Thursday, April 2, 2009

A Tutorial


Yay! My first tutorial!! I have always wanted to do a tutorial. I really love tutorials myself and I think it would be really awesome of me to do tutorials for others. Also, I like the word tutorials. I think it sounds kind of studious. I've really never been all that studious so this tutorial should help with that (I think I sound smarter already). Anyway....today we are making an Easter Bracelet.  The first thing you have to do is purchase this PDF for $3 from this lovely website.  The other things you will need are,
-a color printer
-shrinky dink paper for a laser printer
-a paper bag
-jump rings
-a jewelry clasp
-small buttons

Step 1
Print out the pdf file on regular paper (I used the one with smaller images). Then take the piece of shrinky dink paper and attach it to the printed paper using a couple pieces of two-sided tape (this is because the shrinky dink paper is smaller than printer paper--if you don't do this, some of the images will be cut off).  Make sure that when you tape it to the printer paper, it is covering all the images.  Then print again onto the shrinky dink paper.

Step 2
Cut out the shapes you want and punch holes on 2 sides.


Step 3
Bake the shrinky dinks according to the package instructions (I found that it took a little longer than the instructions recommended.)  Wait for them to shrivel up and then flatten back out. Some take longer than others, I don't know why.

before

after

Step 4
Now this is really important. I overlooked this in the instructions and found out the hard way--YOU HAVE TO SEAL THEM! I used an acrylic sealer--I think any will do.  They usually come in an aerosol can.

Step 5
Use needle nose pliers to open the jump rings and make a pattern--jump ring, button, jump ring, shrinky dink, repeat (I used 4 shrinky dinks to make a child's size). Finish it of by adding a clasp. Then, ta da!
 A cute little Easter accessory. The possibilities are endless--just think of all the things you could make!


1 comment:

Patricia said...

What a great TUTORIAL! AND I love that website link to houseof3. All of their Easter projects are soooo charming!