Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Shrinky Dinks... not just for breakfast anymore.


Thought I'd try my hand at making some tangled earrings today. I went a little bonkers at the local craft store and bought several paper punches in different sizes and shapes (they were 40% off... it was like they KNEW), a few different kinds of blank shrinky-dink sheets, and assorted beading supplies. This is one of four different styles I came up with. These were made with the clear sheets/rough finish. I'm going to experiment with colored pencils and opaque white sheets next. As much as I like these, I think they'll be more appealing when I throw in a little color. Also, there will be a bracelet attempt tomorrow. That should be interesting!



Here are a few of my first attempts, though I ended up adding small black glass beads to the jump rings at the top to spruce them up a little. I like these because they're more 'tangled', unlike the ones I posted above with just one pattern per piece. I think I'll try drawing the string on a separate sheet of paper next time and tape the translucent earring material to the paper until I'm finished tangling it. The pencil string is so dark it looks like ink... remember everything's darker after you shrink it!

3 comments:

  1. Hi, Sandy!
    I love working with shrink plastic, and your earrings are a wonderful use of this medium. It's neat how the bottom set can be "mix and match"--your right and left ear don't have to feature identical tangles. Great tip about drawing the string on paper to act as a guide underneath instead of drawing it right on the SP.
    Another option is to fill a big page of SP with a string and assortment of tangles...and then punch out shapes to be shrunk.
    I like to make decorative buttons with SP. To be honest, I haven't tried tangling them; I use a dissolved ink method that looked like watercolor. I'm definately going to have to try tangling them! Thank you for the inspiration!

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  2. Hi Sandy! These are awesome! Love them!!! You did a Fantastic job with them. Coincidentally, the Zentangle Inspired Art (ZIA) Group (on Yahoo) that I belong to - is currently hosting a ZIA shrinky dink swap!!! So we're sharing links to your blog - yours came out awesome. Feel free to pop over and see us!
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Zentangle_Inspired_Art/
    Patty Meijer

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  3. Love these, Sandy! I've just started exploring your marvellous blog. Nice to meet someone who also calls this stuff Shrinky Dinks - my hubby always teases me about me and my Shreddies with Shrinky Dinks lol! I've made some gear wheels from shrink plastic but have never thought of tangling on it - I love what you've done. I cut mine with my Cougar cutting machine, after designing the shapes in Inkscape. You can make them what size you want.

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