I must say that I’m pleased with my first attempts at printing on Shrink Film. Since I was in middle school, I haven’t used shrink film, which was a long time ago. Back then I knew the film as “Shrinky Dinks.”
Over the past few weeks, I’ve watched a few videos about shrink film, and I finally got to create a few shrunken images on Sunday. I was excited to make some charms. My goodness, was it a challenge to find printable Shrink film locally? I finally found it at a JoAnn Fabrics, which was about 40 minutes away from our home. I just added that to the list of errands that I completed on Sunday.
However, since I was unsure exactly how large I wanted the pictures to be before shrinking, I thought it would be a good idea to watch another video. While this Youtuber didn’t say the size she started, I could easily see her images that were to be shrunk. So I used that as a guideline; I also took her advice.
- I reduced the Opacity under Transparency to 50%.
- I increased the saturation by 50%.
- Increased Contrast by 50%.
Shrink film can be cut using my Cricut Maker 3, I hand cut the images since I did not have the proper blade tool. I plan to use the Cricut Deep Cut Blade. Before placing these in my portable oven, I ADDED A PUNCHED HOLE since I wanted to attach these to my keys or planner. I experimented with adding three punched holes to the design and creating one hunched hole. Interestingly, there wasn’t that much difference between the one-hole punch and the multiple-hole punched items. Since I’d already heated my convection oven to 350 F, I only had to place the shrink film images inside the oven. I set the pictures on a silicone sheet and put them in the oven to bake. It took about 1.5 minutes for them to shrink. Once removed, I placed it on a mat and pressed it.
I’m loving my charms made from shrink film. I purchased UV resin and Modge Podge, and I applied one Modge Podge coat to the charms. In a week or so, I’ll add UV resin. I purchased ArtResin from the store today. I already have the proper ventilator mask to use when working with the resin. I have goggles, gloves, and old clothes that I don’t mind tossing. I know you have to work with resin in a well-ventilated area. I’m seriously thinking about painting them outside.