I shrunk Mommylhey into paper clips!

Hi everyone! I wanted to share with you my new found love – shrink plastic! It’s basically an amazing way to turn your drawings or stamps into cute little paper clips and charms. I've been having a shrinking craze over the past weeks. If you are familiar with the September Planners and Journals PnJplannerkit , you will see a shrink plastic paper clip appearance there too. 

I’m sure you recognize these stamps from the MLD Social Babe set and I will walk you through how I was able to turn them into little paper clips. 

Here are the materials that you will need:

1. Shrink Plastic 
2. Stamp sets – I used the MLD Social Babe stamp set
3. Scissors
4. Hole puncher (if you want to make charms. I didn’t have enough tools so I wasn’t able to)
5. Staz On Jet Black
6. Different colors of Sharpie markers
7. E600 industrial strength adhesive
8. Paper clips
9. Wet wipes (not in picture)
10. Oven toaster (not in picture)Wax paper (not in picture)

Let’s start! There are two kinds of shrink plastic. One that is smooth on both sides, and one that is already rough on one side. If you have the type of shrink plastic that is smooth on both sides, you will need to sand the other side of the shrink plastic to make it a little rough. The reason why you'll need to sand the shrink plastic is so you will be able to make the coloring material that you will be using stick to it more. The shrink plastic that I got is already rough on one side, so no sanding needed for me. 

Get a sheet of shrink plastic and dab your choice of stamp on the rough side of the shrink plastic. I will be coloring in my stamped images so I used the StazOn Solvent ink pad in Jet black because I wanted to make sure the ink will not run or smudge when I fill it with color. Remember to clean your stamps completely before you keep them! This will prevent it from further discoloration and of course so it will not stain your other ink pads. Other people have special stamp cleaners, I just use the regular baby wipes.

Let the StazOn dry a little bit before you start coloring in so that the ink will not smudge. I used my trusty stash of Sharpies for coloring. Remember, you have to color on the rough side of the plastic, on top of your stamped image. I like using lighter colors for my shrink plastic because it gets darker and brighter after it shrinks.

After coloring, preheat your oven toaster for a couple of minutes. While waiting for the oven toaster to heat up, cut the shrink plastic carefully and place the cutouts on a sheet of wax paper (still rough side up). Your oven should be ready then. Place the cutouts in the oven and set the timer to 1-2 minutes. That should allow the shrink plastic to “cook”. The plastic will begin to shrink (watch it! it's like magic!!) and when it stops shrinking, you will need a spatula to press on it and make it flat. Leave it in the toaster for another minute, take it out then wait for another 3 minutes for the shrink plastic to cool down before you take it out of the wax paper.

After it cools down, you can easily turn your shrink plastic to cute paper clips! Put a drop of E600 industrial strength adhesive at the back of the shrink and place your paperclip. Let the glue dry completely for 24 hours in a well-ventilated area.

And after 24 hours, you have your very own Mommylhey design paperclips! Isn't that fun?!

That's all! Now, I'm off to make more paperclips! I bought 3 extra packs of shrink plastic so I could play around.  LOL! Let me know if you tried shrinking. Enjoy!