Shrink Plastic Embellishments

In my recent birdhouse posts, I featured some shrink plastic flowers and leaves and promised to share how those were made. Seems as though this technique has been around for quite some time, but somehow has eluded me until now. (I've mentioned how I'm sort of a late bloomer, haven't I?) Anyway, Tim Holtz used a similar technique in his 12 Tags of Christmas this past season on his Tag 11. And after making my own tag, I fell in love with making these great little embellishments.

Then I saw Tammy Tutterow's blog and was even more inspired by her beautiful charms!

Here's a close-up of my Tag #11's shrinked holly leaves, just as a reminder...

And here's another close-up of my birdhouse embellishments...

Here's how I made mine...

I started with Clear Shrinky Dinks shrink film and cut out shapes from Tim's Alterations Dies. Tattered Leaves and Tattered Florals, (and then I added a butterfly that I stamped first and hand cut.) After cutting, I stamped a design with Black Staz-on.

Then I had some fun coloring the images with my Copic markers on the side that wasn't stamped with Staz-on.

With the colored side up, I placed the pieces onto a parchment-lined baking sheet and baked them for 3 minutes in a 325 degree oven, following the Shrinky Dinks instructions. The colors get deeper and more intense after baking, so remember that when coloring.

Now, just a note here. Tim used the Melting Pot filled with Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel (UTEE) to both shrink and coat the pieces at the same time, and so did Tammy. While I do like that technique for certain applications, I found it harder to control and I also didn't care for the amount of yellowing the UTEE took on when heating. Although my method took a bit longer, it helped me achieve the results I was after.

After my pieces cooled from the oven, I then dabbed them into my Versamark pad, then coated them with UTEE and heated them with my heat gun one by one. I did this twice for a nice thick, bulbous look. 

Another note here: When using word stamps, you'll want to be sure your "tops" of your pieces reflect the words in the correct direction. Otherwise they'll read backwards.

Once these were cooled, I adhered them to my birdhouse with clear glue (Liquid Glass by CTMH) or Glossy Accents by Ranger.

These were great fun to play with, and I warn you if you try it make sure you have a few hours because once you get started, you want to make a zillion of them! Have fun!!