I love doing this!
It's the only reason that I buy rubber stamps. I'm not much of a paper crafter, and I used to see all these cute stamps and wish I had a reason to buy them. Well, here it is! And it's a great craft for kids and adults alike. It's particularly good for those tweens and up who think they may be too old to craft (which, as we know, is completely silly)...
Oh, yeah. Here's what we're makin':
Cute little shrinky-dink pendents!
Okay, so first you need some shrink plastic. I use this kind--I totally think it's the best, and the matte color makes a nice, but not too thick, charm.
The plastic looks like this:
The best ink for your stamping is Staz-On, because it dries quickly and won't smear...So you just stamp away, and then use scissors to cut it out, or a paper punch to get a nice shape:
Make sure to leave room to punch a hole at the top:
A standard-size hole punch will give you a nice 1/8" hole after shrinking. Once you let your ink dry for a few minutes, you can use some permanent markers to color some of your designs, if you like:
Let that dry too, and then, you are ready to shrink! You can put them in the oven, following the manufacturer's instructions, and they come out just fine. I find it easier to use a heat gun (scrapbookers use it for embossing), because it's lots faster...
I like to use aluminum-foil underneath (in the oven, too) so that the charm doesn't stick to any paper once it's hot. I also use a pencil or the end of a paintbrush to hold it down so the heat gun doesn't blow it away!
In about 10 seconds, it curls up, shrinks, and flattens out again--all tiny!
Once it is flat, turn off the heat gun (or take it out of the oven) and place something flat on top for a moment (I use an acrylic block for clear stamps. A drinking glass works fine, too.)
Press it for a few seconds, and when it cools off a bit, you have a charm! Yay!
Here are some of the ones we made today:
nesting dolls...
mary janes!...
cute little girl...
Girl Scouts (great activity with a troop, I promise!)...
etc...
And here is another thing to think about: If you don't want to use jumprings, but rather a cotton cord like this:
...all you have to do is punch a bigger hole to start with. I used what looks to be a 1/2" circle punch. Looks like this before shrinking:
Don't forget to spray with clear sealer when done, or paint with clear nail polish. That way, your necklace will last forever...
(This is a special kind of shrink plastic that you can put in your printer! I did some Alice charms...)
The possibilities are endless, I'm telling you!
Have fun!
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