Shrinky Dink Fiasco!

_Again...one of Alana's crazy crafts!
This photo is her when she was in San Francisco with Mark last year...just to show you how completely off the wall she is....in so many zany photos of her
it was hard to pick one!

Alana 29yrs old...hahaha!

She said a few months ago to me...."Mom, I was in my graphic arts class and our
teacher showed us this awesome medium she used to make jewellery and keychains and all kinds of wondrous stuff!  So, I bought it and brought it to you and now we can do this awesome craft together!  Yay!"
It sat in my house for awhile until we could co-ordinate our schedules
and yesterday was the day.
(Anything to get out of doing her coffee table in driftwood finish)
I thought...right on!  This sounds like soooo much fun! 
Boy....was I wrong?  Just kidding...it was 5 hours of fun, but it was a complete wash...other than the learning experience we got from it!
And the extremely hilarious bouts of laughter we caused among Dan & Mark,
Alana & myself while the "Shrinky Dinks" (which they completely were....hahaha) baked in the oven into unrecognizable blobs of art.

Here's the package...in case at the end of this you think you might want to try it!

So....how it works is you use the transparency sheets to print off a graphic
from your computer using an "inkjet" printer and following the directions given in the package.  Laser printers get too hot on transparencies to print properly.
Keep in mind that the graphic you print is going to shrink to 1/3rd of it's size.

Here's what we printed off in the hopes of making rings!

Now, after we printed this one off, we realized you have to
print it off 50% lighter, which was a whole other challenge to figure out
how to do that....but we did.

Here it is with the lighter mode in place which we found
in Microsoft Picture Manager while setting the page up.

Now, we attempted the clear transparencies....not good.

SO BAD!!!  So horrid!  See the runny lines?  Does anyone know
how to do this properly?  If so, I would really appreciate knowing how to
print onto clear transparencies without the running ink???

Onward.
We trimmed up the individual graphics, rounding the edges for wrap
around rings and placed them strategically on parchment paper on a cookie sheet.

After baking for 3 minutes, and seeing them curling up and then flattening out (except for the ones that curled up together....note to self....don't place pre-baked strips so close together ever again!), we had to grab them faster than what we thought because we lost half the batch to hardening...meaning they would become fridge magnets, not rings.

See how small they shrink up to?  And, we obviously put too many of them on at once, because they cool so fast, you can only put a couple on at a time if you have any hopes of molding them into the shape you want!
If you try to mold them when they are almost cool, they break.
That's right....throw those puppies out.
We attempted to put them back in to soften them up.
Nope....bad idea.
Do you think this is where you need a teacher in the room?
I'm thinking...yah....that'd be great!

Bird Graphics courtesy of Graphics Fairy

This is what we ended up with....a couple rings and lots of hard flat pieces for
possibly magnets or hair barrettes?  Too funny!  Live and learn!
But, we did get an idea of what would and wouldn't work.
That big blob up in the right corner was a very large piece...like a 6x8" page
which Mark was going to make into a keychain, but it scrunched up into itself
and stayed that way...so beware...don't make large items!
See how much you're learning?
Play along with me....la,la,la-la!
The rings are pretty hard to size and I only got one good one out of the batch.....
on my index finger!  or thumb!

Um...yah.....I did everything I possibly could to this photo in Picnik to take your
attention off my 49yr old elephant hands....guess it's time to start using handcream everyday instead of just when I think of it? 
Okay....so I'm not going to be doing hand shots on commercials....I'm okay with it.

We had a hoot attempting this craft for FIVE HOURS today.
Dan & Mark laughed and shared knowing looks with each other as Alana & I freaked over the curling transparencies, ha-ha'd over the unrecognizable blobs, and
agonized over just about every little step of this whole procedure!

I actually just had a thought!  I could make markers for my herbs and they'd
be weatherproof plastic, but permanent!  Or, tags for preserves....
oooooh....the ideas are coming fast and furious now!

Don't try this at home....or actually....do try it and tell me how you made out!
Or....pull out your sewing machine instead...like I should have done!
xo