Let's start the New Year with a Freebie... or TWO!

Hey Blog Friends,

Here's to an amazingly creative 2010!  I hope your New Year celebrations were filled with fun and happy times with friends and family.  Here's New Year's Eve at the Heater relatives:

Yup, we're both looking pretty tuckered out! 

As I mentioned before, CHA is rapidly approaching and I'm putting the finishing touches on my new products for release at CHA. I'm in the middle of a creative AVALANCHE right now, it's kind of out of control and I have so many things I want to complete for the show, that I'm going to stop and do a "triage" today, lol.  There are way too many ideas for the amount of time left to complete ALL of them.  Sometimes it happens that way, doesn't it?  When you start creating, all of a sudden it releases a tidal wave of ideas.  (I hope I'm not the only one, lol....)  I am so excited to start sharing the new products with you, I can hardly wait!  I'll start giving you sneak peeks soon.... 

In the meantime, right after Christmas I always think about the projects I wanted to make for family and friends and never quite had enough time to finish.  I also start thinking that I'm going to start earlier next year.  So I wanted to share with you a new product that was released last Fall, but never fully made it to the blog.  Maybe it will give you some inspiration for projects to start on now for next year.  It's my new Shrink Plastic CD, item #CD201 "Deck the Halls".  Several of you asked about it after seeing some of the images on the post for the Madison, Wisconsin show.  Here's a photo of the cover of the CD:

Here are some of the 3 dimensional ornaments we made using the CD.  (The images are glued together back to back, so that when they spin around on the tree, the image is on both sides.)

The CD contains over 150 images formatted for printing on the shrink plastic, and the kit comes with full step-by-step instructions and 4 sheets of Inkjet Printable Shrink Plastic. (The price is $18.95 and can be ordered by calling toll free 1-800-945-3980). The shrink plastic sheets have been treated with a special coating that allows the ink jet ink to stick to the plastic.  One nice thing about our shrink plastic is that it's coated on both sides, so you don't have to try to figure out which way to put it in the printer, you can print on either side... or BOTH sides.  It's super simple to use, the CD comes with sheets that are ready to print, OR if you prefer to choose your own assortment of items on the page, it includes full step-by-step instructions to walk you through the process.  (This particular Shrink Plastic Project CD is geared toward someone who may not even know how to use the computer, basically you turn on the computer and it tells you what to do next.)  

Here's how simple it is:

1.  Print a sheet of images on the shrink plastic.  (You will notice the images on the printed sheet look a little "washed out".  We formatted them this way on purpose, because when they shrink they get smaller and much darker.  The images are pre-lightened for you.)

2.  Cut out the images (you can see the washed out look on the photo below).  When cutting, it looks better if you leave a tiny white border around the edge of the cutout, as shown below. Cutter Bee scissors are a good choice for cutting.

3.  Shrink the cutout.  I prefer to use an embossing tool to shrink the images, but you could also use an oven or a toaster oven.  If you use the oven you will want to practice with the scraps first to check the temperature of the oven.  (Full instructions are included with the CD.)  It will curl up and look like it's ruined....just keep applying the heat until all areas are fully shrunk and until the image starts to lay flat again.  (Don't stop heating it midway through the process.)

4.  When the image starts to relax and lay flat again, place an acrylic block on top of it to flatten the image.

SUPER SIMPLE!  The images look so good when they're shrunk, they make great package tags, ornaments, and craft project embellishments.  Here are a few scenes from our display boards: 



  
There will be a brand new Shrink Plastic Project CD released at CHA and the projects are absolutely AWESOME....  I can't WAIT to show you, lol.  Soon!

How would you like to WIN the CD shown above?  If you make a comment on THIS blog post between now and  Midnight Sunday, January 10, your name will be placed in a drawing for CD201 Deck the Halls Shrink Plastic Project CD.  I will randomly draw TWO names on Monday, January 11 and post the winner's names on the blog.  The winners will have until Friday, January 15 to contact me to receive the prizes.

I'll share the new CD with you as soon as we finish photographing the projects so be sure to check back often.... and I'll also be doing some quick freebies in the coming weeks, where I'll just pick a comment on a random post and the commenter will win a prize. Check back, comment often, lol!  :)

OK, back to the triage, the avalanche and the awesome, new fun stuff.  Hehehehe, having a hard time waiting to show you!

See you soon!

Darcie

 

 
 
 

Comments

[gina F]

This looks fun! Love your ideas...gina F

[Diane Jacobson]

Wow, it seems like forever since I had a minute to check in and see what is going on. The holidays, work and our terribly cold/snowy weather is eating up way too much time. It hasn't been much fun. Looking forward to more fun with stamping. I love the ideas listed here. I, too, said I am going to start early, but that is just the thought. I will send you an email, have to tell you about another of your stamps, from the old catalog. Have a great New year!

[Marie Oberg]

Thanks for more creative ideas. The products that you have are very "user friendly". Thanks for making them so easy to understand. The stamp store in my area closed about 2 yrs. ago so your blog and the Hamburg Show have kept me in the loop.
I noticed that the penguins in this CD match the stamp sets that I bought at the Hamburg show. Love coordinating embellishments with stamps! Can't wait to see the new products,

[Michele F.]

Hi Darcy,
I don't need to win the Deck The Halls CD because I already bought it, but wanted to say it's awesome!! I just love the pre done pages in the cd, it makes it sooo easy. I made the ornaments and they came out great! Can't wait to see all your new products.

[Linda]

Gotta have this new Shrink CD! Any chance it will be included in your Club Member order this month or next? I signed up in June while your were in Arlington, TX.

[Mary H.]

Those penguins are just adorable. Good luck getting reading for CHA!

[Jennifer]

Ok I'm ordering this right now. I love the tag idea for packages, not to mention I've really gotten into the shrink plastic. I made wine glass charms as gifts for the holidays.

[kate]

Oh! I finally found your blog and product! I saw you in NJ about a year and a half ago and have been desperately looking all over for you - what creativity and fun products!!! This shrink plastic and CD is so fun and I remember how cute ALL of your things are. Thanks for sharing your creativity!
kate

[Debee Meyer]

There's no better way to start the new year than with new Darcie products. I'm so looking forward to all your new items. It's like waiting for Santa go come down the chimney. Please hurry and thank you for sharing.

[Debbie Fisehr]

Oh my! How darling! Printing on shrink plastic is a cool idea!

[Tracy]

Shrinky plastic brings out the kid in ya Ü
Love the thickness because it adds an extra layer of dimension. Adore all those new images, too!
Happy New Year Ü

[Suzanne Schmidt]

Happy new year! This looks like a super fun project and those images are adorable! Thanks for the chance to win, you are so generous!

[Dawn Beery]

Thanks for being so generous! I love seeing all your products at the stamp shows even though my wallet doesnt!

[Kathy JH]

Grandkids keep you on your toes! We had 5 of ours here for Christmas - lots of fun! Cute shrink art! I have a couple of your shrink art CD's and love them. Can't wait to see what you are creating for this year.

[Dee]

I love all of the images on this CD, thanks for giving us a chance to win one!

[Beth Lindsay]

This one is so cute! I have the Easter/Spring one and I absolutely love it, plus it's so easy to use. Thank you for a chance to win.

Beth

[Andrea]

These are such a cute project! I loved making those when I was younger.... my brain is calling them shrinky-dinks. Don't know if this is correct but I do remember that they were tons of fun. Your blog and your website are full of fantastic ideas.

[Elisabetta]

That's so cute! I'm willing to partecipate!!!
Hugs
Lizzie