Ideas With Friendly Plastic and Other Mediums

INSPIRATION FOR USING AND COMBINING DIFFERENT PRODUCTS

LUTRADUR

Lutradur is perfect to use as a base for mixed media ideas. Below are a couple of examples of using Lutradur with Friendly Plastic as the highlight.

Constructed using Lutradur as the base, which was firstly painted with Fabric Paints and then heated with a heat gun. This caused the Lutradur to ripple and form holes through which the background mounting fabric can be seen. Strips of net, threads and wools were then added using Bondaweb (which was also painted). Lastly the Friendly Plastic leaves were made and when cold were glued with Silicone Adhesive and the whole piece was attached to the backing fabric - again using Bondaweb.

Exactly as above this piece incorporates Lutradur, Fabric Paints, ribbon, Friendly Plastic and misc threads & Lace. The only difference is there are 2 layers of Lutradur. The bottom layer has been left uncoloured with a second small piece (coloured blue) is on the top. Between the 2 Lutradur pieces there is also another piece of contrast material

The piece above incorporates 2 colours of felt which have been hand-stitched onto a contrasting fabric background (dark blue) prior to framing. The embellishments are made from Friendly Plastic (again 2 colours using the pre-coloured strips) and these have been attached to the piece by stitching. A hole was made in the Friendly Plastic whilst still warm using a ball-ended embossing tool.

One of my favourite pieces (unfortunately I cannot claim credit as it was done by one of my girls as she is the stitcher). It has been made using the Friendly Plastic Pellets which have been heated, rolled flat and in the case of the paisley part rubber stamped. Finally the pellets have been coloured using Alcohol Inks. The centre of the piece is a silk type fabric with hand stitching. The whole piece has been stitched on the black backing fabric.

FRIENDLY PLASTIC PELLETS

These are the samples which you see me making on the exhibitions. The pellets are heated either in hot water, or as I do on the exhibition with a heat gun on a Teflon Sheet. I put the pellets into a metal ring to ensure they do not scatter - if you shake the ring the pellets will fuse quickly together. I then put another piece of Teflon on top of the heated pellets and roll flat. You can then use a rubber stamp to make an impression and finally colour with Alcohol Inks.

This bracelet was created using Friendly Plastic pellets. When warm the pellets were coloured with Alcohol Ink by pushing it through the plastic with your fingers (like kneeding bread). The plastic was then rolled flat (inbetween 2 sheets of Teflon) and whilst still warm stamped with a rubber stamp. It was then heated again in order to cut with a circle cutter (leave the cutter in until it is totally cold). The pieces were then finished by using the alcohol inks again on the raised part of the pattern (we used the silver mixed with colour to give a metallic finish

This blue necklace was made using Friendly Plastic Pellets, and scraps of Friendly Plastic strips and the square cutters. We have also added glitter

Above we have 2 examples combining Friendly Plastic with both Alcohol Inks and Foil (whilst the foil is not particularly evident on the photograph). The one on the left is Friendly Plastic Pellets coloured with the ink whilst warm, stamped, and then using the Write 'n Rub Pen to highlight the indented area of the rubber stamp with glitter and the high spots with Tonertex Foil. We have then added sequin waste using the Scrapito double sided paper and Foil

The heart is made with Friendly Plastic pellets and is on an MDF Base. It was then stamped at random and coloured with Alcohol Inks when the plastic was cold. Again the Write 'n Rub pen was used to add Tonertex Foil.

TEXTILE ART, WALL ART & MIXED MEDIA WORK

The textile above is probably one of the most admired on the stand, but it is also one of the easiest to achieve as it involves no stitching. Make your piece of Friendly Plastic first and allow to go completely cold. Then take a piece of man made fabric (I used nylon chiffon) and lay either behind, or in front of your plastic (I did both) and flash with your heat gun. The fabric will then fuse to the Friendly Plastic.

The above is a piece of wall art on an artists block canvas. One of the new additions for 2010 following my introduction of the Friendly Plastic pellets. The pellets and inks were used for this to give a more random colouring. (The block canvas had to primed before using the alcohol inks, because of course the canvas is a porous surface).

SCRAPITO, FOILS & WRITE 'N RUB PEN

The card on the left has been produced using the Scrapito method and a black peel off (which is not part of the Scrapito range). See my Instruction Page for full details but essentially Scrapito is produced using double sided paper, foil and peel-offs (preferably black). The peel off is laid onto one side of the double sided with foil on top. It is then rubbed to transfer the foil, the design cut out and stuck onto the card etc. Very easy and safe for children. (it can also be stuck to glass, metal etc to produce decorative items as opposed to cards).

The centre Kimono card and the Cat card have been made with the Write 'n Rub Pen and the Tonertex Foils. Firstly the background of the cards was decorated with Alcohol Inks to produce a marbled effect. The black peel-off was laid onto the card and various areas of the card were filled in, a section at a time, with the Write 'n Rub Pen. The pen writes blue so you must wait until it goes clear and then lay one colour of the foil on, right side up, and then pull away. The foil remains where you had used the pen. To achieve this 'mosaic' look do separate areas at a time.

This pen and folls can also be used to do the writing on your cards. If like me your writing is not very good print your message on the computer on ordinary paper. You can then lay this onto your card and check the size and spacing is also OK. Trace through the writing with a ball ended embossing tool - this will leave the indentation of the writing onto your card - you can then go over this indentation with the Write 'n Rub Pen, and then the foil (right side up).

THE ADVANTAGES OF TONERTEX FOILS TO OTHER FOILS

Foils tend to be either cold use or hot use, but with the Tonertex Foils you can use them either way. Use them cold for your peel-offs or writing messages onto your cards as described above. But you can use the same foil hot with your Friendly Plastic to achieve that extra 'sparkle' - great for jewellery pieces.

To use the Tonertex foils on Friendly Plastic just simply lay the foil onto the hot Friendly Plastic - let to go completely cold before pulling away. Any foil will remain on the Friendly Plastic - this is good for using up your 'scrappy pieces of foil' where you have some of the sheet cold and only small areas of foil remain on the sheet. Use on either Friendly Plastic strips of Friendly Plastic pellets.