My Love Hate Relationship with Shrink Plastic

When I was young we did not have shrink plastic. We did have Blue Peter telling us that crisp packets got small in the oven and could be used as keyrings, but that was as far as it went. I only remember noticing shrink plastic in my teens and didn't have any use for it at the time. In my twenties I saw the occasional craft project using charms made from shrink plastic and I felt my time had come. That was when I learnt to love the shrink plastic, while it began its committed hatred of me.

I could have been a contender! But the more I desired the effects of shrink plastic, the less it happened. I invested in printable stuff and it burnt (BURNT) without shrinking one iota. I got on OK with the stuff you draw on but it just wasn't what I wanted. I retired from the field and slunk away into the darkness to allow my broken heart time to heal.

Then came yesterday.

I was meandering around a Mano Creare which is a chain owned by the Okadaya group (my favourite craft shop is one of theirs in Shibuya) and I saw...there...hanging nonchalantly on the display...shrink plastic. It was quite miraculous that I noticed it since it is naturally in japanese but somehow my shrink-dar was on the alert (perhaps it had been all these years) and here was a packet of the good stuff. It even had a picture of my printer on the front! A sign! This time it would be different. This time I would print on that plastic and it would be awesome. It would work. I'd be a God. Maybe.

Goddamn sheets are too goddamn small for my printer to work with.

After about 90 minutes of effort I managed to achieve this:

The picture is just itching to flake off so I need to find some varnish asap to sort it out with. The rest of the sheet got mangled so my idea of giving my sister a keyring type brag book of her ickle daughter for her birthday is out the window. Unless I draw pictures of her.

I'm no stormtrooper when it comes to drawing though.

I need to learn to leave the plastic to the professionals and stick to what I'm good at - the hexagons. Hence the state of the sofa.

I have a bag in mind with large wooden handles. We will see what appears.