Friendly Plastic beads

I've spent today in the kitchen working with Friendly Plastic and AMACO bead rollers - what fun! It's hard to imagine that you can turn a flat stick of Friendly Plastic into these little gems. And once I got into a rhythm, I was producing beads production-line style. I also tried some different colour combinations to produce unique, one of a kind beads (shown below). They're set up on a block of foam ready to be painted with a coat of resin. The resin really brings out the metallic lustre of the Friendly Plastic and makes the beads glow so that they look more like dichroic glass than plastic! Once they're all dry I'll turn them into unique pieces of jewellery. But you don't have to coat the beads with resin: this sample shows that they look equally as good without the resin coating. I'll be revealing my secrets on how to make these beads in an AMACO tutorial soon so I'll post the link when that happens but in the meantime check out their website for......

Read more »

Happy Valentine's Day Sweeties!

Happy Valentine's Day to you all - the day where we get to be all soppy and mushy and can get away with it! So with that in mind I'm sharing this set of cards with a romantic theme with you. Whether you have a special someone to share today with or whether you're just a romantic at heart like me, this set of Valentine's cards is just for you. And if you don't have anyone special to share today with then I hope that Cupid soon finds you and points his bow in your direction. 'Til next time.........

Read more »

And the Winners are.........

Over recent months I've written a couple of posts about the AMACO Friendly Plastic Challenge and at CHA in January, AMACO announced the winners during their 90th Birthday celebrations. And I'm so excited to be able to report that I'm amongst the winners. Here's pics of my 3 entries: Venetian Jewels (Friendly Plastic beads made with a bead roller) Sweethearts for my Sweetheart - Winner Best Jewelry Design Set (tied with Lisa Pavelka) Butterflies in Flight - Winner Best Butterfly It was an honour to be presented the awards by Dawn Sandoe (AMACO Vice President/Creative Director) and Julie Stephani (Today's Creative Home Arts managing editor) . As in past years, all the entries will be going to worthy organisations. The butterfly entries will become part of a permanent installation at the Holocaust Museum in Houston and their goal is to have 1.5 million butterflies on display - one for each of the children whose lives were taken during the atrocities of t......

Read more »

Marie Segal's very clever word moulds

During CHA I had the wonderful pleasure of chatting with Marie Segal (polymer clay artist extraordinaire) whilst she was conducting make and takes at the Rupert, Gibbon and Spider booth. I also got to play with Cernit, the pthalate free polymer clay and create this little piece below. This one is going to my daughter who has joined a youth ministry team for the next 12 months and will be living away from home for the first time...... I'm sad to be letting go of her, but happy knowing that she will be enjoying what she's doing! But what I want to chat about today is Marie's very clever word moulds which we used to create the words for the top layer of our pendants. Marie has generously shared her idea and how she created her moulds on her blog here . Do check it out, it's such a neat idea! Now if you're in Australia, you're unlikely to find the alphabet noodles that she talks about in the Mexican aisle at your local supermarket but check out the Italian aisle and......

Read more »

CHA - Jewellery - Beads, Bangles and Baubles

Where do I start with this post? The jewellery market was very well represented with beads and findings ranging from top of the range Swarovski crystals to pre-packeted plastic bead kits and every other kind of bead and finding in between. Beading and jewellery making is thriving! Some notable finds were at Beadalon where they had a number of new items. My favourite was the wire twister which can twist up to 5 strands of wire at once into a single length of multi coloured wire. Turn the wire into jump rings using the jump ring mandrel and then you have some really funky, and very strong, rings to use as unique connectors for your jewellery. Beadalon also has the wire twister packaged as a kit with the round and oval jump ring makers - a neat idea. They have also added connectors to their range which are used to attach fancy rings to each other without the need for jump rings and another new addition is the stainless steel loop crimp - an eye loop with a hollow shaft that you insert bea......

Read more »

CHA - Other general crafting finds

Yesterday I shared some of the new paper ranges which took my eye so today I want to move on to other crafting/mixed media/home decor/painting items I liked the look of. My first two are from Ranger. Inkssentials has brought out the cutest Memory Capsules - and they're designed to fit Memory Frames and glass. These are just adorable and are small enough to work on either a card front or a scrapbook page. I also liked the look of Tim Holtz's new Adirondack Alcohol Inks Fillable Pens. These pens are dual tipped with a broad end and a finer tip. They come empty, ready to be filled with your favourite colours. I can see a whole lot of new and interesting alcohol ink techniques being developed from this idea. The release is scheduled for March and I can hardly wait to get hold of these products. I also really liked this range: Canvas Home Basics. This is a range of unique decorative hardware fittings designed by interior designers for home decorating enthusiasts. The samples in thei......

Read more »