April's Review	Chris' Review	Renee's Review	Jennifer's Review	Donna's Review

Review by April

Friendly Plastic has been around for a number of years and has recently been re-gaining popularity with jewelry and paper crafting designers. Amaco (American Art Clay Company), is the ingenious producer of this product, and has been in the business of creating American modeling clays, lesson plans for art teachers, servicing to the arts and so much more for over 90 years now. I am very familiar with several of Amaco's products, but their Fantastic Plastic was new to me and made for an exciting adventure!

For this review I received 8 Friendly Plastic Craft Sticks, one craft marbling comb, one craft needle tool, and Design Originals Friendly Plastic 101 Idea book. The plastic craft sticks came in a variety of beautiful metallic colors and all seemed to coordinate perfectly with each other. There was a rich purple and a lighter lavender, a shiny Christmas green and lighter yellow green to match, a dark hot pink stick with a paler pink version, and also a deep bright blue and light blue. Each plastic stick was approximately seven inches in length and one and half inches in width. They are durable, non-toxic, and can be used to create two dimensional designs by softening them with heat and then manipulating them in a variety of ways. You can blend different colors together, stamp images into them, shape them as desired, create a variety of beads with them, and even create faux dichroic glass pieces with them. The Friendly Plastic sticks can be softened in hot water, in the oven, on a non-stick griddle, or with a heat gun. After softening them you can model, marble, or mold them and Amaco currently offers the Friendly Plastic in 34 uniquely stunning colors. The craft needle tool is approximately 5 5/16" long, has a 1 1/4" long needle, and is in cased in a hardwood handle. You can drag it through Friendly Plastic to create swirl patterns or use it for piercing holes. The craft marbling comb can be used to create marbled patterns in not only the Friendly Plastic, but also in polymer class, thick paint, and FIMO Decorating Gel. It is very similar to the needle tool, but is 3 1/2" in length and has nine teeth which allow you to make multiple, evenly spaced swirls at the same time. The Design Originals Friendly Plastic 101 Idea book by Jana Ewy contains 35 pages including the inspiring cover that offer easy how to steps on using Friendly Plastic. Each project is shown in a variety of color pictures, along with supply lists and complete instructions. There are a ton of project ideas offered in the Friendly Plastic 101 book, and you can also reference the Amaco website: http://www.amaco.com for a wealth of information on Friendly Plastic. Amaco even offers a link to a blog devoted to Friendly Plastic, an offer to join the Friendly Plastic yahoo and face book groups, and a variety of Friendly Plastic videos.

Before I started my first official project, I cut a couple of small pieces from two of my Friendly Plastic sticks and placed them on a non stick craft sheet. I then placed the craft sheet on top of a cookie sheet and then onto a pre-heated griddle. It took less the 15 seconds for the plastic to start warming and then I experimented by using the needle and craft marbling tool to create designs in the soft plastic. I took my first experiment off the griddle and pressed a rubber stamp into it. After cooling I removed the stamp and had a unique little piece that I plan on using as a page embellishment later. At this point I felt a lot more comfortable with the melting process so I decided to create a plastic frame to use on a scrapbook layout. On page 15 of the Friendly Plastic 101 book, I found instructions for a plastic/mesh frame and I basically just followed the same instructions except I decided I liked the look of the plastic without swirling the colors together. I cut up four different plastic sticks and laid them side by side on the griddle so they would warm and meld together. I then added a few more small pieces on top to give the frame a cool layered and abstract effect. I removed the frame from the griddle and while it was cooling I used the craft marbling and craft needle tool to create different designs on the frame. I also pressed small rhinestones into the warm plastic and was delighted with the effect. The entire frame cooled in less than 10 minutes, remained very light in weight, and ended up making a super cool scrapbook page embellishment.

Title: Can You Spot Grumpy?
Products used:
Friendly Plastic Sticks (Amaco)
Inspirational Reference (Design Originals: Friendly Plastic 101 Book)
Craft Needle Took (Amaco)
Craft Marbling Comb (Amaco)
Kraft Cardstock (Hobby Lobby)
Metal Repair Tape (Lowes)
Stickers (Making Memories, American Crafts, Jenni Bowlin)
Jewels (Daisy D's)
Glitter Glue (Ranger Stickles)
Metal Clip (7gypsies)
Pens (Sharpie, & American Crafts)
Adhesive (Adhesive Tech, Permanent Bond Glue Runner)

Next I wanted to try using cookie cutters on the softened plastic as referenced on page 5 in the Friendly Plastic 101 book. I placed an entire hot pink plastic stick onto my griddle to warm and then pressed round cookie cutters into it. Although the end result was not quite what I expected, I have no doubt that if I had had a bit more practice with the cookie cutter technique everything would have come out perfectly. On the other hand, if it had come out perfectly the first time, I would not have ended up with the pieces I needed to create my Royalty Broach and my castle flag as seen in the next few pictures below. What I call a happy mistake, ended up leading me into a completely different direction which worked out great! After realizing my cookie cutter shapes were not going to come out perfectly, I used the craft needle and marbling tools to etch different designs into the altered hot pink plastic strip and then I just set it aside and thought...well it still looks cool so surely I can figure out something to do with it. Sure enough, I came back to the funky pink plastic piece, made some trims here and there and then added some of it to another pink plastic shape I had cut up. I used the griddle to warm the plastic, bond the pieces together, and then I took the piece off to let it cool. While it was still warm, I used the craft tools to blend the colors a little, and then I defined some of the lines where the different pieces had melted together. I also pressed a jewel like bead into the center of the pin and added a few smaller rhinestones to the top of the crown.

Title: Royalty Broach
Products used:
Friendly Plastic Sticks (Amaco)
Inspirational Reference (Design Originals: Friendly Plastic 101 Book)
Craft Needle Took (Amaco)
Craft Marbling Comb (Amaco)
Patterned Paper (mfg)
Mini Rhinestones (Kaiser Craft)
Heart Bead Charm (Maya Road)

I still had a few pieces of the original melted hot pink stick left, so I used them along with a few other colors to create the flag embellishment for my scrapbook page. Did it start out as a flag for a castle? Well not exactly, I sort of just started adding plastic pieces that I thought looked good together and thought maybe it would make a cool bookmark or something. After decorating the piece and allowing it to cool, I picked it up and thought hey...that would make a great page embellishment! I think this is what I ended up liking the most about working with the fantastic plastic. The fact that I could mix and match leftover pieces and end up creating one of kind works of art.

Title: Princess Bride
Products used: Cardstock (Core'dinations, & Bazzill)
Friendly Plastic Sticks (Amaco)
Inspirational Reference (Design Originals: Friendly Plastic 101 Book)
Craft Needle Took (Amaco)
Craft Marbling Comb (Amaco)
Stickers (Making Memories, Heidi Swapp, & Making Memories)
Jewels (Daisy D's)
Glitter Glue (Ranger Stickles)
Pearl Pebbles (Kaiser Craft)
Pens (Sakura Gelly Roll, & Sharpie)
Rub on (October Afternoon)
Adhesive (Adhesive Tech, Permanent Bond Glue Runner)

The last project I tried was inspired by the bracelet featured on page 33 in the Friendly Plastic 101 book. I started by creating my own full length plastic strip after melting a couple of colors together, swirling them, and then adding a scrap of my hot pink stick from earlier and a large rhinestone on top to bond. Next, I placed a dark purple plastic stick face down to warm on the griddle and then placed the new one I had just designed on top of it face up so they would bond together. I then removed the hot sheet and wrapped it around a glass to help mold the shape of the bracelet. I slipped the bracelet off the hot sheet and glass and dropped it into a bowl of cold water which hardened it. Unfortunately the glass I used was a little larger than I realized, so instead of making a bracelet, it ended up being an arm bracelet for my daughter. Of course she was thrilled with it and I am already anxious to try my hand at designing more bracelets!

Title: Fashionable Arm Bracelet
Products used:
Friendly Plastic Sticks (Amaco)
Inspirational Reference (Design Originals: Friendly Plastic 101 Book)
Craft Needle Took (Amaco)
Craft Marbling Comb (Amaco)
Large Rhinestone (Personal Stash)

This is the first time I have used friendly plastic and considering that I am truly a beginner, I have to say I was thrilled with the results of all my little projects. I feel like I have only touched the surface of friendly plastic designing and already I am a big fan. My five year old daughter and seven year old son even jumped in on the fun of creating little plastic masterpieces and we had a wonderful time. The plastic sticks come in beautiful colors, are easy for beginners to manipulate, and allow the more advanced or practiced designers to create simply stunning jewelry, altered pieces, and so much more. The Friendly Plastic 101 book by Original Designs offers several great project ideas, has easy to follow instructions, and is very inspiring. Both the craft needle tool and the craft marbling comb were fun and easy to use and my projects would not have been the same without them. I would recommend friendly plastic to all types of crafters looking for a new and exciting way to add stunning creative touches to their projects.

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Review by Chris

AMACO’s Friendly Plastic is making a come-back and I’m thrilled! If you were a crafter in the 1980's you might remember the bright metallic colored strips of plastic that you could heat and mold into whatever shape you wanted. If you don't remember them or never knew of them, you're in for a great treat!

The Designer strips of Friendly Plastic measure approximately 1 ½" by 7" and are available in 34 different metallic colors, both solid and patterned. These strips can be softened by placing them in hot water, baking them at a low temperature in an oven, using a heat tool, or placing them on a non-stick craft sheet on top of a griddle or in a melting pot such as the one made by Ranger. Once the plastic is melted, it can be blended with other colors in a variety of ways. The colors can by placed side-by-side and left solid, or swirled together with a craft needle, a marbling comb or other items readily available around the house. The plastic cools quickly when immersed in cold water. This product is easy to use, fairly inexpensive and extremely versatile. It can be used to create jewelry, home décor items, card and scrapbook page embellishments, to name just a few uses. Really, your imagination will be the only limiting factor.

I received 8 strips of Friendly Plastic in jewel-toned colors, along with a marbling comb, a craft needle and Jana Ewy's new book, Friendly Plastic 101 in which she demonstrates her new griddle method to soften the plastic. Jana is a designer, demonstrator and product developer for AMACO. I had the pleasure of seeing her work with Friendly Plastic in person and she was quite an inspiration.

My prior experience in melting Friendly Plastic was using hot water or baking it in the oven. In both cases, the effects that could be achieved were limited by the cooling factor of the plastic once removed from the heat source. I was excited to try the griddle technique demonstrated in this new book, because it seemed like the opportunities to design with the plastic would be enhanced by the fact that it would remain soft as long as it was left on the griddle. By using the griddle, the designer can see the product soften, gauge the extent, and design while the plastic remains in the softened state.

For my first project, I decided to design a simple bookmark, using 4 different colors of the Friendly Plastic. The one thing I noticed while using the product is that the color you see in the "before" state is not always the color you get in the "after" state. Specifically note the lime green "before" in this photo and the light blue in the finished product. This actually was a pleasant surprise, as the final shade of color is much more compatible with the other jewel tones in the project.

I placed my pieces of Friendly Plastic on a non-stick craft sheet which I then placed on a hot (300 degree F) griddle and watched as the pieces softened. Once the plastic was sufficiently softened (all pieces lying flat and seeming to blend together at their edges), I used the needle tool to draw the colors into the adjacent areas. Since the back of the plastic is black, as the needle tool is drawn through it, the black shows up as fine lines in the design providing even more detail and depth to the finished project. The designer can continue to work with the plastic as long as it remains on the griddle. Once I was happy with my design, I added tiny glass marbles and flecks of gold leaf, pressing them in with fingers that had been dipped in water. Using water prevents the plastic from sticking to your fingers. I wore a rubber glove on my hand to avoid putting finger prints in my plastic. The cooled plastic is easily trimmed with a craft knife or scissors and punched with a hole punch. The finished piece is firm but somewhat flexible and about 1/16" thick. The cost of this elegant piece is less than $2 and would make a beautiful, inexpensive gift.

Friendly Plastic Bookmark
Products used: Inspired by projects in Jana Ewy's book, Friendly Plastic 101
Friendly Plastic by AMACO
Gold leafing
Yarn

I softened another combination of colors to create a strip to decorate a small glass jar in which I will keep my Friendly Plastic scraps. Nothing goes to waste with this product. Since the plastic can be softened over and over again, all the small scraps can be used in other projects. Once my plastic was softened, I used the craft needle to swirl in a design. I then removed my softened plastic and immediately stamped into it with a rubber stamp that had been inked with embossing ink (to help the stamp release from the plastic). After the plastic was totally cool, I removed my stamp and added a soft patina using AMACO's Rub n' Buff. To form the plastic to the jar, I laid it, design-side down, on the non-stick craft sheet. Using my heat tool, I gently heated it until it was slightly soft. I then positioned the jar on the strip of plastic and rolled it along the strip until the jar was completely encircled by the plastic. The warm plastic adhered to the jar on its own. A metal circle cutter was used to cut the top circle from a second piece of plastic before the plastic cooled. It is adhered to the jar lid with Ranger’s Glossy Accents.

 
Friendly plastic decorated jar
Products used: Inspired by projects in Jana Ewy's book, Friendly Plastic 101
Friendly Plastic by AMACO
glass jar
Stamp (Heidi Grace)
Ink (Tsukineko, VersaMark)
Adhesive (Ranger, Glossy Accents)
Round metal cutter

I love the idea of making jewelry from this product. It is light-weight yet very durable. I was inspired by the links bracelet on page 29 and created a bracelet using two colors of plastic, some gold-inked stamps and a metallic rub-on product. I cut the links and rounded their corners. The holes for the connecting jump rings were easily punched using a small hole-punch. This bracelet is dramatic but very light weight and cost less than $5 including the jewelry findings.

Friendly Plastic bracelet
Products used: Inspired by projects in Jana Ewy's book, Friendly Plastic 101
Friendly Plastic by AMACO
Flower Stamps (Hero Arts, Vap! Scrap, Paper Inspirations)
Ink (Tsukineko Encore! Ultimate Metallic, champagne)
Metallic Rub-ons (Craf-T)

It's interesting to watch the pieces of plastic melt, as you can see in these images: on the left, the plastic on the non-stick craft sheet melting on the hot griddle and on the right the finished piece adorning the cover of a journal.

 
Friendly Plastic embellishment
Products used: Inspired by projects in Jana Ewy's book, Friendly Plastic 101
Friendly Plastic by AMACO
Glitter (PK Glitz)
Adhesive (PK Glitz Sticky Tape; Adhesive Tech 3-D Design Blocks)
Metallic string

My last project was an embellishment for a card. I used 5 different shades of the Friendly Plastic to which I added some smaller pieces of already-blended scraps. I used the craft marbling comb to draw the design down through the different colors. Very nice and very simple!

Sending Smiles card
Products used: Inspired by projects in Jana Ewy's book, Friendly Plastic 101
Friendly Plastic by AMACO
Patterned paper (Basic Grey, Urban Prairie)
Ribbon (Offray)
Copper metal
Stamp (Hero Arts)
Mulberry paper
Ink (Ranger Adirondack pigment, pitch black)
Corner Rounder and border punch (EK Success)
Adhesive (Ad Tech Permanent Bond Tape Runner, 3-D Design Blocks)

AMACO's Friendly Plastic has to be one of the most fun products I’ve used in quite some time. It’s addicting, and once I had my griddle heated up, I found it hard to resist creating project after project. A couple of things to note: sometimes the colors turn out a little different than expected, so if you’re planning something important, check a small piece first; watch out for fingerprints as you are working with the cooling plastic, you cannot eliminate them once the plastic is cooled; and finally, make sure you have a LOT of plastic on hand because once you’ve gotten started, you won’t want to stop!

Friendly Plastic 101 is a must-have, in my opinion. This well-written book contains some terrific ideas that are accompanied by outstanding photographs and clearly explained instructions which work together to allow the crafter to create beautiful projects. Every project I created for this review was inspired by projects featured in the book, and I have only scratched the surface of the possibilities presented by Jana Ewy in this 35 page book.

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Review by Renee

The longer I work with crafting products, the more I am drawn to projects that don’t quite fit the scrapbook mold. I think it is only natural that people want to experiment with various new products and techniques in creating projects. I currently have a real desire to create projects that are practical, easy to do, and are able to be used in a variety of ways. Therefore, I was really excited to be able to work with Friendly Plastic.

Friendly Plastic is a are a non-toxic plastic that can be used to create jewelry, accessories, home decor, and wearable art projects. Finished pieces made with Friendly Plastic can be used alone or combined with jewelry findings, picture frames, or in many types of paper crafting. For this review, I received a collection of eight metallic finished plastic sticks or bars to use in projects. I also received an idea book entitled Friendly Plastic 101 which provided excellent instruction on how to work with the plastic as well as ideas for how to use your plastic designs. In addition, I received a needle tool and a multiple needle tool to use while working with these projects. Both of these tools were very helpful for manipulating the plastic and for creating designs in my plastic.

The initial three pages of the book provide basic instructions on how to use the plastic, including how to use a new technique using a griddle to melt your plastic. It provides listings and beautiful color pictures of the products as well as other items needed to successfully work with the plastic. Subsequent pages of the book include different project ideas for using the plastic. Each grouping of project pages includes step by step, illustrated instructions for completing the pictured projects.

For my first project, I started with the first illustrated project in the book. I made a simpler version of the star brooch shown by the book. While the book did include templates for cutting out the star shown in the project, I decided to go with a simpler shape and cut an oval to use. Since I changed the shape around, I elected to press into my plastic other round shapes and used a selection of buttons. I also elected to leave off the hanging bead from my design. I used my design to make another wall hanging piece for my studio area when we move into our new house.

Title: Play Everyday wall hanging
Products used: Cardstock (Scraps from Stash)
Patterned Paper (Tinkering Inc)
Inspiration book (Friendly Plastic 101)
Plastic (Friendly Plastic)
Buttons (Basic Grey)
Paper Flowers (Prima)
Die Cut Machine and cartridge (Cricut Create and Graphically Speaking)
Adhesive (Adhesive Tech, Permanent Bond Glue Runner)

For my second project, I used the multiple needle tool to create an art piece using the strip blending technique featured on page six. I cut strips of plastic, and laid them side by side on my hot sheet in my griddle. I took the multiple needle tool and ran it in a diagonal fashion, first in one direction and then the other, to create the pattern in the plastic. I trimmed this piece to size and used it as the centerpiece of a card.

Title: Medallion card
Products used: Cardstock (Scraps from Stash)
Inspiration book (Friendly Plastic 101)
Plastic Compound (Friendly Plastic)
Die Cut Machine and Cartridge (Cricut Create and Graphically Speaking)
Tickets (Office Supply)
Word Stamp (Molly Stamps)
Ink (Ranger)
Adhesive (Adhesive Tech, Permanent Bond Glue Runner)

For my final project, I decided to try a project that was “outside of the box” so to speak. Since relearning to crochet, I have been lusting after a decorated crochet hook like the ones currently being sold in various handmade item stores on the internet. Initially, I told myself that I needed to make sure that I would stay with the hobby before investing in luxury items for it. Once I reach the fifth or sixth project, I was fairly certain that I would remain with this new hobby but simply had not had time to search out and order one of these beautiful hooks. While looking at the technique for cylinder beads pictured on page 21, it hit me that I could create my own decorated hook. I selected a very simple plastic design and melted the plastic upside down as shown in the book. Instead of using a needle tool to create a bead, I used an “H” hook and wrapped the plastic around the hook. To smooth the edges out, I lightly rolled the plastic inside the hot sheet. The result is a really cute, ergonomically sound hook to crochet with. This same technique could just as easily be used to create decorated pens and other cylindrical items.

Title: Decorated Crochet Hook
Inspiration Book (Friendly Plastic 101)
Plastic compound (Friendly Plastic)

I was initially a little skeptical as to whether I would be able to create cute projects with the Friendly Plastic. I thought that it would be a little harder to work with than it actually was. However, I was seriously mistaken as to its difficulty. Not only were my projects easy to do, but I will use this plastic again to decorate many other crochet hooks as well as wall hangings. Give this fun product a try. You will not be sorry.

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Review by Jennifer

I received a very interesting collection for review that was nothing like anything else I've ever tried here at ScrapFriends. For this Friendly Plastic review, I received eight Amaco Friendly Plastic Sticks ($1.99 each), one Design Originals Friendly Plastic 101 Book ($14.95), one Amaco Marbling Comb ($4.95), one Amaco Friendly Plastic Needle ($4.49), and three Amaco Friendly Plastic Craft Project Library prints (free). When I first received this collection, I thought, Hmmm... This will be interesting. After spending some time with Friendly Plastic, I can definitely say "interesting" doesn't describe half of it. I was challenged, impressed, fascinated, and inspired by Friendly Plastic.

I received several different Friendly Plastic products in this kit, so each product is reviewed separately below.

Friendly Plastic 7 Inch Sticks - The Friendly Plastic 7 inch sticks are approximately 1 1/2" wide, 7" long, and about 2 millimeters thick. I received one each of green, light green, blue, light blue, purple, lavender, fuschia, and pink. It also comes in pellet form, which is used by NASA, M.I.T., inventors, scientists, students, and sculptors. The color on the strips seems to be some sort of top-quality mylar foil - just a personal guess. The underlying plastic which provides the shapeable structure. It melts easily with low heat from hot water, a heat embosser tool, an electric griddle, or an oven. While the plastic is hot and tacky (sticky), it can be manipulated with tools like the Amaco Craft Marbling Comb or Friendly Plastic Piercer to create bonded, layered, marbled, or swirled designs. At warm temperatures, it can be shaped by hand or with sculpting tools, though you need to work quickly to do this. I had a ton of fun creating the dragonfly ornament below. I shaped the dragonfly with my fingers, an X-acto knife, heat embosser, and the Amaco Friendly Plastic Needle Tool. I especially like that it didn't require a lot of room or special tools. Friendly Plastic is a fascinating, affordable medium that brought out my playful side.

Title: Dragonfly Ornament
Products used: Friendly Plastic (AMACO)
Paper Flowers (Prima Marketing)
Craft Foil (Lisa Pavelka)
Paint (Delta)
Button, Chipboard Coaster (Source Unknown)
Adhesives (Adhesive Tech, Permanent Bond Glue Runner, Tacky Glue)

AMACO Project Sheets from the Amaco Friendly Plastic Craft Projects Library - Amaco provided several projects sheets from their free online Crafts Projects Library, which shows how truly versatile Friendly Plastic can be. They have everything from from jewelry, garden and home decor, to ATCs and dragon sculptures. For my first project, I tried the Frame with Marbling Technique Project by Michelle Zimmerman to create the small dimensional frame below. The instructions worked perfectly, and I was very pleased with the final result.

Title: Friendly Plastic Frame
Products used: Friendly Plastic (AMACO)
Tools (AMACO Craft Needle Tool)
Chipboard to make frame (Source Unknown)
Adhesive (Adhesive Tech, Permanent Bond Glue Runner)

I used the frame to accent the layout below. It pulls together all the colors in the layout and adds a fun layer of texture and delicate detail. I think the frame would have been lovely on a simpler cardstock-only layout too, but I was excited to use some of my funkiest supplies to go with the cool DIY frame.

Title: My Girl
Products used: Friendly Plastic (AMACO)
Tools (AMACO Craft Needle Tool)
Patterned Paper (Prima Marketing)
Letter Stickers (MAMBI)
Buttons (KI Memories, Love Elsie)
Paint (Jacquard, Delta)
Chipboard (Technique Tuesday, Maya Road )
Mirror Heart (Heidi Swapp )
Adhesive (Adhesive Tech, Permanent Bond Glue Runner)

AMACO Marbling Comb and Friendly Plastic Needle Tool - These tools are fantastic!! The Friendly Plastic Needle Tool is the best piercer/awl/needle I have ever laid my hands upon. I love paper piercers in general and have four of them. This one fits nicely in my pen drawer, has a great sturdy handle, and a super-sharp tip. It's essential for creating patterns in Friendly Plastic, and great for working with clay and paper projects. The Marbling Comb is great for marbling Friendly Plastic, polymer clay, and paint. Paper and paint were my first craft supply loves, so I couldn't resist trying the marbling comb with the cheap and easy shaving cream marbling technique often used in K-12 art classes. It was easy, fun, inexpensive, and the delicate detail is just beautiful. The Amaco Marbling Comb can be used to create more intricately detailed traditional marbled patterns with better supplies. My little samples are just fine for now - they'll adorn handmade cards and altered art pages in the future.

Title: Marbled Papers
Products used: Marbling Comb (AMACO)
Paints (Jacquard, Making Memories, Apple Barrel)
Shaving Cream (Barbasol)
White Cardstock (Other)

Design Originals Friendly Plastic 101 by Jana Ewy and Contributing Artists - Author Jan Ewy is a master of this medium, and she makes creating elegant jewelry and embellishments look so easy in Design Originals Friendly Plastic 101. Jan shows the reader how to do one technique, then provides several different projects with complete instructions using that same technique and supplies. For example, her Strip Blending Project features a necklace and earrings set, a gift box, stationary set, and greeting card all using embellishments or focal points created with the strip blending technique. If you like mixed-media, jewelry making, and paper crafts, you'll LOVE this book. Jan uses Friendly Plastic with all of these crafts. It packs a ton of instruction and inspiration into a slim 35 page book. Friendly Plastic 101 definitely meets the high standard for Design Originals instruction books. For the bookmarks below, I used Jan's Scrap Brooches Techniques to embellish the jumbo bookmarks below.

Title: Friendly Plastic Bookmarks and Pendant
Products used: Friendly Plastic (AMACO)
Jumbo Clips (Bazzil, Other)
Friendly Plastic Marbling Comb, Craft Needle Tool (AMACO)
Starfish Pendant (Blue Moon)
Chain, jump rings (Other)

I love, love, love the look of strip blending, and Jan demonstrates several different types of strip-blend design projects to use for jewelry, gifts, and functional items. I combined a chevron blend strip with silver-plated jewelry supplies for the abstract rectangle pendant in the photo above.

After these small-scale projects, I was ready to take on a larger project I'd put off for months. The turtle windchime shown below had an adorable shape, but it was originally painted an ugly hunter green enamel. I used variety of Friendly Plastic 101 techniques to create new plates for the shell and colored the rest of the parts with silver alcohol ink. Friendly Plastic gave the original frumpy green turtle festive texture, color, and pattern that would be difficult to achieve otherwise. It's waterproof and sturdy too, so it has handled the rain, sun, heat, and humidity of Virginia spring weather beautifully.

Title: Friendly Plastic Turtle Windchime
Products used: Friendly Plastic (AMACO)
Friendly Plastic Needle Tool, Marbling Comb, Scissors (Amaco, Fiskars)
Alcohol Ink (Ranger)
Tin Turtle Windchime (Dollar Tree)

The total cost of the Design Originals Friendly Plastic 101 book, Amaco Marbling Comb, Amaco Friendly Plastic Needle Tool, and eight Friendly Plastic Sticks comes to $37.35, not including tax, which I consider very, very affordable. For that price, I was able to create several unique scrapbook and altered art embellishments, two bookmarks, one pendant, several sheets of hand-marbled paper, and one adorable turtle windchime... And I still have plenty of Friendly Plastic leftover for future projects. I think it's a fantastic deal for such a versatile medium. I definitely recommend Friendly Plastic, Amaco tools, and Design Originals Friendly Plastic 101 to any crafter, jewelry designer, or mixed media artist.

Thanks ScrapFriends, Amaco, and Design Originals for introducing me to this fascinating new medium!

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Review by Donna

The American Art and Clay Company, more commonly known to crafters as Amaco, has been providing fun, crafty products to artists as well as pottery makers for just about ninety years now. It was Amaco that brought America’s first modeling clay in 1919, and it is Amaco that brings us Friendly Plastic.

For this review I received the Design Originals’ idea book, Friendly Plastic, 101 by Jana Ewy as well as several strips of friendly plastic in various colors, including gold, turquoise, mauve and red. I also received two tools, a needle tool, a marbling comb and three additional projects sheets that offered directions for three more projects.

The book, Friendly Plastic, by Jana Ewy, is a 35 page, 8-1/2” x 11”, glossy paged idea book jammed with ideas for projects created with Friendly Plastic. The book includes not only ideas for jewelry, including necklaces, bracelets, earrings and brooches, but also for paper crafts, frames, glass jars and more, with detailed, step by step instructions (including photos) for each and every project. This idea book literally walks you through the creative processes for each project created using the plastic, including using cookie cutters with it, creating flat or round beads from it, blending it in several different ways (triangle, strip, abstract and spiral), sealing it, and creating rubber stamp impressions in it, among others

Both the marbling comb and needle tool, are quite sturdy and easy to manipulate. Each comes bubble-packed, with clear, concise instructions for use on the back of each package and both perform their intended uses very well. The plastic itself, is a 1.5” x 7” strip of non-toxic, metallic plastic with vivid color on one side, and black or blue on the other. The strips are lightweight and flexible and can be warmed in hot water, in the oven, with a heat gun, or on a griddle. Once the strips are softened and become pliable, the plastic can be molded, blended and/or easily manipulated. Once the plastic is cooled, it can be painted or recolored or even, resoftened again! Offered in a wonderful array of colors, including Indian Red, Gold, Silver, Mauve, Fuchsia and a wide array of others, each strip retails for about $1.99.

For my first project, I was intrigued by the “griddle” method of softening, so I decided to create a brooch similar to the one on page 3. As was in the “easy basic steps”, I cut my plastic in different shapes and sizes and then arranged the piece on a craft sheet, on a cookie pan on a preheated griddle. After the griddle reached the optimum warming temperature of 300 degrees, the pieces softened together quite nicely, and, just as the instructions indicated they would. And, in fact, it really was easy. Once the plastic was partially cooled, but still soft, I applied the bling pieces into the brooch and once the piece cooled completely, I applied a dab of gold Rub’n Buff to give it a hint of gold luster. Lastly, I adhered a pin to the back. One friendly brooch complete!

Title: Bling Brooch
Products used: Friendly Plastic Strips (Amaco)
Bling (Heidi Swapp)
Gold Leaf Rub’n Buff (Amaco )
Pin (Favorite Findings)

Having satisfied my curiosity with the griddle method, for my next project, I decided to attempt using the heat gun method to soften the plastic. This time, I wanted to create a few “cascade” designed buttons. After melting thin strips of blue, gold and turquoise together, I used the needle tool to “cascade” the colors. Next, after dipping cookie cutters in a mixture of warm water and vegetable oil, and while the plastic was still warm, I cut my circle shapes. Once everything was cool, I used a regular hole punch to create the button holes and then incorporated the buttons into the design of the card.

Regarding the cascade design, I did find that I had to be very careful not to apply too much pressure with the needle tool while creating the designs so as not to have the black or blue backing of the plastic to come through. I found the same when attempting to use the marbling comb and especially, in my attempts to rubber stamp a design into the image. Creating a stamped image in the plastic is a really fun techinque but again, be careful not to apply too much pressure.

Title: Pack Your Bags
Products used: Cardstock (Prism Prismatics)
Patterned Paper (Basic Grey)
Friendly Plastic Strips (Amaco)
Tag and Trims (Making Memories)
Brad and Leaf (Ranger)
Wax thread (Scrapworks)
Pen (Uniball)
Adhesive (Adhesive Tech, Permanent Bond Glue Runner)

For my third project, I thought it would be fun to create a necklace. Here, I simply cut a piece of plastic to fit behind the gold charm, and, with the charm flipped over, melted the color into the metal. Once the charm was cool, I doubled up a strip of baker’s twine and simply slipped the charm on to it. I loved the resulting look of the red peeking through the gold.

Red Necklace
Products used:< br /> Friendly Plastic (Amaco)
Baker’s Twine (Martha Stewart)

I have to be honest and admit that I had a very difficult time in getting started with the plastic. It took a few attempts to get the feel of the proper amount of melting time necessary that would exact the amount of softness that was necessary to either cut it, mold it, or not have the back side come through to the top. I found it didn’t take much to quickly overheat the strips and thus, create cracks in the pieces. After practice and much patience, however, the Friendly Plastic becomes easy to master and also, quite a fun and “Friendly” medium to create with.

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