Friendly plastic .... or as some people call it unfriendly plastic

This stuff does take some getting used to and invariably people end up with a black blob on their first attempt.. But keep playingBasically you need heat to melt it (obviously!) this can be done in three ways.. In the oven..I have never done this so can’t commentWith your heat gun….. I work on a heat resistant surface and either a telfon sheet or a piece of tin foil.Using DST, stick the friendly plastic onto the sheet in which ever design you want, i.e. strips.. Squares, layered, whatever. Then Heat. It will change colour slightly and if you are using a metallic coloured stick it will begin to crackle. At this point you can work your plastic. I have a special tool which came with the kit I bought, but basically all it is, is a pokey tool type thing.. Or a darning needle pushed into a cork.. You could easily make your own! Using your tool drag it through the plastic one way and then the other… this will produce a chevron type design….. Experiment with different patterns. Whilst it is warm (not hot!) you can shape it by bending the foil/Teflon sheet, just don’t touch the plastic with your fingers, esp. if you have acrylic nails!!! You can also get a marbling comb which is usefulDon’t over heat the metallic sticks, or play with them for too long as they will lose the colour and that’s where you get a black blob from!Hot water…. Heat some water in a frying pan or similar 50-60 C (I find this about as hot as I can handle, you may not , don’t burn yourself!) have a pot of cold water handy.. Using a non stick spatula drop your FP into the water and allow to soften. With this method the FP doesn’t go sticky, so can be handled. Bend it… wrap it around a wooden skewer to make beads. Press into mould, cut with cookie cutters, press mesh/beads etc into it. The possibilities are endless. If it hardens whilst you are still working just pop it back in the water.You can also stamp into the heated plastic with a rubber stamp, ink up your stamp first though with a versamark (if you want it clear) or a coloured embossing ink such as Brilliance if you want it coloured (it will only give a subtle colour). Leave it until it is completely hard or else your stamp won’t come out and you may ruin it. If you are in a hurry pop in in the freezer for a few mins, or if it’s an uncounted stamp put it in cold water! It is probably best to use the hot water method when stamping as the heat gun makes the FP more squidgy and it will spread more when you stamp… but this may be the effect you wantIf you want you can enhance your finished piece with metallic rub on’s, acrylic or spray paint, krylon pens., permanent markers etc….Don’t be scared of it, just have fun!!