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Thursday 8 March 2012

Trying to Use Shrink Plastic

While at a workshop at LLinda's Card & Craft shop in Laneham, Notts I used Shrink Plastic for the first time. I decided to buy a pack of mixed plastic to have a go with at home.

The pack has been sitting in the box by my desk for several weeks and then I found a stamp that I wanted to try shrinking.  The stamp was free with the latest 'Lets Make Cards' magazine:

Stamped on white paper and coloured
So this post might cause you to smile, this is my learning curve in using Shrink Plastic:

Attempt 1: The ink I used to stamp the image rubbed off (not a good start) I was not over keen on the colours of the flowers either

Attempt 2: Not too sure what happened, but when heated it curled & stuck together!

Attempt 3: Now I'm starting to get somewhere... I used a Brilliance Dew Drop ink pad, and the colour did not rub off.  I used Sakura Glitter Pens to give a couple of flowers colour - overall not a bad result (this was DH's favourite)

Attempt 4: Using a different Shrink Plastic and a different colour of ink, again I was not too happy with the colour of the flowers

Attempts 5,6 &7: More trials with different colours of the ink, I was happy with these, but felt that they were just missing something - just not too sure what

Overall I was quite pleased with my first attempt at using Shrink Plastic.  I did find that the Brilliance Dew Drop Ink did not dry on the plastic, before using the heat gun. I then found it very difficult to colour the flowers as the outline would smudge at the slightest touch.

If anyone has any hints/tips for using Shrink plastic (or has any tutorials on their blog) please let me know.  I did enjoy using the plastic, but I think that these pictures prove I need a bit of help!!!!


1 comment:

  1. Hi Helen, I like your shrink plastic charms & the colour of your flowers but you may find you get better results if you use stazon to stamp your main image & you water stronger colour inks down a bit before you colour with them. I know this works with sakura glitter pens 'cos I've seen it on QVC!! Also if your shrink plastic curls, persevere with the heat gun it should come apart again, you might find it helpful to hold the plastic down with something like a pokey tool while you heat it & have an acrylic block handy to flatten the shrink before it's cooled to make it nice & flat. Hope this helps!

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