Handbag Charms

Morning folks...yes it's The Old Crafty Girl and was it Benjamin Franklin who said....

Early To Bed and Early To Rise...

makes a man healthy..wealthy and wise...

he obviously didn't have a bundle of golden deliciousness rampaging around his bedroom at silly o'clock determined that it's time his old Mum was up and about.   I am thinking his body clock has gone completely haywire and it's driving me nuts....I'm an early bird anyway but hey 5.30am is a step too far and I'm not the only one complaining....my poor feathered friends have to suffer the sight of me and my bird's nest hair at this ungodly hour of the morning and it's putting them off their breakfast.   What's the solution....I've tried the "turn over and ignore him" system but this boy knows all the tricks in the book to get my attention from taking a running jump on to the bed to dropping his huge bone from a great height and for those of you who have visited the cubbyhole...you know that BUDDY will not be ignored.

HANDBAG CHARM

Die cut your shape....I used Timmie's Tattered Florals Die and it needs to be quite big because it will shrink to 7 times smaller....so I used the largest hole on the Big Bite....

 Stamp Script or Pattern with Staz On Ink

and colour on the other side with Alcohol Inks....I used Stonewashed and Lettuce....remembering that the colour will intensify quite a bit when the plastic is shrunk....

and now for the bit that has most crafters in a blind panic....start heating and the secret is...just keep heating...it will curl...distort and do all manner of strange things...just stick with it...have a little faith and before your very eyes a little miracle will happen....

it will start to unfurl and come back to it's original shape.....I like to flip it over and heat from the back but be careful because it does get very hot and once it is fully shrunk it will be almost flat again.  To finish off I press it down with an acrylic block and leave to cool for a minute or two.

For me that's the easy bit.....the bit that drives me up the wall is fitting the fiddly little jump rings....trying to hold it in one hand and open it with the pliers normally has the blighter launching himself into orbit never to be seen again but thanks to the lovely Karen at Papercrafts Boutique the way to go is to use another set of pliers to hold it.   And another little tip when opening the jump ring....don't pull it apart side ways..you will distort the shape....rather pull one side towards you until the gap is big enough to fit your charm and then push it gently together again.

and voila....you have a cute Handbag Charm....

have a go it's great fun and I would love to see your Shrink Plastic creations....Hugs Kath xxx