I Like Melting Things in the Oven

When I saw this tutorial for a washer necklace on Dollar Store Crafts I knew I had to give it a try.  I love melting things in the oven, especially shrink plastic and I had a few spare plastic cups hanging around too.
I had a great time doodling with sharpie markers on my cups, the only problem I had was cutting out the center hole.  I tried several different tools:  exacto, scissors, super sharp and pointy scissors, a different exacto knife, fresh blades.  Maybe I was having an off day.  I still think they came out pretty good. It’s so much fun to watch them melt and flatten out.
While I had the oven hot I also tried another idea that I have been thinking about.  I have a ton of old, scratched up, non-playable records, I made some record bowls and ended up with an abundance of records left over.  I was thinking purse handles and key chains. This was an interesting experiment, I’m not sure that I could get a perfectly matched pair and I can’t decide if that is a bad thing.  I could punch holes along the bottom for crochet or knitting too.  I think that my hearts ended up a little deformed.  I think I’ll need to run some more experiments, try some different shapes and using them in a test project.  What do you guys think, are record purse handles a great idea or not?
I have been working on a new spool project too, but I’m having a little difficulty, it may end up as a craftfail, I’m going to work on it a bit more today and see how it goes.

Back When I Thought I was Crafty…

…I mentioned that I had a PDF of the shrink plastic clasp and then I never spoke of it again (the clasp for my S.Y.T.Y.C. entry). Remember now?  I have made the basic line drawing into a PDF that you can color and customize yourself and here are some helpful tips:

I used a sharpie marker to trace my design onto my shrink plastic.

I made several practice banners on paper with my words (Craft or Die) to get the spacing just right and then traced them onto the plastic.

I colored in the design using colored pencils.  Remember, when it shrinks the colors will get darker.  Also remember to color in the white areas with white pencil or they will be transparent.

I cut out the inner area using a super sharp exacto knife.

Once my plastic was shrunk and cooled I color the edges with a sharpie or paint pen, I think it just looks nicer.

Finally I sealed the back with a nice thick coats of diamond glaze.

If you have any other questions just ask, good luck and let me know how they work for you (remember I love to share, but my PDFs are for personal use only).

Homemade Shrinky Dinks

For this project you will need to buy a box of cookies in a deli container, I know it will be a sacrifice, but it's for crafts :-). On the bottom of the container there is a recycling symbol, make sure there is a #6 in the center. You can use the entire container, but I usually just save the flat parts(we eat a lot of cookies). I find them easier to store and flat is better for detail work. I lightly sand the plastic using a sanding sponge(regular sand paper works too), whatever grit you have handy is fine, and wipe off the dust. The sanding makes the marker or pencil stick better.
I used a sharpie marker to draw my designs. I have also used stamps. Make sure to give the ink a few minutes to dry.
Then cut out all of the shapes. I also used a 1/4" hole punch to make holes in the center of each flower. I did not color this batch before baking, but you can color your batch at this point using colored pencils or markers. Remember that the colors will intensify when they shrink.
I put them into my toaster oven at 350, it only takes a few minutes for them to start curling up and shrinking. Once they have flattened out again they are done. This batch was a little wavy and so when I took them out of the oven I smooshed them with a phone book.I used sharpie markers to color them and they are finished. I made these to use in Christy's craft challenge, but they weren't quite right. I will store them away with my other beads to be used in some future project.

A Swap for Knitters - Package Sent

I shipped my knitters swap package to auntiem today and am anxiously waiting for her to receive it. Here's the whole package.There is a yarn caddy made from a 2-liter bottle(pattern) and holding a skein of corn yarn, a circular needle holder(pattern), a row counting bracelet, some yarn bobbins, some stitch markers, and some patterns I found online. (Not pictured is a knitting book and some Workbasket magazines from the 1980's.)This is a detail of the bracelet, yarn bobbins and stitch markers. I use Swarovski crystal bead for the bracelet, the smaller beads are used to count the individual rows and the larger beads are for every ten rows, they each have their own elasticised silver markers. The bobbins and charms on the stitch markers are made from shrink plastic that I stamped with hand carved stamps that I made when I was in college. The shape of the yarn bobbins is inspired by bread ties, I just scanned one and enlarged it 400% and traced it onto the shrink plastic, they work great for holding yarn tails!I coated the back of them with a thick layer of diamond glaze (go here to get a form for a free sample) to make them super shiny. I love diamond glaze, but if there are any bubbles in it when you apply it they have to be popped or they will be there forever! I've had very good luck using my engraving tool on the right side of this picture.
This was a really fun swap, stay tuned for what I received!

Project: Shrinky Dink Charms

I've wanted to make labels for my jewelry pieces and decorative pulls for my sparklicious bags, so I have been experimenting with shrinky dinks. I made some using colored pencils and sharpie markers and when I shrunk them I didn't like the results, specifically the uneven color from the pencils and the bleeding from the markers. I know that they make specific shrinky dinks that can be sent through your printer, but I had stacks of the regular kind (for colored pencils and markers) that I wanted to use. I finally decided to run a regular sheet through my printer to see what would happen and this is what I found out, regular shrink plastics can be used in your home printer, but when you print use the draft or economy ink setting and allow the ink to dry before cutting them out, also remember to reverse any text that you use.

Here are some before shrinking. I really like to use shading to give the charms extra detailing. I punch holes in them before shrinking with a small hole punch. I made these in microsoft word using premade shape templates, changing the coloring and shading, and adding text.Here they are after shrinking, notice how some of them are darker, those were printed without using the draft setting. There are also some that I hand colored on the bottom. To get smooth edges I used a round 1" craft punch to make some and the rest I cut out with very sharp scissors.Here's a detail showing the difference between draft(left) and regular(right). The regular printing makes the ink bleed slightly making some of the charms difficult to read. To finish them I color the edges with a paint pen or sharpie marker and then I coat the back with diamond glaze to keep them from scratching. I like using them for labeling my jewelry and purses because they can be easily removed and I can color coordinate them to each piece.