Flowery Shrink-Plastic Buttons

So how did I manage without knowing about Feline Playful until now?! It's such a wonderful resource for challenges, and I love all the info that's included. It's also really handy when you want to make a card for a challenge, but know you want to include something specific. For example, I wanted to participate in a challenge, but I wanted to include buttons and flowers on whatever I made, so I did a quick search on Feline Playful and ta da I discovered MelJen's Buttons & Bows challenge, as well as Scrappy Frogs and their Summer Flowers challenge. I was also able to find the perfect sketch, at Stampin' Royalty, thanks to their pictorial list!

The reason I was so keen on using buttons was because I saw a great tutorial on How to Make Buttons from Shrink Plastic at scissors.paper.wok yesterday, and finally pulled out the shrink plastic Mom sent me. I was really surprised how easy these were.

To make the daisy buttons, I started by making a template on plain white paper: I punched a 2-inch circle, folded it in half, and made the eye-holes with a 3/16 punch. Then I punched circles out of the shrink plastic and used the template to make the smaller holes. I stamped this lovely Daisy from SP & Company onto the plastic circles, using StazOn ink. To shrink the circles into buttons, I used my heat tool. That thing is amazing. It all happens really fast: the plastic crumples up & then suddenly flattens out into a circle (or, in my case, an oval, which was fine with me). I highly recommend using a surface with a lip (I used the top of a metal gift can) and something long to keep the plastic in place (used my reverse-action tweezers; just don't touch the hot metal!). To make sure it stays flat after melting, I used a tip from Mom: put a wooden stamp on it (wood-side down) immediately after shrinking. I used Copics to color the buttons after shrinking.

I made a tiny flower using the same process but smaller punches, and made a plain button that I then covered in yellow flocking.

I went ahead and chose my own color combo. I couldn't help making the daisies Black-eyed Susans, as they're blooming here and are so beautiful.

Inspiration:
Scrappy Frogs Challenge: Summer Flowers
MelJen's Designs Challenge #67: Buttons and Bows
Stampin' Royalty Challenge #81: Sketch


Tutorial: How to Make Buttons from Shrink Plastic at scissors.paper.wok

Stamps: Dandelion Mouse digi by MelJen's Designs, For all Mothers set by SP & Company, Happiness Ticket by When the Scrap Hits the Fun
Paper: Hammermill, Recollections, pre-embossed paper from stash, shrink plastic from stash
Tools: InDesign, HP printer & ink, needle, awl, Fiskars papercutter, Recollections punches, Crop-O-Dile, Tim Holtz paper distresser & scissors
Other: ZipDry glue, ZIG glue pen, Offray & Bargain ribbon, Recollections flocking powder, Copic markers, Versamark ink