexible silicone makes demoulding a breeze. Look at the fantastic detail the Friendly Plastic has picked up. The second card, Unique Florals , combines the marbling technique with cookie cutters to create the interesting floral embellishments. This card uses both the marbling comb and a needle tool to blend and marble. Click on the card names to take you directly to Fave Crafts website where you can print out the images and instructions. I'll also be a guest blogger on the Fave Crafts blog in the coming weeks sharing a little about my work with Friendly Plastic so stay tuned for an update....

It's well known that Friendly Plastic is a great medium for jewellery making but being such a light weight modelling medium it's especially suitable for card making and scrapbooking too. There are many techniques that are suitable to incorporate into your paper crafting projects such as marbling, stamping and moulding. In mid September I'll be demoing and teaching a workshop at the Stampin' Daze Rubber Stamp Club in Brisbane using a couple of these techniques which we'll use to create the focal piece on a card front. I'll be offering two colour alternatives: an all occasion card in girlie pink........... ...... and for those of you who want to get an early start on your Christmas cards, a green version. The choice is yours. Please pardon the slightly blurry images. My trusty little point-and-click Ricoh camera is having a little stay in camera hospital at present and I've used an unfamiliar camera to take these photos. The images simply don't do the card......

Hmmm............. make more jewellery of course! So here's today's eye candy - a bracelet, a necklace and a cuff. Making simple, strung bracelets is one of my favourite ways to make up twisted beads. It only takes the addition of a few glass and metal beads to turn the Friendly Plastic beads into something special. This one is called Spicy Tango. Daisy Chain was a little more difficult to create. The colours I'd marbled together were so different to my usual colour palette that it was challenging to find suitable findings to work with it. In the end I chose a daisy shaped filigree stamping which complemented the flower shape perfectly. The Swarovski crystal in the centre is a headpin which is threaded firstly through a bead cap, then the daisy filigree and finally, the Friendly Plastic flower. It's sandwiched between the front and back layers and then it becomes the bail. I'm very pleased with the way it came together. And the last piece for today is pretty gold, p......