Fun with Shrinky Dinks

I told you I was going to get craft-tastic for Amy's birthday! This one involved an old school with some Shrinky Dinks. I had this idea about 30 hours before I was supposed to meet her for her birthday dinner... What is it about last minute inspiration? Oh well.

First a back story. Amy's stepson once said that she and I were Mental Twins. I'm not entire positive what he meant by that, but we decided it was true. More often than not we will be thinking the same thing or similar things, even if we're not in the same place and haven't spoken in a few days. For example: Several weeks ago I was shopping with Greg and saw this:

Discovered at JCP

Since Amy has a little mini-obsession going with octopuses lately, I took a pic meaning to text it to her. For some reason I didn't, but I saw it in my phone the other morning and decided to send it to her... at the same time that she was hanging up a giant poster she painted of an octopus. Mental twin powers activate!

Which is what led to this project.

This was a total Pin-spired project. I got the original idea from something I pinned a few months ago. I found the background here and played around with it in Paint until I liked the color combo. Then the font was found here (I used Badaboom). I messed around in PowerPoint until I got that looking right. Then it was time to print...

A) You need to print it kind of faded so it will look right after it bakes. B) I made the colors inverted because I was going to make one for her and one for me, but then I couldn't decide which to give her and which to keep, so I just to put both on each of them. If I can't make a decision, I don't. :-)

Next I trimmed them and put the hole at the top. FYI, a single hole-punch is the perfect size for a jump ring. Then I baked them in my pre-heated toaster (yes, I felt like I was using an Easy Bake Oven). When they were done I let them cool and painted them with diamond glaze to protect it. I had read that the colors can bleed if they get wet, plus it added a little extra shine. Once the glaze was dry to the touch I added the jump ring.

It was fun. Other people may see something similar for Chrismas. :-)