A Very Crafty Birthday Bash!

I had the GREAT pleasure of doing a Craft themed Birthday Party for a group of 8 year old girls last weekend. These are some of my favorite events. Adults are fine; don't get me wrong... but 8 year old girls; AWESOME! Talk about EXCITED! They were super cute, and VERY well behaved! I was also pretty darn impressed with their stamping abilities.

We made these Shrinky Dink Charm Bracelets, which are QUICK and easy. I buy a pre-sanded Shrink Plastic at my local Hobby Lobby... but it's also sold at Frantic Stamper; it's called Pre-Sanded Frost White Shrink Plastic. And as long as I am linking out to Frantic Stamper... check out their BLOG. They have some cool CHA Sneak Peeks. More of which you can see by the way at www.craftcritique.com. Tell all your friends about Craft Critique would ya? Today we're talking Die Cut Systems. And contact me of you'd like to be a participant or contributor!

Back to the subject at hand; creating these bracelets was a snap. The girls stamped their names and some cute images with Staz-on Ink, and colored the images in with colorful Sharpie Markers. Then we punched out the letters with a 1 3/8" Circle Punch; being careful to leave room for the 1/4" round hole we needed at the top of the "charm". With the image stamps we punched a hole to hang the charm with FIRST... then we cut all around the images using straight lines. We found that if you tried to curve around the image with your cutting that the plastic could crack very easy.

Then you just bake the Shrink Plastic according to the package directions... SO SIMPLE! The girls made the bracelets; Plastic Pony Beads Strung on simple plastic stretchy cord like Stretch Magic. Then I attached the charms with jump rings. Aren't they cute!


And of course no Birthday is complete without a gift for the birthday girl! I made this Altered Paint Tin for Kaya. It contains a simple paper covered notebook and some colored pens. A perfect place for all Kaya's notes and all those little things that pre-teens save! The paper is from Stampin' Up!'s "Playhouse" Collection.


Below you will see a closer look at the can. I used Heat and Stick Powder and Dazzling Diamonds Stampin' Glitter to get this "Super-Duper-Glittery" look. The flowers are from the beautiful and versatile "Bodacious Bouquet". The letters were die cut with my Cuttlebug and the "Red Tag" alphabet... except the "K"... that's an "On Board Simon Lower" from Stampin' Up!


Here is a closer look at the method I used to cover the can. I took a 12"X12" piece of paper and cut it into two 12"X 5 1/2" lengths. Then I cut two 3/4" X 12" strips from a second piece. I ran the paper through my Xyron and then I affixed it to the can... starting with the back side. The paper is practically seamless; and I like how the tin shows a bit... It's funkier! Plus with this method you don't have to worry about cutting holes for the handles. After you apply the paper; embellish the can, tie some cute ribbons on and your done! I find that Glue dots worked well to hold on the heavy embellishments like the chipboard.

Tip of the day: If you need to hold something REALLY heavy; use Glue dots and heat up the dot with your heat tool for a few seconds... this will help create a better bond.