Make Your Own Monday: Shrink Charms

It's here isn't it?  Thanksgiving week!  Aaaaaaaahhhh!!

I sound so negative don't I?  That's terrible!

We're visiting my parents for Thanksgiving and I'm really excited about it.  So, why the negativity, you say?  Well, I've been saying it for a while... time is going by way too fast and Thanksgiving week means only just a few more weeks until Christmas.  I had hoped to have Christmas gifts put together to take to my family this week.  Nope, it's just not going to happen.  At the rate I'm progressing, they'll be lucky to get something by Valentine's Day.  

With that said, I'm probably not going to blog much this week.  I've definitely got a little something planned for Black Friday though, so stay tuned for that.  Other than that, this will probably be it for Thanksgiving week blogging.  There, I just rid myself of one thing on my to-do list.  I feel better already.

I couldn't let the week go by without mentioning the good happenings around our house.  Next Sunday is Hailey's 6th Birthday.  Happy Birthday, Hailey!  The poor girl was cursed to be born during the holidays.  That means that partying for her birthday is always last minute.  We decided last week that the only way we were going to squeeze a party in would be to do it this past Saturday.  I'm so blessed to have a wonderful best friend, Heather, who also makes amazing cakes.  So, I begged her to make me one.  She consented and I immediately regretted it when Hailey announced she wanted a Dinosaur Train cake.  Great, fondant dinosaurs? Heather is going to kill me!  Luckily, I found a motorized train set with some figurines and Heather was able to use that to decorate the cake.  I'm glad it relieved some of the pressure of decorating a last minute cake for me.  We called all of Hailey's friends on Friday and surprisingly 12 out of the 14 we invited were able to come!  We did dino face painting, jumped on the trampoline, whacked the crap out of a dino pinata, ate yummy cake, and opened presents. Before we knew it, the time was up.  In the end it was fun even for a last minute party.  Hailey was thrilled.  I'm not sure I can really believe that she is going to be 6 years old.

Aren't they just two of the cutest dinosaurs on the planet?

Happy realization for me?  Remembering that we have an every other year party rule... no big parties next year!  Yippee!

Okay, on to some crafty stuff.  I've been noticing a big resurgence of things made out of shrink plastic lately.  Remember Shrinky Dinks when you were a kid?  Well, now it's graduated from kids stuff to a "legitimate" crafter's material!  I have enjoyed using it for some time now.  I was just thrilled to discover a couple of years ago that my KNK MAXX digital die-cutting machine would cut the stuff!  An endless world of opportunities for shrinking cute things down to minuscule size opened up before me.  I thought I'd share one quick and fun technique for shrink plastic with you.

Today you will learn to make your own... Shrink Charms

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The charms shown above are approximately 1" across.  Cute, aren't they?

A few notes before we get started:

I'm using my Itty Bitty Charms and Pen Doodles - Autumn Leaf digital cutting designs.  You can do your doodling by hand if you want.  You could even cut your charms by hand it you want.  The cutter is optional but makes this lots easier.

I'm using Transluscent Shrink Film by Grafix.  I love how it cuts.  Nice and smooth.  For a pen, I'm using a plain old fine point Sharpie marker.

For software and cutter I'm using the KNK Studio MAXX software with my KNK MAXX cutting machine. You'll want to check to make sure your cutter can cut shrink film before you try this.

Materials:
Shrink Plastic
Fine Point Permanent Marker
Die Cut Machine
Sticky Cutting Mat
Itty Bitty Charms (Optional)
Pen Doodles - Autumn Leaf (Optional)

1. Open your charm cutting design.  Make your charms the size you want them to be when you are finished shrinking them.

2. Size everything up 200%.

3. Overlay your pen doodle design on top of your charms.  I deleted out the parts I didn't need and moved a few things around.  Let your doodle design be larger than your charms so the lines spill off the edges.

4.  Get your machine ready.  Test cut your shrink plastic and draw with your pen tool so you'll know exactly what settings you need before you start.  Be sure you've got the pressure set correctly for your pen or you will squish the nib of your pen.  I've done this... sad!

5. Draw your doodle design with the permanent marker.  Position your starting point so that the rollers won't roll over your doodles.  It takes a while for permanent marker to dry and it will smear if the rollers go over it.

6. Cut your charms out.

7.  Carefully remove them from the mat.  The ink will be wet!

8. Shrink them via the manufacturer's instructions.

9. Ta Da!  Cute little guys aren't they?  Let them cool before you touch them.  They will be hot!

I also wanted to add that you can color these with Copic markers.  You'll have to wait until after they are shrunk though.  I tried a sample piece before and it just dissolved the marker lines.  After shrinking it worked fine!  If I get a chance to color some, I'll post a finished photo.

Here's a little portable version of this tutorial. Pin it or save it... whatever works for you!

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Coming up... Some fun things happening on Black Friday!  There will be a freebie and giveaway this weekend along with a fantastic sale!  50% off everything Sam & Hailey!  See ya then!

Time to get crafty, people!

Color Swatch Thursday: Grandmother's Cameo

A Quick Note:  It's Anniversary Celebration Week at VDBC!  There are tons of challenges and prizes to be won.  Click here to find the spot where all the challenges will be posted (there are already a few posted by yours truly).  Also, be sure to sign up for the VDBC Newsletter so you'll get the Anniversary Guide that's coming out soon!


There's even a Color Swatch Challenge going on right now!


But wait there's more!  Want a free cutting design and a chance to win fabulous prizes?  Check out Sam & Hailey's Make-n-Take at the VDBC Anniversary Forum!

It's day four of Fall Break!  We've had a ball together all week long.  Only a few bumps along the way as you might expect for a Mom who's used to having her own time and two girls who are used to being kept busy at school all day long.  On the bright side, I've only had to chase Bandit, the tiny dog, down the street twice this week.  So far.  I guess we are doing okay if that's the only real stress we've had.

It was my birthday yesterday.  I generally like to keep it low key.  I kind of made the mistake last year of saying I didn't wanted to pretend I wasn't turning 40.  So we um... pretty much ignored it.  My sweet husband always takes me at my word.  Hahaha!  This year I didn't make any such demands.  We went out to dinner and the girls made me some homemade cards.  They also woke me up about 6:30 am, not my favorite birthday gift, but it is what it is.  Thank goodness for Facebook announcing to the universe that it's your birthday.  It sure boosted my spirits to have so many well wishes on my wall all day long.  Thanks, everyone!

So, it's the big 4-1 this year.  I don't know how I managed to get this old.  And yet here I am.  A few months ago we listening to the radio news in the car.  The story mentioned the word "middle aged."  Samantha piped up and said, "That's like you, Mom!"  What??? Me?  Middle-aged?  She continued on, "You are in the middle, because you are a grandma, but you are still young!"  Ahhh... phew, thanks for clarifying that point there, Sam.  I usually get a kick out of telling people I have two one year old granddaughters. I love the look of surprise on their faces.  But then, someday, I know it will happen.... no one will look surprised anymore and then I will know I've reached true middle-aged-ness.

Speaking of grandparents.  I was pondering mine as I was thinking about Cameos on for Tuesday's Trendwatch. When my beloved Aunt Shelba passed away 11 years ago, I inherited some of her jewelry.  I am not a jewelry person usually, but these pieces I absolutely love.  It's a little blend of the old and the new.  There's a modern crystal cameo with a silver hoop around it, a large opal with rhinestones around it, the silver heiroglyph pendant my Aunt bought in Egypt with her name on it, and my favorite, my Grandmother Thomas's cameo.  I wore her cameo on my wedding day.  I love feeling connected to her by wearing it. It's not very big, as far as cameos go, but it's so special to me.  I decided to share these pieces with you for today's color swatch.

You can download an Adobe Swatch Exchange File for this color scheme from Adobe Kuler.

I love the soft subtle nearly-mono-chromatic palette.  Cameo pinks with a pinch of soft gold.  This would make a lovely color scheme for a wedding scrapbook layout or something with a vintage family history flavor. I hope you'll enjoy it, too.

As always, if you make something with this color swatch set, you are more than welcome to post it on your blog and then post a link in the comments section below.

Don't forget the Color Swatch challenge going on right now on the VDBC Anniversary Celebration Forum!

Time to get crafty, people!

Project Wednesday: Button Pins and Earrings

I'm totally on a button kick lately. So are my kids! I have a big glass bowl full of buttons that they love to dig through for their favorites. This usually results in buttons slowly disappearing from the big glass jar at a rate faster than I use them. I've collected them from here and there. Some are fancy shapes {the kids like those the best}. And some are just regular old buttons. I think I like those the best, myself.  I also have a secret stash of buttons that no one else knows about.  Wait, now you know about them...

Okay, onto a little button-esque project!

Today's project is... Button Pins and Earrings

This is a fun project for you and/or your kids. I'd probably recommend you do the hot glueing for them. Unless you like crying, which I don't particularly.  Also, I hope you'll use some common sense and realize that buttons are a choking hazard and you shouldn't be pinning or earring-ing these projects on anyone smaller than 3 years old or who enjoys choking on buttons.

The supplies for these projects I collected from various sources.  Buttons from the ginormous jar 'o buttons, or perhaps the secret stash... shhhhh...  The pin backs I picked up at a craft store.  The earring backs you could also pick up at a craft store.  I happened to get mine from Fire Mountain Gems.  Only go to their site if you like drooling and have several hours to spend doing so.  Consider yourself warned.

My favorite part of this project?  Just sitting there, staring at all the buttons until inspiration strikes.  Then spending an hour coming up with every possible combination.  Who knew buttons could be so fun? 

And why be limited by a flower shape?  Make a big button mash-up-free-form shape. 

Why be limited to a pin or earrings?  Try headbands, hair clips, bobby pins, nose rings, et cetera.

Here are the full instructions.  If you have trouble reading it, just click on the image below to open it full size.

Have fun!  If you come up with any fun button jewelry projects of your own, feel free to post a link in the comments section below.

Time to get crafty, people!

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Project Wednesday: Paper Charms

Time for another regularly scheduled blog post!  Every Wednesday I'll be posting a little project for you to try.  Maybe a big project occasionally, but I'll try to keep them small so you can enjoy making something quickly.  Sometimes, they'll be die-cut machine related, sometimes not.

Today's project is... Paper Charms

We made a whole bunch of these at Girls Camp this year.  This is a great project for girls of just about any age.  Younger might need a little help.  I think my favorite thing about this project is seeing the endless variations that the girls came up with. 

You start with a tiny canvas... just one inch square or round.  I used some nifty chipboard shapes for mine.  But why not try something different?  Metal?  Acrylic?  Now your thinking! 

Finish off the base by adding some paper and color around the edges.  Don't want that grey chipboard color peeking out... or do you? Hmmm....

Time for some embellies!  The tiniest ones you can find.  On the blue charm at the top of this post I used some old typewriter key stickers and some tiny flowers.  A little Dew Drop finished it off.  Anything goes, for yours!  Don't copy mine... well... I suppose you can if you really want.

Finally, punch a hole if you want to hang it from something like a necklace.  Finish it off with a coating of Mod Podge sealer.  I love how sealing it with Mod Podge make the whole thing one unified piece.  It's like covering it in shrink wrap.

Here are the full instructions.  If you have trouble reading it, just click on the image below to open it full size. 

Want ideas for using your die-cutter for this project?  Let's see... you could cut the chipboard (or other material) shapes by the dozen.  Especially handy if you want to make circle charms.  Why not cut a bunch of tiny letters or flowers out, too?

Like I said before {and I love repeating myself, I really do}, the thing I love about this project is the endless variations.  It's amazing the amount of creativity you can pack into such a tiny canvas.

Time to get crafty, people!

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