I think most of us are familiar with using printers to print letters and documents but a good printer in the home can really help you get creative too. This week the kind team at Very have gifted us a fabulous new Epson EcoTank 2850 to try. So today, I’m sharing this pretty SHRINK PLASTIC FLOWER JEWELLERY CRAFT that we made using our new printer! We created bracelets and earrings and they all turned out so pretty!
We made our Shrink Plastic Flower Jewellery using real flowers that we scanned with the printer. Above you’ll see some of the pretty shrink plastic bracelets that we made. I’m sure you’ll agree that the results are stunning!
We also made some pretty shrink plastic flower earrings too. Aren’t they just perfect for summer?
This flower jewellery craft was a breeze to make with our new printer from Very. Very has loads of different printers to suit all your needs. Scroll down to see why we chose the Epson Ecotank 2850 and how to make your own pretty flower jewellery.
How To Make Shrink Plastic Flower Jewellery
Jewellery Craft Supplies:
- Epson Ecotank 2850
- Printable Shrink Plastic Sheets
- Big Bite Hole Puncher
- Real Flowers
- Thin Coloured Elastic
- Jewellery Fittings
Why I Chose The Epson Ecotank 2850
Very have lots of different printers to choose from to suit all your needs. Because we do a lot of printing in this house. I was really keen to try the the Epson Ecotank 2850 because it’s so economical. It’s hard to believe, but one set of ink bottles delivers up to 7,500 pages in black and 6,000 in colour. That’s the equivalent of up to 72 cartridges worth of ink with my old printer!
I wasn’t sure how easy it would be to set up the Epson Ecotank 2850, but I had nothing to worry about. I’m not super techy but it was completely foolproof. To fill the ink reservoirs you simply up-end the bottles and their clever design delivers just the right amount of ink!
The printer comes with written set up instructions but I really liked that the digital display had step by step graphics too that led me easily through the process. I was able to fill the ink reservoirs, load the paper and set up the wifi connection in just minutes!
Another thing I really liked about the Epson Ecotank 2850, was the optional detailed print head alignment setting. I’ve been through quite a few printers over the years but have never had one that has allowed me to calibrate the printing so precisely before. I’m now really excited to dive into printing all the family photos that have been building up in their thousands on my computer over the years. The results promise to be excellent and really economical. I can’t wait.
How to Make Flower Jewellery Using Real Flowers and Shrink Plastic
1 – We chose the flowers we wanted from our garden and lay them face down on our printer’s scanner and added them to our computer.
This flower was only about 2cms and look at the detail the Epson Ecotank 2850 was able to pick up. Amazing!
2 – Once your flowers were scanned on to our computer we used Photoshop to resize them. When you use shrink plastic, things tend to get about a quarter of their original size. For our earrings, I wanted our flowers to be roughly life size, so I enlarged them all a bit in Photoshop and then pasted them onto an A4 sized page, with 6 flowers per page. For our bracelets I wanted the flowers a little smaller, so I put about 12 -15 per page.
3 – Then we printed them out straight onto the printable shrink paper. I wasn’t sure how the printer would manage with this specialist paper but it had no problems at all and I was really happy with the detail and colouring.
4 – Next we cut out the flowers and used our Big Bite Hole Punch on its smallest setting to make threading holes in the flowers. One hole in the flowers to be used for earrings and two holes in the flowers to be used for bracelets.
5 – Then we popped them onto a lined baking tray and baked them for just under two minutes. It’s so fun to see them shrink down to about quarter of their original size!
6 – To make the bracelets we threaded our homemade flower beads with thin jewellery elastic and then tied it together to make a loop.
7 – To make the earrings we just attached a simple earring fitting.
We were absolutely delighted with how this flower jewellery turned out! So simple to make and so pretty!
We’d like to say a big thank you to Very for letting us try the Epson Ecotank 2850 printer. It’s been great fun putting it through its paces and my mind is already buzzing with lots more creative ideas to try out in the future.
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