Gypsies Journal

Remember our February Product Challenge?  

We have been so busy with Valentines Day ideas that you may have forgotten we have a Product Challenge this month using our Venice stamp.  We sent out 5 Venice stamps to fellow gypsies...2 Venice stamps went to US winners and 3 were sent outside the US to Brazil, Singapore and Norway.  We're keeping our fingers crossed that the stamps find their way to their destinations quickly!  If you missed it, you can read about the challenge back in the post from Feb 1st...remember, we're giving away a Venice prize package to one lucky winner that will be drawn at random.

We also have members of the gypsy design team participating in the challenge this month.  We started off the month with Rachel's fabulous heart shaped Venice stamp pillow and today we have another fabulous project from Vicki...your gonna love it.

 Shrinky Dink Charms

Vicki Boutin

I love the new trend of vintage “finding” made in to jewelry so that is where the idea started for my part in the Venice Stamp Challenge.  When I started looking through my years of accumulated junk, I mean treasurers, I came across a package of shrink plastic.  That got the wheels turning.

For the first step, I stamped a few images from the Venice Stamp set on shrink plastic (you need to use Staz On for this) and then I cut the images out in basic shapes.  Keep it simple and leave a fair bit of negative space.  I would recommend punching the holes you will need to hang the bits BEFORE you bake them.  I did this with the second batch.

Once the images are stamped and cut out, bake them according to the directions for your brand of shrink plastic.  You may need to flatten the pieces with a spatula as soon as you take them out of the oven.  Images will shrink quite a bit, so choose larger images for the best results.

To give a few of the pieces a soldered metal look I covered the edges with double sided tape and then applied foil in gold and silver.  You may want to cover the foiled pieces with a clear sealant because the tape remains a little tacky.

To complete the necklace, link all of your desired bits together with jump rings and add a few of your favorite 7Gypsies Dangles.  Voila!!  From old junk to a new treasure!