Making your own wine glass charms
Wine glass charms are fun and useful ways to mark wineglasses when entertaining so folks can tell who’s glass is who’s, and a set of them makes a great hostess gift. I’ve been making these for years using traditional craft supplies, but now realized I wanted to do so using coloured digital elements. It took a bit of experimenting to figure it out, and here I’ll share with you how you can do this easily and quickly too.
Digital Supplies used:
Other supplies used:
White Polyshrink (you can get this at most craft stores)
Clear embossing powder
Scissors and hole punch
To get started, print the digital image on to a sheet of Polyshrink. The item will shrink quite a bit, so for a small charm, use an image that is about 2 inches square. If you are using an inkjet printer, the ink will pool on the surface of the Polyshrink, so it is really important for all the remaining steps not to touch the surface of the image after it’s printed, until it comes out of the oven and has cooled.
After printing the image, carefully put the sheet down and then sprinkled clear embossing powder over the image, making sure not to touch it, as the ink will smear if you do touch it. Do NOT heat set the embossing powder with your heat gun after sprinkling it on, as this will cause the Polyshrink to shrink before you are ready for it to do so.
Now, while the image is still “wet” and the embossing powder is siting on it, but not set, you will want to very carefully hand cut around the image with your scissors, being careful not to touch the surface of the image with the scissors or your fingers, as it will smear if you do so.
After it’s cut out and still unset, you will want to punch a hole in it, which will allow you to put ribbon, cord, or a metallic clasp through it after it is shrunk. Remember that the hole will shrink as much as the image, so punch a hole about double the size of the one you will want in the end.
The hard part is done and it’s time to let the magic of the Polyshrink happen! Put the cut out image on a baking pan face up and bake it at 350 degrees fahrenheit. This will cause the Polyshrink to shrink, and at the same time, the clear embossing powder will set, setting the image too.
Do not walk away from your stove, this step takes less than 5 minutes. Monitor the progress carefully by peeking in the oven frequently to make sure it does not overcook.
When you look in the oven and it looks like the below picture, don’t worry, it will be ok. Do NOT take it out and try to straighten this out. Speaking from experience, this will wreck it and you’ll have to start over.
Likewise, when you look in and see the below, stay calm, the image WILL repair and it will be ok. Don’t touch it, just let it keep baking:
All of a sudden, it will be flat and perfect. And it happens fast, so be ready to take it out of the oven as soon as it has flattened itself out. It will be hot and the embossing powder on the top may be sticky for a few seconds, so use a spatula to remove it.
And voilà! You have a beautiful, shiny, hard plastic coloured charm, ready to decorate and use as you wish.
To attach the charm to the wineglasses, you can get metal loops that clasp at a craft store, or if you are in a pinch and trying to work with what you have in your craft room (like I usually am), you can use a bit of ribbon to tie it around the base of the glass.
Other Articles by Happycrafter:
- DVD Gift box - December 10th, 2012
- Christmas desk decoration - November 29th, 2012
