PolyShrink™ Background Textures Class

 

This class is great for any age student, and teaches both surface texture techniques and the use of the PolyShrink Ruler to size PolyShrink for stamping after shrinking. There's lots of wide open play time and nice finished pieces at the end of the class. 

Student age: Any

Difficulty: Easy

Stamps?: Yes

Materials:

  • Canvas White or Translucent PolyShrink
  • Regular (320 - 400 grit, or Lucky Squirrel Sanding Blocks) and Coarse (150-200 grit or so) Sandpaper
  • Chalk Pastels
  • Heat Setting Ink (Colorbox Crafters or Fabrico)
  • Metallic and/or paint markers
  • Embossing Powders
  • Graphite pencils for marking the cutting layout
  • Permanent markers (if students will be making their own PolyShrink Rulers)

Tools:

  • PolyShrink Ruler
  • Regular Rulers
  • Stipple brushes
  • Paper Cutter or scissors
  • Heat tool or oven for shrinking
  • Stamps
  • Towels and kitchen sponges for hand cleaning
  • * single edged razor blades (optional)

Class Preparation:

Using a PolyShrink ruler (made from your current batch), select a group of stamps that measure 3 1/2 to 3 3/4 inches square on your ruler. By using this size, one sheet will give each student four 4" x 4" PS blanks which they will color and texture, shrink, and then stamp and emboss using the images you've chosen.

If you're unfamiliar with the use of chalk pastels, experiment with them before the class.You'll notice that getting just the color that you envision takes some experience. Colors often deepen much more than expected.

Tips:

There are several ways to affect the depth of color when using chalk pastels:

  • Amount of chalk applied
  • Applying some white or cream colored chalk before applying the next color. This will tone down the intensity of the next color and give a paler tone after shrinking

 There are also several ways to apply the pastels:

  • Rubbing the chalks with your fingers and rubbing it into the PS
  • *For adults: picking up the stick of pastel, holding it over the PS and scraping powder off the stick, then rubbing the color in with your fingers. The large quantity of pigment gives more even, uniform color

Instructions:

1) Sand
Have everyone sand their entire PolyShrink sheet with regular sandpaper in the usual crosshatch pattern, sanding the short way of the sheet and then the long way.

2) Cut the blanks to size
You can either have the students decide (using a PolyShrink Ruler) what size they'd like to cut the blanks to accommodate the stamps they want to use, or have everyone cut their blanks to the size you've decided on to suit the stamps you've selected.

If you opt for having everyone using one size, show the class how you used the ruler to determine the measurements.

Once the blanks are cut everyone will have a little bit of scrap to try out what you'll show them next.

3) Color
Demonstrate rubbing in chalk pastels. Make a pale sample and a deeply colored sample to show how different colors intensify after shrinking. See the Tips under Class Preparation in the left column and the graphics below.

Be sure to mention that everyone should keep their fingers clean between unlike colors, or colors can become muddy. Have them wipe their hands on the moistened sponges and thoroughly dry them before applying the next color.

4) Embellish
Show stippling, sponging or stamping textures and making dots or simple designs with metallic markers.

5) Stamp & Emboss
After everyone has played with the pastels and other art supplies and shrunk all the pieces, it's time to select stamps and embossing powder colors. Help the class select embossing powder colors that will give enough contrast to their shrunk pieces. (Metallic or paler colors for deep backgrounds and darker colors for lighter backgrounds.)

IMPORTANT NOTE- Use heat setting ink, rather than embossing ink for stamping designs. Embossing Fluid and embossing inks do not adhere well to PolyShrink!

6) Completing the projects
To complete the pieces, pinbacks can be attached using UTB. When using UTB, several minutes cooling time is all that's needed and the piece is ready to wear. Everyone can wear their creations home from class!

If time allows, a backing piece can be made for the stamped pieces, to make a layered pin. You can reinforce the PS ruler information by showing how to use the ruler to determine the size to make the larger backing layer. Hold the ruler horizontally behind the original shrunk piece and gauge by the ruler for chunky border, that will go behind the original layer. Then use a regular ruler to measure for the backing layer pieces.

Have a great class!

 

Texture Techniques:

Colorbox Crafter's applied directly off the pad.

Chalk pastels rubbed into the surface, followed by a light stippling of heat set ink.

Chalk pastels rubbed into the surface, followed dots of metallic marker.

Chalk pastels rubbed into the surface, followed by a light stippling of heat set ink. Colorbox Crafter's applied off the corner of the pad.

Chalk pastels rubbed into the surface, then textured using coarse grit sandpaper. Small amounts of pastel lightly rubbed in to bring out the texture.

Chalk pastels rubbed into the surface, followed by a light stippling of heat set ink.

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