Shrunken Pumpkins

Aside from a friendly pumpkin carving competition between the two of us, Mr L and I don’t usually go in for Halloween.  However, I’m rather taken with these Visible Image Happy Halloween pumpkin stamps so I think we’ll be having a bit of spooky décor up this year!

This week, I’ve been playing with shrink plastic, a completely new product for me.  It seems most people had a play with it when they were at school but I didn’t! I used the Sizzix white shrink plastic and you can see the difference on size here between the small stamped pumpkin and the shrunken ones.

As this involves stamping onto plastic, a non-porous surface, I used Stazon ink.  Some people aren’t comfortable using Stazon on photopolymer stamps but I’ve never had any bother, although I do make sure to clean the stamps immediately after stamping.  To begin with, I used Sharpie markers to colour the pumpkins but when they touched the stamping, they did drag some of the black.

I had more success, and cleaner finished colours, using coloured pencils.  I did a little shading but it’s not really necessary as you can barely tell once the shrink is in.  The colour also intensifies when shrunk.

My first project was to be earrings so, after die-cutting the pumpkins, I punched a ⅛” hole in the stem.

You can buy a set to assist with the heating but I just used a pokey tool and a silicone mat.  You have to be brave and not panic when the plastic starts to curl up and just keep moving the heat tool around until the plastic flattens out.  Once shrunk and still hot, I folded the silicone mat over and pressed the plastic flat(ish).

To make my earrings, I just attached the pumpkins onto some shop bought findings.

Trying to think of other ways to use the shrunken pumpkins, I thought they’d make great shaker elements for a card.  I die-cut the large pumpkin from a square of black card then gold heat-embossed the small pumpkin all around the card using the masking technique.

For the shaker background, I blended Distress Oxide Villainous Potion all over another square and then added more ink through the Graffiti stencil for texture.

To ensure I got the sentiment in the right place, I used my stamping platform.  I lined up the black surround on the purple panel, positioned the stamp and picked it up with the lid, removed the black panel and then gold heat-embossed the sentiment.

To complete the card, I used black foam tape on the back of the black panel around the aperture and edge of the panel.  I put 5 shrunken pumpkins in the centre of the purple panel and adhere the black panel on top.  This was mounted on a black, square card base.

I tried shrinking the large pumpkins too but I’ve not decided what to make with those yet!

Hope you like my shrunken pumpkin projects.