Saturday, August 24, 2013

4pm EST: "Custom accents from the oven"

Let me show you how to make customized rings for any occasion or holiday with shrink plastic and your stamps from your stash! It literally only takes about 5 minutes to make one once you've gathered all of your supplies. You can make about 16 rings from one 8.5" x 11" sheet of shrink plastic.

Supplies:
An oven and baking sheet, one piece of vellum, brown craft paper to fit on your baking sheet, shrink plastic, stamps of your choice, scissors, permanent inks, sandpaper, round handle like a makeup brush for forming the rings.

Instructions:
1. Trim a strip of shrink plastic approximately 4.5" or 5" x 3/4" for each ring. (Play around and practice making these to find the exact length you need to fit on your finger.)
2. Choose a stamp(s) to decorate your ring with. Stamp a design onto the strip with permanent inks. I would recommend only doing one or two in the oven at a time. (See video.) They cool off and harden too quickly to do more than two at a time.
3. Cover the strips with a large piece of vellum. The vellum will hold the shrink plastic down a bit to prevent the strips from curling too much and getting stuck together. Put stamped strips into the oven at 350 degrees for 3 minutes.
4. Take out immediately. You'll need to work fast. Remove vellum. Wrap each strip of shrink plastic around a handle of some sort, such as a makeup brush, to form the ring shape. Be careful, as it is hot! Wear a plastic glove if you can to protect your fingers.
5. Sand all edges of ring to make it smooth and more round.

I've made a video to show you the process.


Hope you've enjoyed this technique, they are so easy and fun to make. I'm imagining these in cute little glassine bags all prettied up for the holidays. OR as little birthday treats for party goers to take home with them. Have fun and please leave me a note if you give this a try. I'd love to hear from you. Happy stamping!




Shrink Plastic Rings:
STAMPS: Peace Be Still, Tag Its #4
INK: Permanent StazOn ink in Metallic Silver and Blazing Red
PAPER: none
DIES: none
OTHER: Shrink plastic, vellum, brown craft paper or parchment paper, baking sheet and oven, sandpaper, round handle such as a makeup brush.

2 comments:

Bonnie T. said...

Such a cute little gift idea. I was really surprised how much they appear to thicken when they shrink. I've never used this material before, so I wasn't expecting that. Thanks for the tip about the vellum paper!

Sallie424 said...

!!Thank you for this idea. I wish my daughter was still young!!! She would have l o v e d these! I imagine and will try leaving the vellum on the strip as I am in the rolling process. I think it should help to trap some heat so maybe you could do three at a time, more easily.