Love it or loathe it Shrink Plastic is certainly one of the most fascinating crafting products on the market.

It lends itself to many different styles including traditional, contemporary, modern and funky.

Shrink plastic comes in several colours – clear, black, white, frosted and newer shades of pastel and cream.

You can make some fantastic and unique embellishments to add to your crafting projects whether you want abstract shapes, buttons or charms (for use on cards, scrapbook pages or handbags or in fact any project you’d like). You can use pastel colours for baby projects or bright and funky colours for teenagers or Grandma!  The choice is yours.

Talking of colours, you can use a variety of colouring mediums to colour your shrink plastic, some of which include inkpads, pencils, chalks, sakura pens (stardust gives a beautiful sparkle), permanent marker pens, alcohol inks, heat set inks and good old fashioned eye shadow!

If you are stamping onto shrink plastic then use a permanent ink such as StazOn, Brilliance or Versamark.  A stamp with clear simple designs work better than those with a lot of detail.

If you accidentally smudge your stamped image on the glossy surface of the plastic don’t panic, just clean it off with StazOn ink cleaner (I know this works as I’ve just discovered it does !). You can colour your image with your chosen colouring medium. Some crafting tips suggest that lightly sanding your shrink plastic will help your inks and colours to adhere to the surface, however the tiny scratches can show up and ruin the overall effect (yes I’ve done this one) on clear plastic. I personally don’t sand mine but the choice is yours.

*When it comes to shrinking the plastic you can either use your oven or a heat gun. Again the choice is yours. I prefer to use a heat gun as it is much more fun and exciting, taking you through a range of emotions from ‘shock horror’ when it buckles and curls to elation when it finally flattens when fully shrunk. See photo one to see how it buckles and curls*

So then lets get to the nitty gritty – just what do you need and how do you do it ?

Well…..

You Need:

1)       Stamp - optional

2)       Permanent inkpad such as StazOn, Versamark or Brilliance if using a stamp

3)       A template or shape to draw around – optional

4)       Pencil or permanent marker for drawing around template/shape

5)       Scissors/craft knife for cutting around shape/template

6)       Chosen colouring medium

7)       Heat gun or oven

8)       Heat proof surface such as a baking sheet

How you do it!

1)       Cut desired shape

2)       Stamp chosen image

3)       Colour image with chosen medium

4)       Heat with heat gun on a heatproof surface or in the oven

5)       Continue heating until fully shrunk

*In photo 2 I have shown you the size of the plastic before and after shrinking it. I have also put a hole in it using an eyelet setter – again to give you an idea of just how much the hole shrinks. I used StazOn to stamp the image on and coloured half very lightly and the other half more deeply to give you an idea of how much the colour intensifies once shrunk – the same colour has been used for each half.*

HINTS & TIPS

 1) If you want to thread ribbon, brads etc., through the shrink plastic, make the                                                       hole BEFORE shrinking otherwise it will be too small. A hole punch or eyelet setter would be ideal.

2) Remember that the shrink plastic shrinks by up to 40-45% so make your image large enough.

3) Any colour you put on intensifies when shrunk, therefore colour sparingly with a light touch if you only want subtle colours i.e light blue becomes dark blue.

4) If the shrink plastic sticks together during the shrinking process, gently pull it apart and reheat – beware the plastic will be very hot.

5) You may need to take a little more care if you are shrinking intricate shapes.

6) If you need to hold the plastic steady whilst shrinking, use a small stick such as a kebab stick to gently hold on the outside edge or if you want to hold it with an embossing tool, particularly through the punched hole, make sure you use the one with the finest tip otherwise the plastic will shrink around it and will get stuck.

7) If necessary flatten the plastic immediately after shrinking with an acrylic block or a flat piece of wood. Don’t use a book otherwise you get a ‘bobbly’ appearance, unless that’s the look you’re after, of course!  

8) Don’t use inks on the rough side of frosted shrink plastic as they tend to bleed into one another – although this can give an interesting effect should you wish to do it……..

SAFETY TIPS

*Heat guns get incredibly hot, don’t ever face it towards you.

 Keep them out of the reach of children.

 Some types of heat guns look like hairdryers but don’t ever be tempted to use them as one, you will get serious burns and set your hair on fire!!!!.

*If using a kebab stick or anything wooden take care not to set it on fire.

*If using a metal implement, remember it gets very hot so choose one with a non metal tip otherwise you might get burnt when the heat travels up the metal shaft.

*Wait a few seconds after shrinking the plastic before you touch it as it will be very hot.

What can you do once you have mastered the basics?

*There is so much more you can do with shrink plastic once you have mastered the basics.  You can use it in the same way as triple embossing, e.g. ink up your stamp and, immediately after shrinking the plastic, press the stamp into it and leave it a few seconds.  The plastic will release the stamp and you have a fabulous image.

*Try shrinking rectangles, squares or circles with clear plastic and place them over alphabet peel-offs to give a slightly ‘magnified’ image.

*Add other mediums such as gems, highlight certain parts with sakura soufflé pens or stickles glitter glue.

To be honest, the list is endless as to what you can do, so all I will say is experiment with all sorts of things and most of all HAVE FUN and ENJOY IT!!

Written by Mel

Copyright Bubbly Funk