Tuesday, November 25, 2014

The Fault in Our Stars Earrings



Have you read The Fault in Our Stars? Have you seen the movie? I read the book on my Kindle, then took Taylor to see the movie this past summer. And yes, we totally cried. Not quite like the lady behind us though. She was hardcore loud ugly-sobbing through pretty much the whole movie. I kind of felt like I should get her a Gatorade when it was over. Whoever you are, lady, I hope you eventually recovered. You know, fiction and all. But anyway.

One of the most beloved parts of both book and movie is the gentle banter between Gus and Hazel where they have a hard time hanging up the phone and keep stretching out the conversation with "Okay?" "Okay." "Okay?" "Okay."....and it becomes their thing. Their always.



I've seen all kinds of memes and pictures all over the internet honoring that little word, not to mention tons of accessories, many of them DIY. So I thought I would try my hand at a project of my own. I asked Taylor to give me a hand, and together we made up three styles of TFiOS themed earrings.


For this easy project I pulled out one of my favorite crafting materials: Shrinky Dinks. I used a sheet of the frosted and a sheet of the opaque white. Before you get started on cutting out your clouds, turn your oven on to 325° to preheat. Now, to cut out the clouds I used a Fiskars X-Large Cloud Squeeze Punch. You can totally cut these out by hand if you don't have a cloud punch. In fact, my first version of this was a set of best friends backpack tags I cut out by hand for Taylor and her bestie, and they disappeared immediately. But they were about 3 times the size of the earrings, and my cutting skills on anything small are highly suspect.


I'm going to show you the steps to make all three pairs of earrings at once. Of course if you just want to make one pair, just follow the directions for the pair you want. The first pair will require one cloud punched from each sheet, and the second and third pairs will each require two clouds cut from each sheet. So to make all three pairs, cut 5 clouds from the opaque white and 5 clouds from the frosted. A quick note: I made all my earrings with the white cloud on top and the black cloud on the bottom. Apparently this is backwards. But this is my blog, so nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah! If you want to make them the "right" way, just switch all the black and white clouds in the instructions. No biggie.



Imagine you see 5 frosted clouds here too. You'll see them in a minute.

Take your 5 frosted clouds (see?) and color them completely with black Sharpie. Color on the rough side. Taylor helped me with this.



Let these dry for a minute, and in the meantime take your 5 white clouds and use your black Sharpie to write {Okay?} on each one. Write it as neatly as you can, but you're going for a handwritten look here.


Now take your black clouds and, using a silver Sharpie, write {Okay.} on each of them. You can write on either side. I chose to write on the rough side, because sometimes the shiny side tends to show a little scuffed after baking.

Now we're going to punch the holes for our jump rings. When you bake Shrinky Dinks, any holes shrink right along with the rest of it. For the tiny jump rings I'm using, a 1/8 inch punch makes a hole that shrinks to just the right size, but if you only have bigger jump rings, you might want to use a 1/4 inch hole punch. These are the holes you will punch for each pair. You can click on the picture to make it bigger if you have a hard time reading it.


Once you have your holes punched, place your clouds writing side up on a piece of paper on a cookie sheet. I usually use a lunch sized paper bag.


Slide them in the oven to bake, checking them after about 90 seconds. At that point mine were still curled up a bit, but a few seconds later they were all lying flat, which is how you know they're done.



When I take Shrinky Dinks out of the oven, I press them quickly with an acrylic stamp block, just to make sure they're all nice and flat.


See how much smaller they are? 


Now we're going to attach our findings. Here are the findings you'll need for each pair. Again, click the picture to make it bigger if you need to.


For the first pair, just glue your earring posts right to the back. You will be using one white cloud and one black cloud, both hole-free. I actually just used high temp hot glue for these, and they've held up fine. Taylor has worn them several times and they're still holding fast. But you can absolutely use something like E6000 if you prefer. Just make sure you let them sit for the instructed amount of time before wearing.


Add your earring backs and you're done!


For the next pair, you're going to use a jump ring to attach a black cloud with a hole punched in the top to a white cloud with a hole punched in the bottom. Repeat for the other earring. 


Now glue your posts to the backs of the two white clouds and add your earring backs.  Done!


For the last pair, attach your black and white clouds together like you did on the last pair, then carefully open the loop at the bottom of your earring hook with a pair of round nose pliers. 


Loop it  through the hole at the top of the white cloud, making sure to put it on so that the clouds will face front when you wear them. Carefully squeeze the loop closed with flat or needle nosed pliers, being careful not to crush it. Repeat for the other earring and attach the backs. All done! Now you'll be the envy of your book club!


I had so much fun making these that I whipped up another couple of pairs using different punches I had. These were made with a Fiskars Large Cupcake Squeeze Punch. Aren't they fun?



And the other day I found this retired Stampin' Up ornament punch for $2.99 at the thrift store they just opened up practically walking distance from my house! Score! (On both the punch and the new thrift store!) It turns out there are entire Pinterest boards dedicated to all the things you can do with this punch. Seriously. I'm so excited! I punched 6 ornaments from frosted Shrinky Dinks and colored them with pastel Sharpies. They turned out with this cool stained glass effect, and I love them!




I may end up going over the edges with a silver paint pen as well. I haven't decided yet. I love how many options there are with this craft! Shrinky Dinks are always a winner around here!



Monday, November 24, 2014

Pinwheel Punch Board



A couple months ago I heard that We R Memory Keepers was coming out with a new punch board: The Pinwheel Punch Board! I was so excited that I immediately emailed them to ask if they might be willing to send me one to review here on the blog. The very sweet lady who responded to me told me that they didn't currently have a budget for reviews on that product, but she would be happy to send me one to try anyway! I was so excited!


I got busy playing with it right away, but I wanted to wait until I could get a hold of a set of the pinwheel attachments before I told you all about it here. Unfortunately, once the punch boards hit the craft stores, the attachment sets were sold out everywhere I went. I finally found some in stock last time I went to Hobby Lobby, so I'm ready to show you how it works!


First of all, you can make pinwheels in many different sizes, using paper from 3 to 12 inches square. Today I'm going to show you one using 6x6 paper, which makes a pinwheel the same size you would normally find at the store. Of course you might ask, why not just go get one at the store for $1? Well, because those shiny numbers at the store can't complete with the gorgeous papers combinations you can come up with on your own! I chose these two sheets in fun fall colors. Here they are front and back.



First of all, raise the arm on the punch board.


Now slide the corner of your paper under the red button, square it up and punch.



Now punch the other four corners. Repeat for the other paper. The side of the papers that is facing up when you punch it will be the side that shows in the center of your pinwheel.


Back side of bird paper.


Now line your first paper up with the corresponding mark on the left side of the punch board.

Bring the arm down so that it pokes a hole through the center of your paper and anchors it in place.


Insert the included blade tool in the track, with the blade to the left of the track like so.



Slide it down the track, cutting the paper until the track ends.


Without lifting the arm, turn the paper 90 degrees and repeat. On half of the turns the corner will not line up exactly with the measurement mark - that's okay. Just make sure that the notch in the paper sits over the blade track. Repeat on the other two corners.



Back view so you can see the cuts better.
Now raise the arm and remove your first piece of paper. Repeat with the other paper, but this time you will be working on the right side of the punch board.



Now, lay your papers face down, one on top of the other at a 90° angle, like this. The paper you slit using the right side of the punch board (here the floral/purple sheet) will go on the bottom.


Make sure the holes in the centers line up.


Now, take one of the skinny sections of the bottom sheet and weave it up through the slit in the top paper just above it. Continue the maneuver, working clockwise, all the way around the pinwheel.





Now you want to add the whole thing to your attachment assembly. The attachments come with enough sets to make 10 pinwheels. At $4.99 a pack (Hobby Lobby), that puts your pinwheels at 49¢ each, if you have your paper on hand. That's already cheaper than the store, but if you use a lovely 40% off coupon like I did, then you get 10 pinwheels for $2.99, an even better deal! It's hard to beat a 29¢ toy!


The attachments have three parts, and they assemble like this:



Once you have the head seated on the straw and the spindle attached to that, slide your papers onto the spindle, still face down.


Now, take one of your hole-punched sections from the top sheet (here the yellow paper), pull it forward, and thread it onto the spindle.


Now take the skinny section from the bottom paper directly to the right of the section you just pulled forward and do the same thing. Repeat all the way around, moving clockwise and alternating between the front paper and the back.



Once all the hole punched sections are threaded onto the spindle, press on the end cap.


You're all done!


Look at it spin!




Here's what it looks like on the back. If you'd like your pattern to show on the blades instead of the center, just make sure the pattern is face down when you punch your paper.


Of course you can also just do this with one paper, which will make a 4 blade pinwheel, also adorable. If you do so, you need to work on the left side of the punch board when using the blade.

This punch board has been so much fun! Best of all, the attachments are reusable, so if say, your two year old crumples up beyond repair the pinwheel you made him, you can pull the assembly apart and make a new one! You can also use just about any paper straw out there, which really opens up your color/design options - although those 15 inch gray and white striped ones in the kit are super awesome!

Of course you can certainly make pinwheels without the attachments - they just won't spin. But they do make gorgeous decorations! You can anchor the center with a fun decorative brad. I can see some little stationary ones attached to paper flags to make up an awesome baby shower banner, and what fun props they would make for a photo shoot! Or you could even attach them right to a memo board with a colorful push pin! Oh, and what about gift toppers? And cards? The possibilities are endless!

We R Memory Keepers provided me with a Pinwheel Punch Board to try, but they did not compensate me for my review (or even ask for it), and all opinions are my own.