I thought this is an improvement!
I looked back at my posts on instag (@estherlaoshi) and blog and realised I am always super last minute when it comes to DIY/Craft for festivals and ended up readers and friends won't be in time to try their hands on the ideas. See see see! This time I am a bit earlier! *clap clap clap*
So what's up this round?
We are making these little pendants for necklaces!!
Things we need:
(1) Shrinking Paper
(You can purchase A4 sized ones at $1.50 per sheet from
Overjoyed.)
You can see which Colour or shade you like. I personally think white, translucent and transparent are the easiest to work with.
Shrinking paper feels like transparency paper (people my time would know) and will shrink near 40% after putting it in the oven.
(2) Pencil for sketching
(3) Black permanent marker for outlining
(4) Permanent Colour markers or Colour pencils for filling in the colours
(5) necklace accessories / string
(6) hole puncher
(7) oven toaster
Step 1:
Tell your child about Mother's Day and other than showing appreciation to mothers, we can also use this day to appreciate motherly figures in our live.
Step 2: Show the pictures of end-product from this post to your child so he or she can visualise better.
Step 3: Draw and Design!
If you are using the translucent or translucent shrinking sheets, you may wish to let your child draw on white paper first THEN tape the corners of the shrinking sheet and let him or her trace the finished drawing.
For me, I let the kiddo draw straight onto the white shrinking sheets. The pencil mark will be quite faint so some guidance will be needed.
Step 4: Colour!
This is kinda tricky.. because the surface of the shrinking sheets are so smooth, the ink from the water Colour is quite wet and smudges when in contact with the black outline. If you use Colour pencils, you will need to use quite some strength and effort to get the Colour on. Don't worry about the Colour pencil mark being really light! When the sheet shrinks, the Colour darkens (like concentrated!)
Do advise your child to use the lighter shades for the markers, as the colours really darken by quite a bit.
Step 5: Cut out the shapes
Do not trim it near to the outline. Keep a general shape and leave at least 2-3mm away from the outline.
Step 6: PUNCH HOLE at places you want to put the loop or string or chain
You must punch at this point because once you bake/heat up the shrinking sheet, the plastic/acrylic piece goes as thick as 1.5mm and is way to hard to punch! U may end up having to find a drill!!!!
In the picture below, Phoebe wanted the two girls to hold hand so I punched the holes in their palm.
Step 7: Warm the oven to 120degree celcius and place the artwork onto the flat tray and into the oven.
Do not use the grill tray! Upon heating, the shrinking sheet will curl up before opening up and becoming flat. You won't want the piece to drop through the gaps!
Note: Low heat and wait patiently is better... Nathan's aeroplane went it at too high a temp and ended up almost melting.. in my attempt to take it out, it got stuck a little and it went out of shape... :(
Step 8: FLATTEN IT!
Standby a thick book beside your oven. Once you take the piece out, put on the table and immediately put the book on the soft warm plastic so it will be nicely flattened. This is a very important step and you must do it FAST.
Once the plastic cools, you cannot change the shape anymore...
Step 9: Put the rings/string/chain on!
YOU ARE DONE! :)
Nathan and Phoebe worked on a A5 size shrinking sheet and these are the end product. Shrunk quite a bit eh! Try not to draw pictures with small details.. after shrinking, they just look like a blot of black..
Something easy this time round! You can also make smaller pieces and glue them onto earring studs or string them to become dangling earrings. Any beads and craft shop should sell these raw materials.
Enjoy creating! :)
