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 Plastic blog where there is lots of eye candyto get you started or visit AMACO's website where there are even instructions to help you.

You can find the entry form here and more information about the other categories in the Challenge here. And if you're in Australia, you can get your supply of Friendly Plastic from Stamp Antics at Wynnum West in Qld (07 3393 3022).

Create away and good luck to you all.

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 for you.

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 the excess behind it.
Fold the bottom up approximately 1cm (front flap only). Fold the back right flap (bottom layer) across to the left. The crease should be approximately 5mm to the right of the first one so that you create the kimono crossover. Before repeating with the left hand side, fold up the bottom flap as you did earlier.Fold the left hand flap across to the right. The crease should be approximately 5mm to the right of the first one so that you create the second side of the kimono crossover.If there is any overhang tuck it behind the bottom flap on the right hand side.

And there you have it, the basic Kimono Fold Pocket.

I completed mine with a bookmark but you could also slip in a gift card or even some money for a neat little gift.

And here's another sample.

This one was folded from plain copier paper which I've inked and stamped.

This full version of this tutorial will be available for download from the Tutorials page on my website in a couple of weeks time. In the meantime, check out some of my other pdf tutorials.

And don't forget to enter my blog giveaway. Check out this post "Update your Decor for Free!". Hurry, there's only a couple of days left.

Halloween Treats for your Neck

Halloween is not such a big thing in Australia (yet!) but given that many of you who stop by my blog are international visitors I thought I'd share with you my take on Halloween jewellery.This jewellery set began with a faceted black resin piece cast from Krafty Lady mould AM353 . From the moment I cast it, I knew it was destined to be used in a Halloween project. And when I added the Swarovski flat-back crystals I knew it was going to turn out just the way I had envisioned. It's not often that something turns out the way I've planned it from the start. Most of my pieces evolve as I go along but this was one of those times when vision actually met reality.

I've added chains, findings and components from Blue Moon Bead's Noir collection which set just the right mood for this necklace. Deliciously dark, yet lots of bling!

For a different way to suspend the faceted resin piece, I've used the straight bar from a toggle set. It also gave me a unique and secure way to attach the chain!

There were 3 tassels left in the packet I bought so I put 2 of them to good use by making a coordinating pair of earrings. Some dangling Sawrovski crystals complete these neck ticklers.

I suppose I could have made my own earring wires out of black wire but I coloured a pair of silver ones with black alcohol ink so that this set is suitably noir. But if anyone has come across black earring wires in their travels, please let me know!

Happy Halloween to all those of you who celebrate it!

And for Aussie readers, don't forget to enter my decorator rug giveaway.

Footnote: The black earring wires are for display purposes only!

Update Your Decor for Free!

I've been promising you this for days now and finally the time has come to announce the details of my big giveaway.

In some of my recent posts, I've blogged about my kitchen splashback AND my new studio, but now let's move on to the living room.... not mine dear reader, but yours! How would you like to improve your home decor with a brand new rug? Just feast your eyes on these little beauties.

This is just a small sampling of the huge range of rugs available at Buyster. I really wish I was elligible to enter this as my living room floor is still bare and they have so many rugs that I'd love to have in my own home.

But anyway, the wonderful folks at Buyster are kindly making available a $100 gift voucher for one of my readers to purchase the rug of their choice. And all you have to do to be in the running is have a look at their rugs and tell me, in 25 words or less, what it is that appeals to you most about the rug you'd like to win. This offer is only available to Australian residents, sorry. Entries close on Friday 6th November and I'll announce the winner soon after. Don't forget to leave me your email address so that I can contact you if you're the winner.

Good luck!

Extra! Extra! Extra!
The closing date to leave your comments has now been extended to 20th November 2009.

RESIN-ate..... More resin treats

It's eye candy day again today. Resin is such an addictive medium... I tell you, once you start playing with it, you just don't want to stop. And as I promised yesterday, here are a couple of resin necklaces strung with a mixture of glass and lucite beads.

I love this seahorse - I've used it in many projects before but never as a piece of jewellery. I cast it some time ago but somehow I never found the time to make it up. It's a fairly large piece (about 7cm) and it's actually black resin coloured with Duo Blue Green Pearl Ex and it has a very subtle sparkliness (is that a word?) about it. I've teamed it up with these gorgeous lucite leaves which remind me of seaweed! This one is an interesting piece! It started out as a heart with rococco texture impressed into it..... very nice, but hard to see in the photo. With a little bit of creative trimming I was able to carve out a niche to sit the glass flower bead into. It's finished off with a Swarovski crystal as an added accent. That's it for today. But for all you Aussies out there don't forget I have a surprise for you which is coming up in just a few days time. Shhhh, can you keep a secret - I'll give you a hint.... it's a giveaway. But you'll have to keep tuning in to find out what it is. I promise, you'll love it!

Resin Eye Candy

Two weeks have passed since the big move and I still have no internet connection. It's hard to blog and keep in touch with the virtual world without it, so forgive me dear reader that my blog posts have been few and far between of late. But, life without the internet goes on, and that means that between unpacking my new studio and cleaning the old one that there has been time for some creating.

I always enjoy playing with resin so today's offerings are bangles.

The first one is a marbled bangle, very loosely described as Tortoiseshell. It is quite transparent which the photo doesn't show and it's actually a light shade of orange but the black swirl is giving it more of an amber cast. It's buffed to a very nice shine!

The next one is turquoise - one of my favourite bangle colours. Don't the white tendrils look so crisp against the translucency of the turquoise? This one is called Turquoise Tendrils.

And the last one for today is fun and funky! A two-toned bangle where one half is sparkly lemon and the other is a lovely shade of apricot. It's called Bubbles.These will all be available for sale from the resin gallery on my website Mill Lane Studio as soon as I have internet connection again.

But in the meantime, I will have more resin eye candy to share later in the week - the next instalment will be necklaces.

Oh, and I have a wonderful surprise for all my Australian readers later in the week. So keep checking back.