Mixed Bunch Thank You

This is the card I made for our group gathering! I didn't want to make a Christmas card or use any Christmas colors so I went through my color coach and found a color combination I liked - Rich Razzleberry, Pretty in Pink, and Tempting Turquoise.

I actually was inspired by a card created by Amy O'Neill. You can see her card here. It's somewhat similar but I put my own twist on it! I really like this color combination now and I have always loved the font in the Friendly Phrases stamp set.

I really had no idea what I was going to make for my Christmas gift but I always try to make it something different than everyone else. I looked around my crafting supplies and found a package of Shrink Plastic (you know - that Shrinky Dink kind of stuff?) that I bought at a big box craft store a long time ago but never had time to play with it.

I was inspired by this necklace I found on Pinterest. I loved it and if I had that stamp set I would have CASED it EXACTLY - but I don't! So I played around, asked a friend what background or large image stamps she had. This is what I came up with:

I made this necklace and keychain from Shrink Plastic! After playing around with different punches, framelits, and dies I ended up using the top note die for the necklace and the Labels Framelits for the keychain. I discovered that StazOn is the ONLY ink I had that would work for this project. If you use Classic Ink, which is water based, it will just wipe off - even after heat setting the shrink plastic.

The keychain was simply purple StazOn and a Labels Framelit. I punched the hole with my Crop-a-dile AFTER I heated the shrink plastic film. Then I added a jump ring and the key chain. EASY PEASY!

On one side of the necklace I used the exclusive stamp set for 2012 Convention attendees - "I Am..." which I stamped with Red StazOn (which actually looks a little pink) and on the other side I used the "Daydream Medallions" stamp set:

Before I stamped the image I actually heat embossed 3-4 layers of Melon Mambo embossing powder on the back so there would be a little color coming through to the other side. I let it dry overnight just to be sure that all the layers were dry. Then I decided to stamp it and then it needed some bling (of course!) so I used rhinestones and a large pearl rhinestone in the middle.

The heat embossing felt a little tacky so I brushed some Crystal Effects over that. I figured it couldn't hurt and it would help keep those jewels from coming off with wear. I still didn't like the way it felt so I added a layer of mod podge on top of everything. That worked great - except I felt some of the "sparkle" from the rhinestones was lost in a layer of mod podge - so I recommend you take it easy around the rhinestones if you try this project at home.

If you would like more information about this project please let me know - I'm happy to share more details and let me tell you - I may be addicted to using Shrink Plastic now....I think some gift tags would be cute AND they do make a printable shrink plastic so if you have My Digital Studio (MDS) you could design so many things easily!