Friendly Plastic Melt 'n Foil

So, a few nights ago, I shared how to diecut Friendly Plastic pellets. Now I'm going to show how to recycle those leftover pieces and turn them into even more pieces of Friendly Plastic that you can reuse. After all, in today's economy, it's all about using every little bit that you can!!!

Here's the scrap that I'm starting with.  You might recognize it as a sizzix diecut shape:

Dump it down in your heated skillet and let it soften.  Just about 10 - 20 seconds

Use your Needle tool to pull it out of the water and shape it into a ball (well just shape it!)

And then roll it out on top of your silpat or non-stick craft sheet:

It will start to harden, and when it does, leave it on the sheet and dip it back into the hot water (about 180 degrees) to the count of 10:

You can use the griddle method...but it will take quite a bit longer to re-soften:

Continue this until you get it as thin as you want it.  Note the lump in the background....I cut this piece in half and kept rolling it out thinner and thinner

The next step is to refoil it.  Here's the "sandwich":

Silpat

Friendly Plastic

foil

Non-stick Craft sheet (you can't use the silpat for the top because of it's textured side

And then iron (iron set at hottest setting)  The foil will transfer to the plastic

Here's the foiled piece.  I dipped my whole "sandwich" in cold water and it peeled right off.  If you try to take the sandwich apart while the Friendly Plastic is too hot...it will stick.

Check it out....thinner than a dime!

So, you can diecut with your Sizzix, or in the Cricut.  And you can use any other dies to get a really great cut line.  Now, some have told me that they just warm it back up and get good cuts with other dies...I just haven't tried to diecut when it's warm....I'm stuck with cold cuts!  LOL!!!

Here's the negative space left over from the above diecuts

Simply cut that up into small pieces and layer it on top of itself on your silpat on the griddle and melt it down  It will work just like the inlaid technique....pieces will melt into each other and it will all go flat

I slathered my fingers in vasoline and rubbed it all out smooth. You can do the same with a roller or you can flatten it with a greased clear stamp block.

And now I'm ready to diecut again.  You can also use your cutters with this method.  But I think you can start to see how you can continue to repeat this process and use up every single piece of Friendly Plastic scrap that you have.  Talk about "Green Craft" - I think we have a winner with this product!!!