Shrinkydinks & Baby-Themed Stamped Card
For one of our family craft activities this summer, we bought and played around with these cool things called Shrinkydinks. My son had tried them out at his daycare and proudly brought home his creations so we thought we should give it a try at home. We bought a combo pack with different types of papers – clear, white, cream, etc. The idea is that you colour on the sheets with some type of permanent marker, then you heat them up in the oven so that they shrink…
What I decided to do with my share of the paper was to stamp images on it with black ink, letting it dry before putting them in the oven I’d just bought the new Baby stamp set from Stampin’ Up too and was eager to try it out.
“Before”
“After”
You’ll actually be surprised how much these things shrink. I have no idea about the science behind how the papers “bake” or anything, but it was quite cool to watch. It happens relatively quickly, right towards the end of the baking time. Here’s a pic showing the size difference: the duckies are stamped on to the paper and that tiny duck is the one that’s been through the shrinking process…
So at the time I just tucked away the pieces I created, to be used at another time. When I later had time and inclination to create a baby-themed card, they were the perfect little embellishment. You would definitely want to stick them on with Sticky Strip or another strong adhesive, because they can be pretty bulky and heavy on your card.
So when it came time to make a baby card, I had these extra little embellishments on hand. They actually made a great centre-piece to build a design around. Here’s how the first baby card turned out…
^^^ Front of Card / Inside of Card
Materials used: White, So Saffron & Bashful Blue card stock, gray & green Bazzil card stock, Cottage Wall patterned papers (SU), Pink Pirouette felt flower (SU), So Saffron and Certainly Celery punched paper flowers, green sparkly brad, Bashful Blue ribbon (SU), white ribbon (from stash), new baby stamp set with Basic Black ink (SU), Pixie Pink ink, Whisper White mini library clip(SU), and of course the Shrinky Dink accents.
Tools & Techniques used: Scallop edge punch, Scallop Circle punch, Scallop lace edge punch, Notebook punch, Tag punch, Small Tag punch, inked edges, distressed (scissor-scraped) edges, colouring with ink and a blender pen, paper-piercing.
So as you can see on the front, the same stamp was used (of the carriage) for the tiny Shrinky Dink embellishment and for the front of the card! Click here for a close-up of the Shrinky Dink accent.
Overall, I was fairly happy with the card although it did end up looking a little “over dressed”. You have to be careful when using large embellishments because your card can end up being a little visually heavy as well as physically heavy! If I were to do it over, I’d probably choose less embellishments and keep everything centered or following a more unifying and simple pattern.
Happy stamping and let me know if you try Shrinky Dinks or a similar product, I would love to see it! 
September 07 2010 06:26 pm | family and scrappy / stampy
