Some Friendly Plastic ATCs

These are for a Friendly Plastic themed swap being hosted by Sheena (Doggrooomer) on the DoCrafts forum. I absolutely love using Friendly Plastic so this was one I couldn't miss, and it also gave me the chance to make some nice textured backgrounds using my new gel mediums and moulding pastes.

For the top one I made the background using Golden light moulding paste and course pumice gel, painted it with balck acrylic and then dry brushed it with gold and metallic red acrylic paint. I heated some triangles of gold Friendly Plastic for the wings and then stuck some smaller triangles of the black snakeskin effect FP on top. I then dragged a needle tool through the FP from the centre to create the bat wing effect, I made the head using a mould and then heated the wings up a bit more and stuck the head onto them. Finally I made the small squares by layering two different sized squares of FP on top of each other and dragging the needle tool through it from the centre to give them spiky corners. I added gems in the middle of the squares and in the eyes of the face by heating the FP a bit and sticking the gem straight into it. I stuck the FP pieces onto the background using silicone glue. (I find silicone glue works well with FP because the FP is light and the glue is flexible.)
For the second one I created the background using Golden light moulding paste which I made wiggly lines in using a coarse bristled paintbrush, and then painted over it using some lovely shimmery watercolour paints, and addded some metallic rub-on over the top to pick up the ridges. The Friendly Plastic is done in three layers. For the bottom layer I started with three strips, which I spiked the edges of using a needle tool and then pressed some mesh into the middle of. I pressed the mesh in using the needle tool so the FP would ooze up through the gaps. Next I created a layer of marbled FP by heating up strips and then pulling a marbling comb through it, first in one direction and then in the other. I then heated the bottom layer again and stuck the marbled layer on top. Finally I made the face using a mould. I had a slight mishap with this one, in that I ended up with a bit at the top of the head where the black showed through. (I didn't quite position the FP correctly in the mould). I don't do wastage, so instead of throwing it away I decided to make a feature of it by sticking a gem in the middle of the black bit. (I think it works even if nobody else does). Finally I heated the FP again for about 20 seconds and stuck the head onto it. I left it to cool and then stuck it onto the background using silicone glue.

I created the background on the third one using Golden extra heavy gel medium, left it to dry, (OK, I admit, I helped it out a little bit with my heat tool), and then painted over it using the same shimmery watercolours as on the one above. I rubbed over it with silver metallic rub-on and added a narrow border of silver embossing powder using Versamark ink to stick it. I created the Friendly Plastic flowers by cutting some small triangles of FP and arranging them in a circle so the points were touching in the centre. I heated the FP up and then pressed a medium sized plastic gem into the centre. I placed a small piece of shiny mesh in the centre of the ATC and then stuck the FP flowers on top of it using silicone glue, which also holds the mesh in place. The shimmer doesn't show up well on the photo of this one and it looks much more colourful in real life. If anyone knows how to take good photos of shiny things and doesn't mind sharing, please let me know your secrets!

For the last one I also used the extra heavy gel medium for the background, drew hearts in it using the end of a paintbrush and painted over it in bright pink acrylic. I left it to dry(!), and then painted over the top with metallic acrylics in shades of gold, blue and purple. I used two layers of Friendly Plastic on this one. The first layer was made using four squares of FP which I placed together to make a bigger square, heated and then made the holes in it using a wet embossing tool (I dipped it in cold water before making each hole - this stops it from sticking to the FP). I put this aside and then created the heart. I started by marbling some strips of FP in the same way as above except that this time I placed the strips so they were touching. I didn't have a heart shaped cutter, so I let the FP cool a little bit and then used my needle tool to cut to FP into a heart shape, wetting my fingers and pulling away the bits around the edges. (I've put these bits aside and will use them for another project on another day). I heated the bottom layer of FP for about 20 seconds and then stuck the heart on top. I stuck it onto the background with silicone glue and then added a heart at the bottom using micro beads.