Shrinky Dinks!

So the name of what is essentially just shrinking plastic is pretty ridiculous. But it is also amazing! I had some extra Shrinky dink film laying around so I thought I might put it to good use! My designs started by being inspired by my vintage Argus "brick" camera. Which I then traced into a template.

Turned into this:

Cool right? Then I made some more. Including a cat, koala, and two types of mustaches. The point of these were so that you can print a template out, trace the design onto the film since it is transparent. 

CLICK HERE TO PRINT THE FREE TEMPLATE

So print that out, and then lay the shrinky dink paper over it and trace it with a sharpie. I varied in sizes because I just wasn't sure the size to shrink ratio.  If this makes sense, the biggest cat shrinks to about the smallest cat when finished. Now for some shrinky dink tips!

1) Use both scissors and an x-acto knife. The film is sturdy but by scoring on the front and back it will pop right out. Scissors tend to be to bulky and can end up ripping the film in a sharp corner. A mustache with curly tips is a good example of this.

2) The box sometimes says some crazy stuff like to use baby powder on foil and blah blah blah: it really doesn't matter. 

3) Nevertheless the box does have some good tips, like to let the pan preheat in the oven for even cooking. or even "shrinking"

4) For making jewelry holes a hole punch works great and will shrink to a good size for a jump ring. I like to hole punch it, square the edges around the hole, and then round the edges of the square. Sounds a little complicated but it definitely is not. Heres what it looks like:

Now pop in the oven at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes. Here is my little video showing them shrink.

Its good to have a spoon handy to flatten any curved ones quickly after you take them out. My shrinky dink that was filmed could have been saved but for the purpose of the video being cool and uninterrupted I let it be a doozy. 

Here are the after shrunk charms. I just used a jump ring to connect them to a keychain chain. I didn't do anything with the mustache because it will be easier to wear now. 

This is the beautiful kitty. Unsuccessfully Modeled after Gus.

And the (perfectly symmetrical) content koala.

Here are all three together. I haven't had good luck with the Camera yet but I'm gonna keep trying.

And now here they are size proportioned. So as you can see they are pretty small.

I would love to see your shrinky dink charms! If you ever do any of my projects and want to share with me you can always e-mail me at: 

knowandtellcrafts(at)hotmail(dot)com

I have an "i-device" so I naturally respond to emails pretty fast :).

I made some Gif's!

Hi guys so this is somewhat of a random and unexpected post, but ever since showing my first GIF that I ever made! (found here) I couldn't help but to be excited. Because I found a really great, yet completely simple site to make your own GIF! I know there are some ways to do it on your own... and I have to settle with the site's name in the lower right corner... but I still was excited.

On my trip to Italy, I saw one of those "speed painters" in the Piazza Novena. Or at least I think thats what that place was called. So to wrap this up, I made a GIF that I feel to be cool and thought i should share. Here it is!

Okay so do you like it? I just happened to have my finger down on the button too long but it worked out! If you want to make your own just click HERE and you'll go to gickr.com!  The site is super duper completely self explanatory so the really all you have to do is go there!

However there is a little bit of a method to making a GIF! Here are some tips:

1) Use a tripod or don't move the camera.

2) It will be grainy. Don't freak out though. GIF's usually have a limited color palette and it just adds to their charm.

3) Most GIF's are funny ones, used to repeat an action like this one... yes of course they are cat themed.

xxx

Okay so thats just cute...

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Its super fun to just make one out of everyday stuff like: a cat moving its tail!

xxx

This one could pretty much explain my house... except x2 :).

All the cat themed GIf's were found on a really cute GIF site called well the Cat Gif Page. To go there click here.

Hoped this helped! Now go make a GIF!

Clothespin Magnets Diy!

My mom bought a ginormous pack of clothespins. As soon as I got my hands on them I painted them, and made them into magnets. Shortly after, I made this tutorial! Have you ever seen those little magnet men that are half magnet and half clip? Well these are just the DIYer's version of those! With clothespins!  It takes advantage of the clothespin's open and closing function... basically their only function.

 Heres the materials that you'll be needing...

#1 - Some fun nail polish. Doesn't need to be high quality.

#2 - Some clothespins!

#3 - Scissors!

#4 - Some tape for doing fun designs & color blocking.

#5 - Magnetic tape. Its cheap and at most hardware and craft stores.

It helps to clip the paper clips onto something like a ruler beforehand, because if you need to move them its a whole lot easier. The next part is optional.

For some I taped out design like stripes with plain scotch tape. I like the boldness of one bright color, but when you have a lot of neutrals like this its good to do patterns.  Now do the fun part and paint them!

Once they are all good and dry take your magnet strips and, because my strips were too wide, cut them in half.

Put the strips onto the back of the clothespins and...

Perfect! Sometimes the magnet strips start to curl, but if you put some weight on the painted side for a while it should start to straighten out. It might also be a good idea to use tacky glue to glue it down because I don't really trust the dull adhesive.

Here were the colors I used, compared to how they dried. 

And now the finished product!

You can open it up to clip things in and then there is the magnet on the backside so it sticks on refrigerators and magnet boards!

Here they are in action!

They are holding up some way cool old pictures that I got from a new super great antique store that my aunt and uncle helped me discover! Its close to my house too! Every time I go there I find new stuff! It's called Heritage Antique mall and you can check out their site by clicking HERE! Hope you liked this weeks DIY!

Little World Diy!

 Have you ever wanted your own little world? Or even capture it in a picture? Well using a great app called 360 Panorama (click to buy) you CAN! Lets start by looking at the basics of the app. Open it and you will probably see something like this...

  It's best to be standing up OR in a swivel chair or something so you can get the whole 360. You start taking the pictures by pressing the center bottom button.

  It automatically lines things up while it takes the pictures for you, all you need to do is stop every little bit so it can process. (the app has more detailed instructions) ...to end, press the center bottom button again. And now there is some fun stuff, for example, go to the little bar up on top...

And then press the one its pointing to that looks like a landscape. Up will pop a menu that look like this...

Select stereographic and...

 it will do all this stuff and make it look cool- like a little planet! Here are some more before-afters.

Its interesting to add a subject in a picture... for example my cousin.

Some more on the beach...

And sometimes sadly the app doesn't totally work. But its a very minor problem and can easily be fixed. With photoshop (of course). I'm talking about the (for lack of better name) moving people problem. You see, when people move, and you are doing a 360, they appear "cloned" but in a messy and ugly way. For example the last one:

I know...its blurry :(.

But lets bring that into photoshop.

Use the Patch tool (J) And select around the area you want to remove. The clone stamp is a little more difficult but will have the same result.

Now drag it to an area you want it to look like. For me it was to the right...

And its gone! I did it with my shadow, and some other distractions too! Here's the finished product:

Perfect! Can't wait to make more! And again, if you want the app click HERE!