Charm Bracelets using Shrink Plastic Vintage Ephemera Charms

Here are some Charm Bracelets I made from ink-jet printable shrink plastic that I printed with Vintage Ephemera graphics.

I've had some ink-jet shrink plastic for years but never tried it out. I found some charm bracelet tutorials on the web. I used the images from the tutorials, but I also used other vintage images I liked, and for some I used a combination of ink-jet printing and stamping with rubber stamps.

After the charms were printed, I cut them out and punched a small hole in them (1/8" punch). Then I used the ranger heat gun on the heat resistant craft mat to shrink them one at a time. When I finished shrinking one charm, I put a book on it to flatten it out. I coated the backs and sides of each charm with gold leaf paste and I just used my finger. Then I either sprayed varnish on the front of the image, or I coated it with a glossy coating. (I have the uv-cured coating, or you could use glossy accents or dimensional magic.)

Here are the great tutorials I used. Kathe Holden at Just Something Made has the best tutorial. She provides several sheets of images you can print on your shrink plastic here Ephemera Sheet 1, Ephemera Sheet 2, Ephemera Sheet 3. You will recognize the images in my bracelets. Thanks Kathe!!!

I also used a tutorials from Yours Artfully that showed a clever use of Tim Holtz Stamps and Shrink Plastic to create charm bracelets. Thanks again you creative people!!!

I made three charm bracelets and here are the results. I used random charms that I thought looked vintage and wired up some beads that went with the other charms. I like to mix metals so it looks like random bits of vintage treasure.

Here are all the Photo's of my shrink plastic Vintage Bracelets.

I still have enough charms to make a few more bracelets. I also found some vintage cheese label images that I might try to make charms out of, along with some mouse charms obviously. =)

Oh, and I also found some vintage ski posters that would make a cool vintage ski charm bracelet that I will definitely try AND I have a few ski charms that I could use!!! Excellent.

So that was my fun project. It takes a while to do this project as you have to find the images you like, (or you can use the images I used from the tutorials), then you have to print them, shrink them, paint the backs and sides, spray a clear coating on them so they will be water resistant, then you have to collect some charms and beads, then make the charm bracelets.

It's also a fun project because if you goof up, it just looks more vintage. I wore one the other day and it was like wearing treasure!!! The charms are also light weight because they are plastic!

Sometimes I get carried away when making charm bracelets and I load them with so many charms that they are too heavy to wear around. These are light weight because the charms are plastic!!!