In an apple-y mood

Shranky-DANKS!

So..I want to make sure that my designs are unique and that the packaging is just as enticing as the item itself - and handmade if possible. So after a lot of thinking, I've decided to make shrink plastic tags to attach to my sewn items like stuffies and zip pouches.
This weekend, I did a bit of experimenting (this is my first attempt at a sort of-tutorial) and here's what that looked like:

First, I used a round scalloped craft punch to cut out shapes. This part was kind of hard and mostly the punch wouldn't go all the way through the plastic. I tried sharpening the punch by punching through several sheets of aluminum foil and that did the trick. Then I drew doodle-y designs on them and colored in with sharpies.
Close up of doodle-y designs shows that I had fun putting dots around the edge. The quarter gives you an idea of the size. My first mistake was not punching the hole in the tag before drawing the designs. And, as you will see below, I wasn't sure where the hole would land and I goofed one up.

This is the first batch and you can see that they have potential, but the one with a colored border just looks gnarly. It only took 1 minute in my oven (the directions say 1-3 minutes). The pig in the above picture had a 1/8" hole punch that shrunk down to practically a pinhole! These would be good for earrings, but not for what I am trying to do. So I decided to do a new batch with a few modifications.

These guys came out sooo much better (Note the one with a heart border!!!). Even a regular sized hole punch (which is what you see above) won't work for my purposes...I'll have to find myself a big ole hole punch so I can thread ball-chains though the hole to attach to my goodies. The colors are really vibrant and it seems that having a black outline of your drawing is key to getting the design to stand out.

This image gives you an idea of the joocee thickness of the plastic after it shrinks. It is a very satisfying thickness, I must say. Next weekend, I will try using the inkjet shrink plastic to print out some of my designs for shrinkage.

Button flowers

I like the idea of merging fabric and sewing elements with digital drawings,
so I'm doing some experimenting...