Things to Make - White Shrinky Dink Jewelry & Ornaments

We have a ton of permanent markers left over from when P broke her arm, so I decided to order some White Graphix Shrink Film from Amazon and let the kids make shrinky dink jewelry. The kids colored and cut out their own art and I hole punched it (be sure to make the holes BIG). Then we baked their designs and transformed them into jewelry using kitchen string or leather cord (for some reason the girls preferred the string).

The white shrink film gave everything a nice solid look, almost like broken ceramic. Though beware, even after baking the color will come off a little if you don't use a fixative of some sort (any ideas on what to use?).



The great part about this craft - T loves anything with scissors and scribbles.



All of the kids crowded around the oven to watch them shrink. Magic.



Our baking soda ornaments from last spring have mostly broken (tree branches apparently fall over a lot when they're placed next to the front door), so I used some of our left over shrinky dinks to make new ornaments. Pretty, huh? And a lot less fragile.

Hope everyone is having a good week! The flu has taken over our house and it's not very fun (to say the least) - stay healthy if you can!!

Things to Make - A Miniature Christmas Tree

So remember the Xmas tree dilemma from this post? Well, in the end we opted to not put up a tree this year. Before you boo me as the worst mom ever, I must note (1) a few weeks ago the girls decorated my in-laws tree so they didn't miss out on the trimming experience and (2) we plan on spending Christmas morning with relatives, so the kids will still open gifts placed under a tree. And Santa's still coming.

Despite our lack of a huge evergreen, we couldn't go completely treeless, so the Shrinky Dinks Holiday Fun kit really came in handy (it's sold out at Amazon and B&N, but appears to be available here). The kit comes with all the materials needed to make a little silver tree (I did this part), plus little beads/ornaments that kids can thread onto the branches (P loved this part) and SEVERAL sheets of shrinky dinks to make into ornaments (as you might remember, F LOVES shrinky dinks). Due to the large number of sheets, this project lasted several days (as any good tree-decorating should). If you're looking for something fun to do with kids over the next few days, I highly recommend it.

On the topic of shrinky dink ornaments, a friend of mine had a great idea. She buys Grafix Ink Jet 8-1/2-Inch-by-11-Inch Shrink Film, 6-Sheet Pack, Clear and her daughter traces favorite Xmas characters and objects onto the film (using permanent marker). Then sandpaper, color (water acrylic paint or pencils), bake and voila - great homemade ornaments of any size. They're really cute.

Happy Monday Everyone! It's Xmas Craft Week on the blog (hence why I'm posting a Things to Make on a Monday) so check in Tuesday and Wednesday for more projects.

LINKS FROM AROUND THE WEB:
*Isn't this playroom beautiful? I want to play in it myself. I love the desinger's felt map as well.

*I think these russian doll measuring cups would be perfect for cooking with kids (or with adults for that matter).

*I can't stop listening to this song by Toro Y Moi. So catchy.

*Um, WOW! You have to look here.

Things to Make - Shrinky Dinks

When I was a little girl, one of my absolute favorite activities was shrinky dinks. I loved watching through the oven window as the figures folded up and became smaller, it seemed magical. So imagine my excitement when, a few weeks ago, while shopping at A.C. Moore, I discovered Alex's Shrinky Dink kits. When I introduced them to the girls at first they hesitated. "So it's a doll that we cook? That's sort of weird." But they went with it. And then they started to smile. F loved her charm doll so much that she insisted we return to the store to buy the exact same kit and repeat the project the next day. So we did. Now we have quite a few shrinky dink dolls loitering around our house. By the way, I'm not sure if I find it amusing or disturbing that my kids hate jeans so much that F chose to connect the doll's shirt directly to her shoes rather than use the jeans that the kit came with (see the doll on the right). I, on the other hand, pretty much live in blue jeans.

If you're interested, Amazon sells quite a few kits (pictured below). I've already ordered the holiday ones, I'm hoping to try those out this week. I also think, for girls, the jewelry kit looks fun. Or, insects for the boys. Wow, I can't believe I just divided shrinky dinks into sex-based categories. After years spent believing in women's equality, parenthood has made me into a sexist. So sad. (Click on the photo to enter Amazon)





GREAT CRAFT PROJECTS AROUND THE WEB:

*A Passion for Play posts a great (and simple) idea for encouraging children to enjoy art. I'm hoping to try it out in the next few weeks.

*Regarding complex craft projects, this year I don't think I'm motivated enough to create an activity-orientated advent calendar, but I love the idea and I'm keeping it in mind for next year.

*I really like this marbleized paper project from Tinker Lab, now if I only had some eye droppers.