Shrinky Dink Valentine

I certainly hope that I have as much fun creating Valentines as I did Christmas cards. Since I created SOOOO many different Christmas cards this year very few people received the same card. This, of course, brought the challenge "which card to send whom"! I am assuming this will be my Valentine dilemma as well..... However, I have decided that will be another area that I can work on in 2009 - "Actually mailing out the cards that I create"!!!!!

My little, framed, shrinky dink heart started out as a stamped image of the larger heart but did not maintain the details very well. Therefore I colored it in, added white dots using my stylus and acrylic paint. I haven't played with shrinky dinks since I was way little, surely I played with them right??? What child of the 70's didn't..... I discovered that it was much quicker to just use my heat tool vs. the oven and the inked image was more clear (even though I colored it in)....

Things I learned::::::

1) Sand the plastic prior to stamping it to keep the stamp from sliding on the plastic 2) If you mess us you can just wipe the image off of the plastic and try again 3) Do not try to heat your image inside of your embossing tray (embossing tray will melt and your shrinky dink will blow around 4) Shrinky dink will completely curl up before flattening out 5) Gently lay the metal part of your stylus across the plastic as you heat it 6) Flatten the shrunk plastic with a spatula or pan scraper after heating to ensure that it is flat

I used Polka Dot Basics by PaperTrey Ink for the dots on my scalloped circle and inside of my metal frame. The white ink is Fresh Snow and the Pink heart and pink dots were stamped using the new Rasberry Fizz (probably gonna see that color alot). I love how the sentiment appears to be referring to the little framed shrinky dink heart.............................. Guess what?? I didn't use any ribbon!!!!! That should be a sin, don't ya think???

Enjoy the rest of your day and thanks for stopping by
................Recipe...............
Verve: Heart to Heart Stamps
Stampin' Up!: black & white cardstock, metal hodge podge frame w/brads,
PaperTrey Ink: Fresh Snow, Rasberry Fizz perfect match inks, Polka Dot Basics Stamps,
Tools: Sewing machine, heat tool, Stylus, Marvy Uchida purple scalloped circle punch