Update Your Decor for Free Winner

From Mill Lane Studio We have a winner for the Buyster.com rug giveaway featured on my blog a few weeks back who left this comment about her favourite rug: The colours are classic But the design screams SPLAT! Evoking images of pressed flowers or an artful paint incident Or maybe exploding stars lightyears away! Congratulations Marie - your thoughtful description has won you a $100 gift voucher to spend on the rug of your choice from Buyster.com.au rugs. Now, after such a creative description I just have to ask, which one IS your favourite? I'll be in touch by email shortly so that you can claim your prize. Thanks to wonderful folks at buyster.com.au for making this giveaway possible. Please stop by their website and check out all the other wonderful home decor and furniture items they have....

Read more »

Complementary Colours

Whilst finding new places for things in the studio (yes, I'm still unpacking..... and reorganising), I came across a few pieces of marbled Friendly Plastic which I hadn’t coated in resin yet. And as I’ve been casting with resin a lot lately I thought it was high time they got coated. So today I’m sharing a Friendly Plastic necklace with you. The colour combination in this piece is a little bit unexpected – blue with shades of orange – opposites on the colour wheel. Complimentary colours are always striking when used together but when you use variations of those colours (like peach and apricot with blue) they will play off against each other without competing. And so it is with this piece…. together the colours give off a lovely warm glow. I’ve teamed the Friendly Plastic heart with glass beads and vintage lucite flower in similar colours to the oranges and pinks and finished the necklace off with rose-gold findings. I really like the softness of these colours. But when it came......

Read more »

Butterfly Design Challenge

At about this time last year I was feverishly creating entries for the Annual AMACO Friendly Plastic Challenge. One of the categories was to create a butterfly from Friendly Plastic which would be displayed in the Holocaust Museum in Houston, Tx as part of a permanent installation. They are looking for 1.5 million handmade butterflies, one to represent each of the children who perished in the Holocaust. When I posted off my entries last year, I had no idea that my butterfly would win the category! And so I want to encourage you to enter this year's challenge too! You never know, your butterfly might be judged the winning entry. Entries close soon but it's not too late to enter. Entries must be postmarked by 18th November 2009 to be elligible so if you're in Australia or New Zealand it doesn't matter that it might take a week to get to AMACO, as long as it's postmarked no later than 18th November. For some inspiration why not visit the The Art of Friendly Plasti......

Read more »

Fantasy Christmas Tree

Well, we're in November and the countdown to Christmas has begun. In my local area, Christmas decorations have hit the shelves and the malls are being draped in Christmas attire. But you don't have to decorate with generic, store bought decorations or stick to traditional colours when you can fashion your own unique Christmas decorations from some simple paper craft supplies you might already have on hand. So with that in mind, I've designed this Fantasy Christmas Tree table decoration using Fantasy Film and Fantasy Fibre. This class is inspired by Laura Bray 's hard rock candies. It is such a pretty piece, perfect for gracing your Christmas Dinner Table and it's sure to spark plenty of compliments. Imagine a small group of these little lovelies adorning your sideboard or mantlepiece. This class is already filling and numbers are limited. If you're interested in the class, then give Jenny a ring (3393 3022) at Stamp Antics and she'll happily reserve a place ......

Read more »

The Kimono Fold Pocket

Are you looking for a quick but personalised and inexpensive gift for someone special? Perhaps this tutorial will give you some ideas. I'd like to show you how I make a Kimono pocket from an A4 sheet of paper. Place the paper in portrait position, pattern facing up. Fold in half taking, the top to the bottom. Find the centre point along the fold and then fold the right and left hand sides into the middle to form a roof shape. Open the page up again and turn it over. Re crease the diagonal folds so that they are mountain folds. Push the first fold (which is a valley fold) inwards so that the diagonal folds form a roof shape. Fold the right hand side (front only) across and crease. The distance away from the point will be decided by the item that will be placed in the finished pocket. Fold the left hand side across to the right and crease. You need the two folds to be equidistant from the point. If the left hand flap overhangs the right hand fold, then fold th......

Read more »