Goody Bag Diva: Shrinky Dinks

Showing posts with label Shrinky Dinks. Show all posts

Friday, August 12, 2011

Candle Table Decorations

Now we are on to the table decorations - I wanted them to be elegant but still fit in with our casual party setting. I also love putting pictures on candles and I couldn't wait for everyone to see my parent's wedding photo.

The details:

For the candles, I created a simple "40" using shrinky dinks and then colored itt with a red stamp pad. The trick is to mold the shrinky dink to a glass right when you take it out of the oven so it holds to the candle better. Then I simply attached it with mini glue dots.

For the candle holder I found these wonderful heart shaped glass bowls at the Dollar Tree - with some vinyl and some red gems they turned out fantastic.

I used the Elegant Cakes font as well as the "anniversary" phrase - which I think is so lovely with all the scrolls - and much easier to cut out in vinyl than in paper. I laid out the phrases as I wanted them on the Gypsy, grouped them, and then re-sized them to be under two inches to fit on the side of the glass bowl.

I think finally you are ready to see how everything looked at the party!

I hope these have inspired you for your next anniversary occasion, and remember next week I will show you how I took the leftover popcorn boxes and re-purposed them for another baseball picnic!

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Cricut Marker and Shrinky Dink Tutorial

Christmas in July is continuing here with a tutorial of how to combine the Cricut Markers with Shrinky Dinks for a whole bunch of fun and some cute projects! I decided to make a snowman charm using Winter Frolic and you really can make anything - but it tends to be easiest when the cut has a shadow layer. I also have written these directions for someone using the Gypsy. I do not know if the layers would line up correctly using the "old fashioned" method.

The details:

I begin with my snowman shape on one layer, and the shadow directly behind it on the second layer.

You can also see I added some circles from George to create a spot for the finding to go through. (I need to resize them - I thought they were a little big for the final product.)

I put my marker in the machine, set for low pressure, and "cut" the first layer which draws the outline of the snowman for me.

This next step is important, instead of unloading the mat, I select Return to Design. If you unload the mat, the design won't be centered.

I move to the second (shadow) layer of the gypsy design. Then I swtich out the marker for the blade housing and change the settings. The settings that have worked best for me are: Blade depth 6, Max pressure, and Multi-cut of 2.

This cuts out the shrinky dink around my image and gives it a nice border, resulting in this:

Now I am ready to decorate and color my snowman and make him adorable. Here he is all ready to be baked.

I used a Peachy Keen stamp with Staz-On ink, I used Sharpie markers for the hat and gloves, and some watercolor pencils for the nose and cheeks. I put him in the toaster oven at 325 degrees until it curls up and then lays flat, which brings me to my final product.

I started out with a three inch snowman and my final charm is about 1.5 inches and (I think) super cute!. I hope the directions are clear and encourage you to start cutting and shrinking!

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Princess Swing Card

Oh my goodness it has been a whole month! How awful! I really hope this is the last time I go so long without posting on my poor blog. I have been creating some, not a huge amount, but just have not had the time to write the posts. I also have been making cards - so there must be something wrong with me! I am no great cardmaker but these last few have not completely sucked so I will share a few of them with you - hopefully sooner rather than later.

This card is a "swing" card that I was inspired to make after seeing a post by LorraineB at Card Creations by Lorraine. Her post has a link to a great tutorial video that I watched in order to learn how to make the card. It is for a birthday party we will go to next week, and I was able to work my love of shrinky dinks into the card - always a bonus!

The "outside" of the card

A close- up of the shrinky dink Cinderella:

The "inside"

The crafty details:

The card dimensions are 5 1/2 inches by 6 1/2 inches which makes all the cuts rather small. If you follow the links to watch the video she gives you all the right measurements for the scoring and cutting of the card base. I think the Happy Birthday is the largest cut at 2 inches - the other ones are all between 1.50 and 1.90 on the Gypsy.

Cinderella was drawn and cut at 3.5 inches before she was baked and shrunk. The shoe is also from Disney's Happily Ever After and since I messed up the top layer (shhhh - don't tell) I covered it with glitter and then added the adhesive pearls to make it pretty again.

The crown and the phrase are both from Once Upon A Princess, and I used my I-rock and heat set gems to bling it up a little. The "3" is from Sweet Treats, and I used stickles to make it sparkle. I hope it will be a hit with the little girl - she is a huge Cinderella fan!

I promise not to stay away so long this time!

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Sour Cream Containers + Shrinky Dinks = Great Baby Shower Favor

If you read the yesterday's post you will know what I am talking about. If not, ketchup!! Man I crack myself up sometimes! (this usually means I should have been in bed long ago.)

I tried to respect my friend's wishes about her anti-shower but I mean c'mon........who doesn't like an excuse to make favors?? and since I now feel compelled to add shrinky dinks into my projects when I can, I thought about making some charms. And what can you add charms to?? How about sour cream containers??

If you have never made them, sour cream containers are very easy to make. Okie has a great video tutorial you can watch on this link. Mine were a little on the small side since I don't have a lot of paper that is boy themed so I was trying to get 6 out of a sheets of 12x12 paper. If my friend had been cooperative and was having a girl we would have been all set (as I have a gamillion sheets of baby girl appropriate paper), but noooooooo.... there is just no accounting for some people.

Where's the project?? Oh you probably want to see it don't you??

The crafty details: 

I chose three designs in New Arrival to use: the onesie, the rattle, and the feet. Pre-shrunk they were cut at 3 inches. The feet required some overlapping and welding to get them to be in the same cut, but it worked out well in the end. I drew them first with my cricut markers, cut using max pressure, blade depth 6 and multi-cut twice, and then colored them in with my watercolor pencils. Then it was into the toaster over for shrinking, and I added two jump rings to each so that they could be attached by brad to the containers. The shrinky dink material was NOT my friend on this particular occasion but I made it work eventually!

I cut a scalloped circle from Mini Monograms (I would so be lost without that scalloped circle! worth buying the entire cartridge for!!) at 2 inches and ran it through my Cuttlebug with the Swiss Dots folder. I assembled my containers, adding some M&Ms, then used my Big Bite to punch a hole in the container, added the tag with the shrinky dink and fastened with the jewel brad and they were all done!

These really are a sweet treat that is as simple or as complicated as you want to make your tag, and they were a bit hit at our girls night dinner. Up tomorrow is that baby themed container I teased you about yesterday.

Sunday, January 2, 2011

Shrinky Dinks meet Cricut Markers

***WARNING SHRINKY DINKS CAN BE ADDICTIVE (BUT NOT AT ALL HAZARDOUS TO YOUR HEALTH)***

Well certain enablers over at the cricut message board (they know who they are) have been talking about shrinky dinks for a while, and I bought a package on Thanksgiving, but I really have had no time to play with them until this last week, and of course now I can't seem to stop making them. Up until this week, they were my daughter's domain and I have spent a lot of time drawing Christmas shapes for her to color and cut out.

I spent the first day just trying to cut some numbers and experimenting with stamping on the shrinky dinks, and then my Cricut markers caught my eye (since I finally got my husband to hang the shelf I bought so I could reorganize my supplies). Now I have always been a fan of the Cricut markers, and while I recently have used the Cri-kuts more, this project has knocked those right out of the running as my favorite drawing tool. Sure enough, with some layering on my Gypsy and my licensed cartridges, those markers made it super easy to create great shrinky dinks for my daughter and I to color (she made me share).

Here's what we have been up to:

Tinkerbell and Friends

Spongebob and Friends

Cinderella

Hello Kitty

The crafty details:

The sizes of the cuts all vary, they could be anywhere from 2 to 6 inches, when doing the character sets I tried to make them somewhat proportional to each other (yet Spongebob is still huge). Some characters draw more complete images than others, and for Hello Kitty I used the Silhouette feature. I followed the marker directions just as if I were using paper, and on the first layer drew the images with the marker. Then I switched out the marker for the blade, and cut out a shadow on the second layer (with a welded circle from George). I used max pressure, blade depth of 6, and multi-cut twice.

When we unloaded the mat, we had pre-drawn Shrinky Dinks ready to be colored with watercolor pencils. Then we baked them at 325 on a piece of parchment paper in the toaster oven. As you can see, we used them in a variety of ways: a necklace, a pin, and a card for her teacher. I am hoping to get a shrinky dink break today, but I doubt it, as I am sure my little addict will come looking for some more. I hope to write a tutorial soon with more detail, but as I start back to work this week, I can't make any definite promises.