Saturday, December 31, 2011

Box of Friendly Plastic

  friendly shrink plastic1
Yesterday, I found a box of Friendly Plastic hidden on the top shelf of my spare bedrooms closet. I bought all of this plastic many, many years ago, when the Ben Franklin craft store was closing in North Dartmouth. I had never used FP, but it was such a great deal...I bought all they had. I think I only paid $2.oo for the whole box.  I have no idea what to do with it, and am wondering...is this plastic still good?  I don't know anything about this stuff. Oh my, what will I do with all these plastic strips. Have you ever bought something, just because it was cheap? I can't tell you how many times I've done that. :-)
The box is full ( I guess there is around 5 pounds) and has solids, snakeskin, iridescent, metallic's, striped, mottled and glossy pieces. The photo's  don't show how pretty some of the pieces are. I need to do a Google search to see how to use this stuff. Seems like I remember you needed an electric fry pan to heat water to warm the plastic so it could be molded and cut. The box full of FP is 9  1/2  x  3  x  12 inches.
friendly shrink plastic2jumbled in the box before I separated the strips
friendly plastic solids solids friendly plastic metallics metallic'sfriendly plastic patterned patternedfriendly plastic patterned2 patterned
friendly plastic baggedbagged one gallon zip lock bags full of the strips
Have you ever worked with FP? Is it easy and are there still books with how to projects being sold? Any ideas you have to share will be helpful. I don't know if I will ever do anything  with this stuff. 
If you work with FP, I'd love to see what you do with it.  What are your favorite colors? I will hold a challenge..I will share some with you, but you must send me a photo of your finished project so that I can post to my blog or we could even swap pieces with those that participate.  If interested email me..EAkers@aol.com with your address.
Since I wrote this post several have shared these FP sites...
http://www.sunshinecrafts.com/body_friendly_plastic.html
http://rarelizzie.wordpress.com/
http://friendlyplastic.blogspot.com/
2011 has been one very hectic and upsetting/sad year, and I didn't get to create a lot of art to share on my blog. I mostly shared photos and recipes, but hopefully in 2012 I will find more time to create art. Goodbye 2011, you seemed to pass in a flash. Maybe because I as I get older time just flies..I don't know, but time seemed to stand still when I was a child, and now the days just roll one into another.
 Wishing all of you a very Happy New Year.

 elaine signature3

3 comments:

Barbara said...

Don't have experience with this, Elaine, but I don't think you can hurt anything by experimenting. Good luck, looks like a treasure trove if you can find a way to make it work for you!

Sherry said...

What a great find Elaine! Friendly Plastic is still going strong - and the strips always seem brittle - until you start heating them and that's when the fun starts!! I always use a heat gun but it can be heated other ways too.

Have a look at this blog
http://friendlyplastic.blogspot.com/
for ideas and video tutorials

I'll be up for a challenge if you want to part with some of your strips :)

Joanne Huffman said...

Oh, Elaine, I have bought so many sale art supplies "on spec" with the thought that I would use them soon.