Thursday Dream Schemes--Free Theme Week

Okay, so I am sure that some of you are thinking that I might be a little obsessed with the Shrink Plastic lately, and you may be right! I always thought they were really cute, but then, I got the Ranger Heat It tool and wow!--I REALLY started to love the shrinking. Before this heat gun, I would either have to cook them in the oven or blow them all around the table. The new gun makes it much easier to control.

Anyway, I have been thinking that the Shrink Plastic was my way of making charms, and it suddenly hit me--yes, I am making charms! Why don't I use them as such? And here you go, I have a Valentine's jewelry set.

Lynell of Dreamweaver Stencils makes so many beautiful Valentine's stencils, that it was difficult to choose which one to use. I had to try out several stencils to see which one would work. I settled on the LM287 heart stencil, because it seemed like it shrunk to the best size for earrings. I stencilled onto the rough and ready shrink plastic with Adirondack Pigment Ink in Red Pepper and then cut out the image. I punched out the two holes with my Big Bite on the largest setting. Then, I shrunk the project using my heat gun. I created the jewelry with materials I already had.

Originally, I had two hearts in the same direction, but then flipped the stencil, so that the images were mirrors of each other. I made three in each direction, not knowing how many charms I would need for each earring. Then, I had left over charms.

I thought maybe I would create another set of earrings, when it suddenly hit me--why not a bracelet?

So, I began to think about using these charms as links. I created more than enough in each direction, so I flipped them back and forth throughout the bracelet. I tried to make it match the earrings with the same red and white beads. I also found a clasp amoung my things to create a cute Valentine closure. It unfortunately is not shown here, but you can imagine that arrow end going through the heart.

This was a really fun project, although the photography was quite the challenge. After all, it isn't easy to photograph your own wrist or ear. Thank you all so much for being indulgent on the Shrink Plastic. I think it may have run its course, and now I will be on to other techniques (for a little while, at least.) Finally, I hope that I didn't upset anyone by taking a departure from the paper crafts today. If you need your paper crafting fix, I will be back to normal next week. In the meantime, check out the posts of my fabulous Dream Team Sisters!