Thursday, May 19, 2011

Shrinky Dink Meets Fairyopolis

I have a new bracelet!  It is made using good old fashioned Shrinky Dink.
Shrinky Dink has been around for a very long time.  It is a plastic that shrinks when it is heated.  What is relatively new about it, is that they have Shrinky Dink for Ink Jet printers. I bought mine at Michael's Craft store.
The project began with me picking six images from the Fairyopolis triple disk CD.  I printed this page right onto the shrinky dink.
Then I cut my images out.  They were roughly four inches tall to start.  After "shrinking" they are about 1 1/2 inches tall and nine times as thick as the original plastic sheet I started with.
I also measured the location to punch holes on each piece.  These holes are 1/8 size right now, but when shrunk, my jump rings barely fit through the tiny holes.  Now they were all ready to be heated.
You need to follow the manufacturer's instructions for baking.  This is hard to watch.  In the oven you see these pieces moving and curling.
Eventually they are shrunk.  I pull them out of the oven and press a piece of tile down on the tiny shrunk plastic to make sure they harden flat.
 All I had left to do was spend a little time joining all my fairies with jump rings.
 The bracelet is so unique and fun.
I'll be doing more with shrink plastic this weekend!

No comments:

Post a Comment