Subheading

Showin' some love to the sheer awesomeness of homemade gifts



Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Shrink Film Success! (And some Dimensional Magic) Celtic Keychain

After my first failed attempt with shrinky dink film and a technical yet messy success, I decided to give it another try in hopes of creating something that was actually attractive.  End result:
 A celtic keychain for my favorite (and only) sister.  This one is definitely a success. 

Despite the warnings on the Silhouette website, I decided to try running a sheet of shrink film through my Silhouette cutter.  The shrink plastic is quite thick and the blade did not cut through.  In fact, it probably dulled quite a bit in the attempt.  It turned out okay though, because the blade scored the plastic well enough that I did not have much trouble cutting the shape out with a craft knife.
The plastic is glossy, so the instruction sheet recommends sanding the surface with fine grit sand paper before using colored pencils or rubber stamps on it.  This worked pretty well - I used colored pencils and the color did not stick at all where the surface was slick, but the color took pretty well where the plastic was sanded.
Colored pencils are just fun - so much texture in the blended colors!

Sorry, no photos next to a ruler, but here are the before and after with my hole punch for perspective.
It's pretty amazing what 3 minutes in the oven can do!

This also turned out to be a good time to experiment with some Dimensional Magic.  I applied it to the surface of the knot and it seemed surprisingly watery, but seemed to still maintain its shape.  I put a drop at the corner of the knot and it across the curve as if it were on a track.
Couldn't get out all of the bubbles though - bummer! 

But see how milky it started out?

No worries, it definitely dries clear!