Sunday, January 31, 2010

fp tutorial

First & foremost, I want to welcome a couple new "followers" to my blog. Thank you for your interest! Please let me know if you have questions, comments or suggestions. I love hearing from people.

I'm trying something new today and posting a tutorial. I don't know that this is my forte, but I indicated in a November post I would share the process I used to make the purple Friendly Plastic pendant, and today's the day. Today we're making a blue FP pendant.

Start with a bargain piece of costume jewelry. I'm using a silver clip earring. Cut a piece of FP slightly bigger than the earring and choose a stamp (I'm using one from Fancy Pants). Unmounted stamps work best if your piece isn't totally flat. You can use a stamp that's smaller than your piece, but I'm not good at placing them in the center so I just use oversize stamps to eliminate that problem.
Lay the FP over the piece & melt it with a heat gun.
When it's nicely melted, prepare your stamp by pressing it into a watermark stamp pad (I use VersaMark) and then pressing it into the FP. Use your fingers to press everywhere to ensure full contact. Experiment with the pressure for different looks. Firm pressure will reveal the metal underneath, which may or may not be your intent. That's what I did for the purple piece, but for this blue piece I chose to use less pressure.
When you're confident the stamp isn't going to lift from the FP, place the piece in a cold water bath to solidify the FP.
After a few moments remove the piece and carefully lift the stamp from the FP. The edges might be a little jagged, as you can see here.
Place a nonstick craft sheet (I use Ranger's) on a griddle and heat the griddle to 275. Lightly touch/drag the edges to melt/smooth them. Once cool, add your preferred glaze/sealer (I like Triple Thick by DecoArt) and a bail. Thread on a cord or chain and you're set!

7 comments:

Anne Huskey-Lockard said...

You make this look SOOOOOO easy!!!
I have to mark this post---I want to try this. My experiences with FP have been, well, laughable! I need to see if I even own any now.....otherwise, I'll be ordering some!
Thanks for the tutorial--plain and clear, easy step by step. :)


XXOO!!
Anne

PhyllBeach said...

I have the hardest time leaving comments for you. I just typed a glowing complimentary comment and it disappeared. So imagine all the nice things you can think of, and that was it :-)..Phyll

rivergardenstudio said...

What a great tutorial, beatiful blue and texture, and I love your poem as well. Thank you so much for your kind words... roxanne

Whisperings 13 said...

ok. now that is cool! and where does one get FP if one were so inclined to experiment with it? Can you melt it on a Barbie face? LOL- just kidding! (or am i? wwwuuuwaahhhaahaa)
seriously cool stuff. and you make it look easy! I would probably be missing my fingerprints by now!
*hugs*

Gina Lee Kim said...

Wow...thank you for posting such a creative, beautiful process! And an innovative way to use a stamp!

Removalists Australia said...

Wow! Amazing! It doesn't look that hard to make such wonderful thing. Thank you for sharing your knowledge.

Brenda said...

Great tute. I have some friendly plastic around someplace - I need to get over my fear and just do it.