Grafix Arts Shrink Film

Do you remember making shrink art ornaments back in grade school? Perhaps you helped your children make them when THEY were in grade school. I loved to sit in front of the oven and watch them shrivel up and become tiny little plastic treasures. I suppose it doesn’t matter what age you are, because as an adult I still love to watch shrink film shrink--only instead of my favorite cartoon characters adorning the front of them, now I’m using them to create embellishments for my scrapbook pages.

The most exciting part about shrink art these days is that you can shrink any design you desire. Shrink film comes in clear and other styles that you can stamp, draw, trace, and cut to create custom decorative elements for your scrapbook pages and art projects.

The company Grafix Arts offers a variety of packages of shrink film for crafting. They carry six different kinds of film: Clear, Clear Inkjet printable, White, White Inkjet printable, Black or Matte finish. All of the styles are acid free for archival safety. Each type comes in packages of six 8 ½” x 11” sheets. (also available in bulk packages of 10 and 50)

Grafix Shrink Film shrinks to 20% of its original size and becomes nine times thicker. You can use it to create all kinds of personalized embellishments and art projects. Here are just a few ideas:

• Shrink your alphabet stamps by stamping on the Shrink Film and making alphabet tiles.
• Use a die cut machine or decorative punches with Grafix Shrink Film to create small plastic letters and shapes that add dimension and texture to your pages.
• Shrink Film makes great key chains, jewelry, and ornaments.
• Use your ink jet printer to print titles, photographs, clip art or scanned images onto the Ink Jet Shrink Film. Then bake and shrink it to create custom plastic tiles.

• Paint the backside of the clear shrink film to create colored tiles.
• Rub ons shrink too! Add rub on designs or words to the shrink film before shrinking it to create fancy word tiles.

Each package of Grafix Shrink Film comes with complete baking instructions and tips. Grafix and the Scrapjazz Blue Crew Design Team offer the following tips and suggestions:

• Colors will intensify as they shrink film shrinks. Use water-based acrylic paints, permanent markers, pencils or pens, ink or heat set paints or ink to color shrink film designs.
• Color the fill areas of a design before outlining to prevent smearing.
• Always cut and punch any necessary holes in your design before shrinking it. It is easily and quickly cut with ordinary scissors and craft knifes.
• Do NOT use a microwave to bake the shrink film.
• Bake the shrink film at 400 degrees for about 1-2 minutes. Grafix Shrink Film will go through 2 stages while baking, first it will curl and then it will flatten out. Be sure to bake it long enough for it to flatten back out.
• You can minimize curling by placing a heavy weight vellum or parchment paper over the piece while it is baking.
• Try using a heat gun instead of an oven to shrink your designs. Use a stylus or tweezers to loosely hold the item in place while you blow hot air on it to shrink the item. The Scrapjazz Blue Crew loved this option. It saves you a trip to the kitchen each time you want to shrink a project.
• Use the bottom of a drinking glass or a flat spatula to flatten the item while it is still warm.

Give it a try and you’ll find yourself addicted to shrinking--we are!

View a gallery of layouts using Grafix Shrink Film in the Scrapjazz gallery.

Purchase Grafix Shrink Film from the following online retailers:
Wilde-Ideas
Art Supplies Online
Mister Art
Dick Blick
more...

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