A Charming Idea - Shrinky Dink and the Imagine

Hi ya everyone! This is Melissa from MelissaMade here to share with you a little project I made for my daughter.  Lately, I've seen a number of people using Shrinky Dink material to make little charms or pins.  I first saw this project at 217 Creations.  Elizabeth one of our own Sassy Designers made a darling little pin in honor of Autism Awareness.  I love this idea and wanted to modify it a bit to make charms.  Now, there are a few tutorials already available out in blog world however, there are a few things that some of those tutorials don't mention and I would like to show you how here.  Thanks to Sheila for allowing me to share these ideas with you today!

The best way to start is to have a checklist of items you will need:

• Shrinky Dink Film Frosted/Graphix Inkjet Shrink Film
• Imagine with favorite cartridge or Inkjet Printer with a number of cute images
• Gypsy (optional)
• Heat Gun
• Chain for bracelet
• Jump rings
• Lobster fasteners
• Pliers and tin snips or wire cutters

I used the Gypsy to set up this little project.  You don't have to - you have two options - 1) use some adorable images you find online and print them on an Inkjet printer then cut them out or 2) Go right from your Imagine.  I wanted to use the new application that is currently on my Gypsy.

Chose print and cut from the next screen:

The next screen that appears is this basic screen of shapes that comes with the Imagine.  From here you want to choose your cartridge - if you are choosing an Imagine cartridge click on this icon:

Now you can choose your cartridge - I chose the Imagine cartridge called YUMMY!

Your adorable images from the cartridge will now appear.  I picked a few of my favorites including this little cupcake.  Just click to choose.

Once I choose my first image I want to resize it - the shrink film will reduce to about half - I chose 2 inches for a good size.  Certain images will have to be even smaller as the length is long - the piece of candy is one such case.  Here is how I adjust the size.  Click on the image once it's up on your bar.  Then click the pencil and you can edit the item.  This is what you will see first.  Down at the bottom you can see where I adjusted the size to 2.

The great thing about the Imagine is once you choose this size all items will automatically be set at this.  I did shrink the candy and the banana split to 1.5.  After you have all images chosen and have set all the sizes you click the next icon.  This will bring you to this screen.

My shrink film is 8x10.  Here I set the paper size.  Also, on this screen is the Cut settings - I chose 3 multi-cut and leave the speed and pressure at 5.

At this point you will see exactly what the Imagine will cut along with the paper size.  Anything in white is paper and anything green is mat.
The other good thing about the Imagine and the Gypsy feature is that you don't have to turn them on in any particular order.  So I just plug my Gypsy right into my Imagine to begin.  I also have to insert the Yummy cartridge into the Imagine - the Gypsy does not allow you to not have your Imagine cartridges at this time.
Next, on the Gypsy I click the Next button to begin cutting.  The Imagine jumps to life and looks like this:

Here you can see the images printed and now cutting on the Imagine.  The multi-cut remember is set to 3 so this process takes a bit of time.

Here are the cuts.  Next, punch your whole in the shrinky material BEFORE shrinking.

and here is the hole for the jump ring:

Next, shrink material under heat gun.  The material will wrinkle but don't worry - this is supposed to happen just concentrate your heat on the center until it flattens back.

Here are all the little charms shrunk down.  Next time I will use the film specifically for Inkjet printers because it's white - this is sort of translucent and frosted and the colors just aren't as vibrant.

 These are the items I will use next.  I chose a real light silvery chain and attachments.

Attach each jump ring through the charm and leave open.

Choose a length of chain and attach your lobster claw to one end and a jump ring to the other.  Next attach your charms!  Here you have an adorable little charm bracelet!

Thanks for stopping by today!  I'd love to hear your comments and please feel free to ask questions too!  For more fun projects head over to MelissaMade!
Thanks and big hugs!