Travel Bracelet step by step

Sorry it has taken me a while to get back to you guys with the instructions for the travel bracelet, life just gets in the way of things sometimes. Anyway, I guess better late than never. This is the photo that I previously posted of the bracelet but since then I came to the conclusion that it was lacking something so it has been tweaked a bit since then, finished item can be seen at the end of this post.

So for this project, I used Tim Holtz CMS108 Travel Labels and CMS102 Air travel, Paperartsy Fresco Finishes Snowflake paint, shrink plastic, Broken China and Antique Linen Distress Stains, Stazon Ink, Gold Krylon pen and lots of Tim Holtz Idea-ology goodies.

Are you sitting comfortably....then I'll begin. Pour a puddle of Paperartsy's Snowflake Fresco Finish paint on your craft sheet and use a piece of cut'n'dry foam to apply a thin layer of paint on a sheet of shrink plastic. Allow to dry thoroughly and flip over to apply paint to he other side.

When you are happy that the paint is dry, use Stazon ink to stamp all your images. I stamped enough to make three bracelets, one for me, one for the lovely Karen and one for Sweet Pea. Allow to dry and carefully cut out the images.

Flip the images over and stamp the back using the map image from the Air Travel set of stamps.

It is very important that you hole punch your shrink plastic before you shrink the pieces. Bear in mind that the hole will also shrink so I used the smallest size hole on my Crop-a-dile, this gives the perfect size hole for Tim Holtz jump rings.

I like to use a heat gun to shrink my shrink plastic but if you prefer, it can be done in the oven, simply follow the instructions on the packaging for this. The trick to shrinking shrink plastic with a heat gun is to keep the heat moving all the time so that the plastic shrinks evenly. I also use an acrylic block to flatten it out while it is still warm.

Apply some of each colour Distress Stain to your craft sheet and use a small paintbrush to carefully paint in the images. I like to start by painting the lightest colour over the whole piece and then blending in the contrasting colour. The key to using Distress Stains on a slick surface like shrink plastic is to give the surface a rougher more porous surface for the Stains to stick to and this paint works like a dream. It is a chalky finish that is sooooo smooth and leaves a beautiful surface to stamp on.

Once the Distress Stains are dry, use the gold Krylon pen to edge the shrink plastic. It's not a nice look to see those thick white edges. Sometimes, I use a black Sharpie marker but I felt that something more decorative was called for for this project.

They look so pretty!!

Now it's time to start assembling the bracelet, so once you have cut the chain to length and have attached your clasp, all the elements are going to be attached with jump rings. If you have not used jump rings before, you need to know that it is important to open the ring correctly otherwise the will not close properly again. Look at the picture below, you will see that I have the ring pinched between my thumb and finger on both hands , one side will be pulled towards me and the other, pushed away. Don't be tempted to pull the ring open sideways, it will all go horribly wrong!!! Now that you have mastered the art of opening jump rings, go ahead and add them to your bracelet. It's a nice touch to add other things such as Tim's baubles in the same jump ring as a piece of shrink.

So here is the lovely Karen modelling her bracelet for you. You can see how I have other Idea-ology items on the bracelet now. The tassels were really nice additions and I also added some very narrow sheer ribbon to my jump rings for the finishing touch.

Hope you have as much fun making bracelets as I did.

Lin