I have a lot of fun exchanging postcards. Now I have a challenge...A student of art in Turkey has exchanged regular postcards with me and now we are going to exchange handmade ones. I did warn her...I have never made a postcard. I have done many other projects so this should turn out ok. Ive been wracking my brain to come up with some thing creative. Ive always wanted to try this, but unless it is specifically requested on the site I swap postcards on, you do not send out handmade ones. Now, I have to figure out what the post office will allow to be sent through the mail & hope it arrives at its destination in one piece.
I like textures and was looking for some thing thick and durable to mail, so my "brilliant" plan (and I am being sarcastic) was to try shrinky dink postcards. Every one loves making those, so I have been playing with them all day. I know, I know, great use of my time, right? They have turned out cute so far, if not a little on the small side. They do not shrink 100% straight though.
I used a full shrinky dink paige which is 10 inches. It shrank down to 4 inches across. I used clear, because that's what I had, but I was hoping I had some left over opaque. First, I used a corner punch so they wouldn't be sharp. Then, I used permanent marker to make the middle line, address, and write out what I wanted it to say. Now its time for the oven.....
The first one turned out good, shrank and then flattened out like normal. The second one shrank but curled up and stuck to itself on one corner. Fail! So watch while it is in the oven. I had a wooden skewer ready when I tried the second one again to keep it from touching, but I didnt need to use it.
This was the fun part...the decorating. I cut the designs out of the napkins that I wanted to use and removed the extra back layer and mod podged them to the front of the shrinky dink (no writing on this side).
After it was done drying I inked the edges and surface wrinkles & sprayed it with a fine golden mist spray (Maya Mists) to add sheen. Instead of being clear like the original shrinky dink sheet it looks frosted, which is what I wanted, you can still see through it but not enough to read it.
I did notice that the middle line on the back shows through a little more than I thought it would. Next time I will use the smaller fine tipped permanent black marker.
To my disappointment the post office said these were to small to send through the mail without being in an envelope (sigh). The finished size was 4 inches wide and approximately 3.5 inches long.....so, an envie it is.
Hope they like them any way=)
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