Splitcoaststampers.com - the world's #1 papercrafting community
You're currently viewing Splitcoaststampers as a GUEST. We pride ourselves on being great hosts, but guests have limited access to some of our incredible artwork, our lively forums and other super cool features of the site! You can join our incredible papercrafting community at NO COST. So what are you waiting for?
I bought some of this forever ago and haven't played with it much. I did try to make zipper pulls at one time and found the inks smeared. what am i doing wrong? what ink do you use? do you seal with anything before or after baking? saw a card with some way cute mousey earrings and thought they would be great to make, but i definitely need some tips on inks and coloring in!
thanx for any info.
tracyg
Hi
It's been awhile since i've played with shrink plastic...but here are some things I remember.
Rough up the plastic first with sand paper or large nail file(that's what I use)
Stamp image with stazon
I used Primascolor Pencils to color in. Remember to use lighter colors...the colors really darken when you skrink. I've used chalks before too, but I like my pencils best.
I've not sealed with anything before or after shrinking.
Have fun. i hope I helped!
That's exactly what I did, but I think I even used plain old Crayola colored pencils and they worked fine--didn't rub off at all. I made wine charms with shrink plastic.
Any permanent ink will do for stamping. I often enlarge clip art and just trace over the design with fine tipped permanent pens. Permanent silver or gold pens give a lovely finish too. I often colour with pencil crayons, chalks, you can dust with powders, or Sakura Jelly roll stardust pens give a lovely finish.
If you're going to just put it on a card then you don't need to seal it with anything, but if you were going to use it as jewellery, or something that needs to be durable, it helps to spray with a clear varnish.
One other tip, I've learned through experience - if you're going to be shrinking a relatively large piece, I find it's safer to shrink it in the oven rather than with a heat gun. The heat source is just more uniform, so it's less likely to curl up and stick together in the oven.
I read somewhere to dust the shrink plastic with your embossing buddy instead of sanding it. I have had trouble sometimes with larger pieces wanting to stick together when they curl as they shrink, the embossing buddy is supposed to stop that because of the powder. I have also been told the oven works better for the large pieces.
I was JUST thinking about this too! I want to make little Halloween charms w/Booglie Eyes, and in the past mine have smeared too! Thanks all for the advice...I love SCS...(:
Any permanent ink will do for stamping. I often enlarge clip art and just trace over the design with fine tipped permanent pens. Permanent silver or gold pens give a lovely finish too. I often colour with pencil crayons, chalks, you can dust with powders, or Sakura Jelly roll stardust pens give a lovely finish.
If you're going to just put it on a card then you don't need to seal it with anything, but if you were going to use it as jewellery, or something that needs to be durable, it helps to spray with a clear varnish.
One other tip, I've learned through experience - if you're going to be shrinking a relatively large piece, I find it's safer to shrink it in the oven rather than with a heat gun. The heat source is just more uniform, so it's less likely to curl up and stick together in the oven.
Oh, I'm sooo slooow, but how do you transfer the clipart to the shrink plastic? Do you use transfer paper? TIA...
Oh, I'm sooo slooow, but how do you transfer the clipart to the shrink plastic? Do you use transfer paper? TIA...
It's a bit more basic than that You just print out the clip art, place your shrink plastic over the image, tape it down and then just trace over the outline with a permanent pen.
There's a formula to help you get the image to the right size if you'd like me to bore you with that too? :-D
It's a bit more basic than that You just print out the clip art, place your shrink plastic over the image, tape it down and then just trace over the outline with a permanent pen.
There's a formula to help you get the image to the right size if you'd like me to bore you with that too? :-D
LOL, please, bore-I mean enlighten me;) Seriously!!
My TO{S club uses shrinky dinks for their monthly charm awards and we had trouble with the white craft ink setting. I ended up sealing with sparkle/clear nail polish. Remember that the rough side is the side you use to draw on. (I'm getting good at backwards letters so the words are right when you look at them from the smooth front side after shrunk.) A metal cookie sheet works best in the oven for shrinking (not pampered chef stoneware...) If you're making charms, the best hole size I have found is the largest punch in the silent setter kit. I use spring rings (like ones we put our keys on, only jewelry size) for the charms them selves, added after cooling.
I have also found that SU black, basic brown or basic grey ink works great. I also use several color of sharpie markers for outlines too.
Good luck and have fun with them.
__________________
~~~ Barbara~~~ ~~Case me if you please~~100% great trades~~
LOL, please, bore-I mean enlighten me;) Seriously!!
Here goes!
I use Photoshop, but another imaging software with the ability to accurately change the image and canvas size will work just as well.
OK, first you decide how large you want your final shrinky to be.
Then you make your image square (the easiest way to do this is to just change the canvas size.)
Then you find the area by multiplying the width by the height.
Then multiply the area by the number of times smaller your shrink plastic shrinks to (eg 5 times or 7 times).
Then you find the square root of this number and this gives you the height and width of your starting image.
shrink plastic how to's, help please!
