Scroll Heart Jewelry!

Hi everyone! Happy President's Day!

As usual I started out to create one thing and ended up with something else!  Isn't that just like life?  Anyway, today I have jewelry made from shrink plastic and the scroll heart punch.

Shrink Plastic has been around for a long time.  It is a great material to use to make charms, jewelry, embellishments and so much more. 

Shrink Plastic comes in 8 1/2 x 11 inch sheets and comes in clear, white and black.  I used clear for my project.

To use shrink plastic, you need to prepare it.  Simply sand one side with a fine or semi fine sandpaper (I use one of those white rectangular nail buffers.) The reason you want to sand it is so that the color will stick to the plastic.

Once prepared, I used my punch and punched out an 11 inch border.  I cut out two hearts for my earrings and used a strip about 5 inches long for my pin. (I wasn't sure if my punch would go through the shrink plastic but it did very well.  Remember that the more detailed a punch is, the less likely you can use it on thicker material.)

After you punch or cut out your shape, all you do is use your choice of colored chalks.  Use a q-tip to apply the chalk to the plastic.  It's very forgiving so you don't even need to be exact.  One thing to remember: the plastic shrinks so the color gets a little darker.

Craf-T Chalk has come out with several series of beautiful colors.  With names like "Summer Sea", Earthly Wonders" and "Butterfly Kisses/Dragonfly Dreams" how can you resist getting one of everything!
I used Garden Blooms and the newest addition to the line Photo Tinting Chalks.

First I want you to see how I colored my hearts.  First I colored the whole heart in lavender. Then I used red to accent the insides of the heart.  I gently blew off the excess chalk (there is really very little chalk dust).

 I used pink and green on the border.

Once the shrink plastic was colored, I used a heat gun and a pair of tweezers (to hold the shrink plastic down while it shrinks).  The shrink plastic will shrink quickly.  Keep your heat gun on it so that you can be sure it completely shrinks and falls flat again.  You have about 3 seconds (really, 3 seconds) to make any final adjustments like curving it or forming it or flattening it before it dries hard as a rock.  You can keep it soft for a short while by continuing to keep it heated. 

Remember that it is HOT HOT HOT.  So, use your tweezers.  If you've never used shrink plastic before, it would be good to find a store that can demo it for you or provide you with hands on teaching.  Its easy to do, you just need practice the first time you do it.

Here you can see my heart earrings and the start of my bar pin at the top already shrunk.  Below the ruler is the original punched out border.  This gives you an idea of how much it shrinks.

 And here are the results!

I added some paper roses and brass charms to my pin.  I love things that dangle. I love the way they tinkle when they knock against each other. To complete the jewelry I added a pin back to the bar pin and posts to my heart earrings. You can get both at any craft store in the bead section.

Scroll Heart "I Love Paris" Bar Pin 



Scroll Heart "Wear Your Heart on Your Ears" Earrings

(sorry for the blurry image - I am trying to figure out how my camera can take better pictures)

 I really hope that you give shrink plastic a try.  It is a versatile material that will make anything special.