Illuminating! A quick fix for a broken lamp shade

Here's an easy project that came about because of a little mishap. This cute little glass tea light holder came to grief when the breeze picked up one warm day last week and knocked it off the sideboard and onto the tiled floor.... smaaaash. And that was the end of the glass cover. No great disaster though because it was a cheap pick up from the Two Dollar shop. So today's project is to make a simple, but pretty replacement. I've gathered together some vellum, flat back crystals and a couple of flower punches. Oh, and adhesive! Don't forget the vellum adhesive because it won't show through. Firstly, trace a pattern for the cover. Do this by placing one of the struts along the edge of a piece of scrap paper. Roll the frame around the paper tracing the outline as you go. Do this for the top and the bottom. This will be much easier to do if your cover is still in tact and not in a dozen pieces like mine. Next, trace it on to vellum. Cut it out and use vellum tape to ta...

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Getting Resourceful - a Friendly Plastic Napkin Ring Tutorial

I'm on a mission at the moment to come up with a number of different Friendly Plastic tutorials which are all aimed at the complete novice. It's a challenge to come up with very simple projects that have real impact, but this project is even more of a challenge because it also has to be translated into French. The projects can also only be made using items you most likely have at home in your kitchen already (so no craft tools permitted) and I can only use the oven method for softening the plastic. OK, this is definitely a challenge but it has certainly made me more resourceful. The projects are coming together quite nicely but along the way I also created a project that was just a little bit too difficult for the complete beginner so I want to share it with you. This idea seemed so simple at first but by the time I actually started doing it, it became quite apparent that it was too difficult for a first timer. But for those of you more advanced Friendly Plastic addicts, this i...

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Ugly Ducklings Turn into Swans

The most wonderful things happen when you make mistakes. Earlier in the week I was telling you about how one of my ugly duckling resin castings turned into a beautiful swan, in the form of a necklace that both my daughters now want to lay claim to. Today I want to tell you about another one of those less than perfect casting moments and how some creative thinking brought about a new colouring idea. Here's how the story goes: I was casting a resin bangle that I had coloured with Pearl pigment. It was really pretty in the bangle mould and I was very happy with the way it looked. But I had mixed a little more resin than I actually needed for the bangle and I had just enough left to pour a thin layer into each cavity of one of my favourite Krafty Lady art moulds , 5 Dominoes ( AM245) . I thought this beautiful pearl colour would make a great background with something embedded on top of it. But it was such a disappointment! The colour was so transparent that it completely lost it...

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A New Colouring Idea for Resin

I've been playing with a new resin colouring idea recently. The idea came about when I had some casts I didn't particularly like. But I'm a great believer that most things are rescuable. Not too many of the things I make end up in the bin, although it does happen occasionally. As most of my students will tell you, my motto is that there is no such thing as a disaster - only opportunities to create new ideas. And that is how this technique came about. Unhappy with the colour and texture of a cab I had cast, I set about trying to improve it and added layer upon layer of colour until I was happy with the result. I wish I had a "before" shot to show you because it was really ugly. But now it is one of my favourite pieces! It's wired together with a beautiful brass stamping which incorporates a wrapped bail to thread an interesting, fine chain through. It looks quite like an heirloom piece and if my daughters have their way that's exactly what it will beco...

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Dealing with Murphy's Law

Where did the past two weeks go? The last time I looked it was a week before my DD's 21st birthday celebration and we were busy welcoming interstate visitors and enjoying much merriment and laughter whilst we all caught up with each others family life. I was also in the midst of catering for 70 party guests. I swear I only blinked and now I find it is a whole week after the event. Time certainly does have a habit of getting away! Whilst I am pretty crafty in the kitchen (please interpret that literally), I am also quite a capable cook, certainly not in the league of Master Chef, but more than competent when I put my mind to it. But never, ever, ever did I think I'd cater for 70 party guests. And I did it all whilst my brand new oven went on the blink. This was most inconvenient timing - right before I started cooking for the party! In the meantime, the weather was being unkind, with storms and gusty winds predicted for the party. There was a new deck yet to be f...

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Friendly Plastic.... a little bit of this and a little bit of that

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...

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Friendly Plastic and Resin Jewellery Class

Just a quick post today. Here's another slight variation of the resin and Friendly Plastic pendant we'll be making in tomorrow's class at Stamp Antics. This promises to be a really fun class - making these little pendants is so addictive! If you were unable to get into the class I'm happy to say that there will be another one scheduled soon. So why not give Jenny a ring at Stamp Antics (07 3393 3022) and ask her to add your name to the waiting list. She'll get back to you shortly to let you know when the class will be. That's all for today, folks! I'll be back soon! Myléne...

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Friendly Plastic Swirl Beads

I had a brilliant idea one night this week. It was one of those light bulb moments! You know the kind..... the ones that come just as you're drifting off to sleep. Normally when an idea like that hits I would reach over to jot it down in my Little Book of Big Ideas but four months after moving into our new house, we still don't have bedside tables and so my Little Book was not there. So I went over and over the idea in my head, working out every little detail hoping I might at least remember something about the idea come morning. Do I start with a basic cylinder bead? Should I roll it into a ball? When should I add the stripes? Do I use the hot water method or stick with the heat gun...... so many questions. It's a wonder I got any sleep at all. So what was my brilliant idea, I hear you ask? Well, take a peek below! These are my first experiments.... you can just make out the beginnings of a swirl forming. Not bad, but I'm sure I can improve the technique. So I tried ...

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