Shrink Plastic

When I was a kid I used to make magnets for the fridge with Shrinky Dinks. It was like watching a magic trick when Mom would pop them in the oven. We would turn the light on and watch them shrink into a tiny little charm. I haven't used them much in my scrapbooking projects because the film was always milky.

A few days ago, I found Shrink Plastic made by Lucky Squirrel. I was in love because this product comes in several color choices black, white, and crystal clear.

For those unfamiliar with the product you can decorate the film with permanent ink, pearlEx, Opalite, StazOn, Archival Ink, permanent markers, stamps, and non-oil pastels. If you are using markers, stamp on one side of the film, then color on the opposite side or the ink from the stamp will transfer to the tip of the pen and ruin it.

You can fussy cut around a stamped image, die cut, punch, cut with Cricut, Silhouette or any other cutting device. Just make sure your original image is 75% larger than your finished size. I will show you the measurements for the one that I created.

I used my Sewing room die cut from Tim Holtz to cut the dress form it measures almost 6 inches when cut.

When you stamp or color the image before you heat set it the design becomes fused into the plastic, and the design will also shrink with plastic. Of course you can also do some of this after the heating process if you would like your stamped image to be true to size.

Heat the Poly Shrink in an oven at the recommended settings or with a heat tool. If you are using a heat tool, please be careful and use tweezers to keep the image from sliding. Also - with the heat tool, you may want to keep the heat even so that the image doesn't distort too quickly and become a mess. I heated the smaller sections, and then flattened them out, before starting on the larger sections. It will curl as it heats, but will straighten back out once it is finished shrinking.

Here is a photo of my dress from after it has cooled. It is about 2 3/8 inch after the shrinking process.

Look at how cute the die cut is sitting on this card. You could also make charms to hang from mini albums, or use as embellishments on mini pages. The possibilities are endless!

Bazzil Cardstock, Prima - Madeline Collection paper, innocence II Flowers, Lindy's Stamp Gang: Tibetan Poppy Teal, Crème Brule cream, Stampin Up: Pennant Die Cut, Tim Holtz: Sewing Room Die Cut, Fancy Flourish Stamp. Lucky Squirrel: Poly Shrink Plastic, Devine Twine: Bakers Twine, Dress It Up: Buttons,Inkadinkadoo: Bloom stamp.

There are so many other ways you can use and design these cute embellishments. We may explore them in a future post.

Thanks for visiting,
Tonya Gibbs
http://www.psychomoms.com/