Monday 16 November 2009

Shrink plastic buttons from last Monday's show



Same basic idea and instructions as the previous 2 cards but on this one I made use of some of the Shrink Plastic scraps to make buttons, well you can't waste it can you? So use your punches or nesties to make them. If the buttons are for embellishments, so what if they are square, triangle, octagonal or oval!

I meant to mention this before, you may find that you get little shreads of plastic around the edges when you cut a shape with a punch or die cutting machine. That was what I was doing on the show when I stood there sanding the edges, but didn't explain. When I watched the show back I saw it was still a bit tatty, but Shrink Plastic is very forgiving though and it does hide a lot of imperfections when shrunk. If you do have a sanding block then it doesn't hurt to tidy it up a little.

Since the show I have been asked which colour Shrink Plastic I used, it was translucent.

Stamp the swirl stamps onto the Shrink Plastic with white Briliance ink for a nice elegant look then use an office hole punch size to make the holes (1/4"). Using anything smaller will make it difficult to thread ribbon, threads or cord through, and life's too short to spend 1/2 an hour threading ribbon!

Of course, you can stamp in any colour for the buttons that will match your project, just remember they will be darker once shrunk, so don't apply too much colour. If I want to make a coloured background to simply stamp over, I wipe the pad, direct-to-shrink style, then wipe a lot of the ink off with tissue before I stamp on it, it really needs to be very pale.  You may wish to try just sponging a little ink here and there on.

For this button I doubled up the ribbon, tied a knot at the fold, then threaded each end through the button holes to the back. I fixed the ends inside the card. It makes a nice knot with no loose ends.

Again I was Cuttlebug obsessed on the show, I just love the white embossed effect, has had me hooked for years, but it is SO much easier to do than dry embossing using a stencil and takes the blandness away from a plain piece of card.


This wasn't one of my favourite cards I made for the show, it was one of the last I got together and why I stuck that bow on I'll never know!

Anyhow, I can't hide it as it does show how you can use a Shrink Plastic button or in fact any button. Maybe if I make the picture of the button big, and the picture of the card small, you won't notice how bad it is.

I decided it is about time I decorated the blog, I hope you like the changes.


I think I've waffled on enough, thanks again for reading!

Jill

6 comments:

  1. Again, it was so fun to watch the replay of the show here in the US...Jill you did a great job keeping up with the host...she was a chatty one to be sure, but ours here are as well!

    And very lovely project!

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  2. Great way to use up the bits of shrink plastic. The buttons really do make lovely embellishments.

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  3. Still here in Orlando Jill, but been given leave by the rest of the family to get online for an hour to catch up a bit. I'm getting crafty withdrawal symptoms, Lol!

    I set the Sky+ box to record the show so hope there were no blips and that I have it to watch when I get home at the weekend.

    Love what you've been doing with the Shrink!

    Thanks so much for your lovely comment on my blog while I've been away too.

    Lesley Xx

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  4. Such a beautiful card, and i just adore the idea for the shink button, clever use of scraps x

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  5. Brilliant idea again Jill will def try this one!
    x Michelle

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  6. i've never played with shrink plastic, but i LOVE the idea of customizing one's own buttons! have become rather obsessed with buttons on projects lately. MUST TRY THIS! :) thank you for the insight!

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Your comments are always really appreciated!