How To Make Sugar Skull Shrink Plastic Earrings for BeadsDirectUK


Sugar Skull Shrink Plastic Earrings
Margot Potter for BeadsDirectUK

Ah, shrink plastic.  I can clearly recall myself as a younger and impatient Madge marveling through the oven door window as my colorful creations folded, flipped, flopped and flattened into delightful miniature works of art.  Some things never change.  I've been making shrink plastic jewelry for a number of years.  It does require just a little bit of patience, but the end result is absolutely worth the effort!  I've always had a deep adoration for The Day of the Dead celebration and the many colorful, lively, beautiful crafts that surround this holiday.  What an amazing way to celebrate life and those who have passed away.  I've taken a permission free skull and added some sugar skull embellishments, you can take the skull and add more details or take some away, remember to add a little loop at the top for your jump ring.  Use permanent markers, take your time and make sure you bake colored side up



I had a handful of craft fails making these because I did not bake colored side up...derp. Trust me when I tell you that it will work out!  Use parchment paper, brown paper bag or foil on the tray and a small spatula to flatten if the plastic is slightly curled up as soon as I remove it from my toaster oven. I recommend buying an inexpensive toaster oven for your shrink plastic and polymer clay creations.

You can get everything you need to make your own Sugar Skull Shrink Plastic Earrings at BeadsDirectUK:

Materials
Shrinkies frosted shrink plastic
Black Sharpee 
Colored markers or pencils
8 tiny lucite flowers
8 coordinating 4mm SWAROVSKI ELEMENTS rounds
2 silver plated ear wires
8 silver plated head pins
2  6mm silver plated jump rings
2 10mm silver plated jump rings
Parchment paper, brown paper bag or foil

Tools
Scissors
Round nose pliers
Chain nose pliers
Wire cutters
Hole punch
Small spatula
Toaster oven or heat tool



Remember, bake colored side UP! Or you may be a sad, sad shrink plastic maker.


Now that you've made these lovely earrings, bask in the glow of compliments when you wear
them out on the town!



DISCLOSURE: This blogger was compensated and provided product for this project. A gal has to butter her bread. All opinions are 100% mine, if I don't like it, I don't blog it.

(Also note that I did not invent shrink plastic, Day of the Dead, Sugar Skulls or this idea,
it's just my take on it!  Can't wait to see yours!)

2 comments:

Wendy said...

these earrings are fabulous...thank you for sharing the instructions...i do have a peeve with your word verification...i have given up many times after trying to get the correct code...please consider turning it off and just moderating the comments before posting them...i'm sure others get frustrated and give up also...here goes...

Margot Potter said...

Wendy

Thank you! I am so sorry about your frustration.

The problem is that I have so many balls in the air every day and the moment I turn off CAPTCHA, I get bombarded with spam comments, hundreds of them, that require me to go to Blogger and delete. The time it takes to moderate them is significant. I just don't have that many hands or hours! It's so frustrating and I don't know why they make it so hard to execute.

Thanks for persevering!

Best
Margot