LTC Shrinky Dinks

I am participating in aMAZEing adventure frog's "Inspired by Shrinky Dinks" LTC swap.  My original idea was to make a cool sky and grass on my Gelli Plate, carve up a butterfly/ladybug/dragonfly/etc, shrink it and attach it to the outdoor scene.  I even made the sky & grass and changed my mind.

In 2014 I was in a Christmas postcard swap and I loved it.  But I was busy in 2015, didn't do it and kicked myself for it.  So I thought I would carve up this 4x6 postage stamp and I could use it later as my Christmas postcard.

I worked on the stamp on and off for 3 months.  I got a mini #1 gauge from Kerbert to use mainly on this stamp.  I let my daughter borrow it and she bent it.  I sent it back and had it remade/sharpened so I could continue to work on the stamp.  

But I had issues baking the large Shrinky Dink.  I started off in the toaster oven and they were coming out misshapen and not flat.  I decided to move to the regular oven and that helped.

I really wanted to do them on the white shrink material but had a headache with that too.  It takes a while for the Stazon to dry on the all shiny white.  Then once it is dry if you rub your marker against the Stazon it bleeds and can rub away completely.  The original kind is like a coloring book; you can color on your stamp lines with almost no problems.  Shockingly, my noxer husband volunteered to help color them.   I attached the Shrinky Dink to white cardstock with tape runner.

Greeting from Indiana LTC

Every oven is different but I ended up baking mine at 325 degrees, on parchment paper with a piece of cardstock on top.  Sometimes they wanted to stick to the cardstock but they turned out pretty good.

Things to think about when making Shrinky Dinks.
1.  Size-Smaller is easier when baking.  Also, do you really want to color 20 4x6 cards exactly the same?
2.   Material-You can color more colors on the original than the white.  I recommend using the white for things like snowflakes, candy canes, photos, etc.  When you just want the color of the ink and white.