Shrinkwrapping Tarts and Votives

[jgcurtis1961]

Hi,

I'm trying to figure out how to go about shrinkwrapping tarts and votives. I ordered some 4" shrinkwrap tubing and tried to shrinkwrap some tarts today. I put my tart into the shrinkwrap tubing and sealed both ends and hit it with a heat gun. They turned out absolutely horrible! Is there a trick to this or am I using the wrong stuff to shrinkwrap with? Where can I get smaller shrinkwrap tubing? Thanks everyone for your help?

[prcandles]

I am by no means a shrink wrap expert, but I do have a question. About how much shrink is around the tarts before you start to heat it up? The wrap usually doesn't shrink more than 40% I believe. I have made more ugly wraps than perfect ones, and usually its because of too much wrap.

If you do a search for shrink wrap and tarts, I know that there is an old thread that had a link to directions. I didn't save it.:embarasse

HTH

Pat

[jgcurtis1961]

Thanks...I'm looking through all of the forums that I can find about shrinkwrapping. I think that I have WAY to much film left around the tart. What I'm trying to figure out is if I make a little bag out of my film or how I do it. I've been trying to find a source for smaller shrink wrap tubing but no luck so far. It worked great for my soaps that are a rectangle shape I think there is just going to be a learning curve there for me but I'll get it figured out. Does anyone know a source for small shrink wrap bags or 3" tubing?

[cbarber03]

I used to do individual tarts and shrink wraped every single one. What a PITA! But, I found that if you cut/seal the bag to make it as tight as you can all the way around the tart, then add heat, it will hug the tart very nicely. I used to sit for hours shrink wrapping, shrink wrapping, shrink wrapping, then I found clamshells!

[jgcurtis1961]

CBarber03 Thanks!! Thats what I was wondering. I am using my vacume sealer to seal the bags because it has a sealer thing on it but am finding it hard to get the bags very snug because of the way the vacume sealer is made... Did you use an impulse sealer and if you did was it hard to make a snug bag? I'm wondering if it would be wise for me to invest in an impulse sealer or it it wouldn't be much different then what I'm using now.

[candlesprite7]

Impulse sealers are nice and they really dont cost that much...

[prcandles]

Do you have an impulse sealer? Or are you taping the open end?

The impulse sealers work great to make your own bags. I had ordered one from Harbor Freight, all excited to get it, and it didn't work. Had to ship it back, they stopped carrying the size I had ordered. So I am without the sealer for now. Ebay does have them.

Good luck with this, they do look good when done right.

Pat

[gerrie]

I found the best way (at least for me) to wrap my tarts was by cutting a piece of shrink wrap to 4 1/4" square. Seemed 4 1/2 was to bulky and 4" was to small. I lay the tart face down on the wrap, bring all ends up to the bottom of the tart, slap on my warning label and hit it with a heat gun. I use one of the fiskar sliding cutter things and I can cut hundreds of them in no time at all. I buy the 4x6" shrink wrap bags, and then I cut about 10 at a time which in turn gives me 20 wraps for my tarts. HTH

[jgcurtis1961]

OH WOW those look GREAT!! Thank-You for sharing how you do that with me... I'll definately try doing it that way.

[cbarber03]

CBarber03 Thanks!! Thats what I was wondering. I am using my vacume sealer to seal the bags because it has a sealer thing on it but am finding it hard to get the bags very snug because of the way the vacume sealer is made... Did you use an impulse sealer and if you did was it hard to make a snug bag? I'm wondering if it would be wise for me to invest in an impulse sealer or it it wouldn't be much different then what I'm using now.

Yes, I used an impulse sealer. Got it off ebay for like $10-15 bucks or something. I just went around the tart cutting off any extra to have no more than about 1/4 to 1/2 in excess on the edges. You can't ever get it super tight since the sealer is straight and your tart is round. But if you get it close enough, it shrinks up very nice.

[angied]

Sorry, hate to but in but I have a question....my customers like to be able to smell the tarts before they buy them and I have thought about shrink wrap but then they wont be able to smell them will they?

Thanks

Angied

[candlesprite7]

No, not really but you could always leave one unwrapped with the wrapped ones so they can smell it.

[Sherl]

Shrink wrapping definately make tarts hard to smell, I encourage customers to sniff the candles to get an idea of what they will smell like. Sometimes they add a candle to their order.

As far as getting them to look nice, I cut 4" tube 4 inches.. seal one end of the bag, poke a hole with a pin, drop in a tart and seal the other side. Then, I cut off the corners.. so I have the shrink with 8 sides. When I apply heat, it snugs down real nice.. no corners poking out. A little more time but they look so much nicer. The hole allows air to escape when you apply the heat. You can actually poke a few to help allow scent to come out.

[cbarber03]

For smell factor, I bought a really small hole punch from the scrap book section at Michaels (I think). I punched the hole in the bag before wrapping the tart, that way there was a small hole in the package that they could still smell through. HTH

[angied]

cbarber03, now thats an idea....didnt hurt the shrinkwrap huh? Now just to figure out how to master the shrinkwrap itself:wink2:

Thanks

[cbarber03]

Nope, it didn't hurt the wrap at all and customer's appreciate that the tart is protected, but yet they can still actually smell it. Good luck on mastering shrink wrap, it's a quite a challange sometimes. The best advice I can give, is don't wear fleece! LOL! Static is a . . . well you know!

[MEP]

Hi everyone, :highfive:

Here is another resource for shrinkwrap http://www.uline.com . I truly believe if you can't find what you want there, you probably won't find it anywhere else, unless it is specialized. They have cello bags as well and so much more.

HTH

MEP