A "Charming" Tea Set

Here is my 3rd sample of the Clear Dollar Stamp set Tea-rrific.

This is a paperless project! Here are the details:
ALL CDSTAMPS USED: Tea-rrific
CS and PAPERS: None
INK: Stazon Black
MARKERS (if any): Sharpies
EMBELLISHMENTS and TOOLS: Magic Stretch cord, beads, jump rings, Shrinky-Dink plastic sheets, Toaster Oven, circle punches
COLORING MEDIUM (if any): None
SPECIAL TECHNIQUES (if any): Shrinking plastic in the oven

I asked my daughter to model this for me. I could not get a clear shot of the bracelet on her, but here is the necklace:

This is a VERY different kind of project. I wanted to try this to see how it would work. When I saw the tea set my mind thought of two things: Queens of England and Little Girls. Since I am far more acquainted with the latter, I thought a charm bracelet would be adorable with this tea set. The only way to get such small pieces would be to use Shrinky Dink plastic. Of course, I looked "everywhere" I could to find my pack of plastic, to no avail. I finally went to Hobby Lobby to get some more, and of course later I found my pack of plastic! LOL!

If you've never tried this, it is really a fun project. I stamped with Stazon on one side of the plastic sheet, then colored on the back. If you've never tried coloring with Sharpies over Stazon, you may not know that the solvent in the permanent markers will disolve the stazon. You'll end up erasing your outline. The markers will also do this to other permanent markers, so it's not as easy as coloring with other markers on paper. The other thing to keep in mind is that the color will intensify as it heats. I should have taken a picture of the plastic before heating it.

The plastic shrinks REALLY fast. In less than a minute it was almost completely shrunk. I could not get my pieces to flatten completely, so they have a bit of a curve to them. The package says they shrink to 1/3 of their original size. I think it may be more than that. Here is a picture of the teapot shrunk next to a full-size stamped teapot.

I opted for the little plastic beads for a couple of reasons. First, this is for little girls, and typically little girls love the shiny bright plastic beads. Second, I could not find my box of good beads. LOL! They are no doubt in a box in the craft room, but hiding from me.

As I mentioned, I planned to make a bracelet. I thought the teapot was too big for a bracelet, so I decided to make a necklace to go with the bracelet. Another option would be to make clip on earrings for a little girl.

When you use Shrinky Dink plastic and want to color it in, you really need a nice outline stamp. Clear Dollar Stamps has a LOT of great outline stamps and many are small, which is perfect for a project like this. My younger daughter has stamped the Patchpal Giraffe on the plastic & is going to shrink it when I can help her. That will be so cute!

I have to share my "disaster" story with you. Okay, dork story if truth be told. I finished the bracelet, then beaded the necklace. I was oh, so carefully tying the magic stretch cord when one end dropped. Almost all the beads fell off! It was rather laughable, but also frustrating. In the grand scheme of things, it was NOTHING, but it makes for a good dork story for my dork sisters.

Thanks for coming by. Have a charming day!