Technique Tuesday ~ Tips

Shrink Plastic tips:

Lightly sand both sides of the shrink plastic gently... first horizontally, and then vertically.. using a white acrylic (found in the beauty supply) sanding foam block. Wipe off the powdered residue.

Stamp your shrink plastic with archival ink, using a preheated heat tool, go over the stamped image quickly to dry the ink. Don't heat the ink too long, you don't want it to start shrinking. Now, cut out the image.

If you have an irregular image, coat edges with talcum powder to prevent the shrink plastic from sticking to itself. If you used talcum powder, our image many look grey after shrinking, just wipe the powder off the cooled down shrink piece with a piece of Kleenex. (don't use the one with lotion)

I like to shrink with a heat tool, in a small cardboard box. (a lid will work) Start with a preheated tool, keep moving your gun around, and don't get to close or the shrink plastic will get real hard, curl up, and won't shrink. To save the piece, let it cool completely and then reheat but not so close with the heat gun. Most of the time it will uncurl and flatten out. I always use the back of wood mounted stamp to flatten the image completely as soon as I turn off the heat gun. You can leave the pieces in irregular shapes if you don't want a flat look but depends on what you are doing and how you want to use your shrink plastic piece.  

 

Another option is to shrink your plastic in a Melting pot.
I hope these tips help you with your shrink plastic projects.
Does anyone recall shrinky dinks?