Happy Thursday! I hope your week is going splendidly. Recently I've been obsessed with shrink plastic and cardboard. Shrink plastic makes it so easy to make anything look professional and cardboard is free and always around. This week, I'm excited to share some tips and tricks of projects that harness the best qualities of each of these materials. Let's dive into this week's newsletter and explore the wonderful world of DIYs together!
-Mel <3
-Mel <3
Danbo
Do you remember when Danbo took over the internet wayyy long ago? He was so adorable, so I thought why not make a mini me for my boyfriend 🤗
Dimensions:
- Final figure (approx 3.5" x 2.5" x 2")
Main Materials:
- Figure - Cardboard
- Heart - Copy paper
Tips & Tricks:
- If you can get your hands on some thinner cardboard, I'd highly recommend using that. However, I personally used scraps from old shipping boxes. This is little thicker and harder to fold, but I just used a firm long object (mechanical pencil, scissor handle, etc.) to apply extra pressure to each fold.
- My hot glue gun was my absolute best friend for this project! I find hot glue guns to be the best adhesive for cardboard.
- I didn't realize this until after, but because the head is looking up and leaning backwards, the weight is distributed unevenly and the figure falls backwards. I'd highly recommend 1) using double sided tape to tape the figure's feet down and standing or 2) adding weights inside of the feet so the figure can stand on its own.
Love Lollipops
I made a lollipop stand wayyy back that I never really liked😢, but I'm honestly in love with this one and you don't even need to ruin the bag to see the messages!🤗
Dimensions:
- Lollipop (approx 1.5" x 2.25")
- Bag (approx 4.5" x 5")
Main Materials:
- Lollipops - Cardboard & toothpick
- Bag - Copy paper & cellophane (commonly used for disposable product packaging, so I highly recommend just looking around your home for it)
Tips & Tricks:
- I created a heart template with cardstock and just traced that for all the hearts, makes it so much faster!
- Again, my hot glue gun was my absolute best friend for gluing cardboard!
- Something I've learned about painting during my DIY crafting time is that the results always look better when you first paint a white primer layer then paint the actual color. It helps the final color pop and make it more smooth. However, I am lazy and will generally skip the primer UNLESS it's cardboard. Unfortunately, cardboard is so dark that you have to put down a white paint as primer then layer on the second color or else the brown in the cardboard will very much show through.
- When stabbing the toothpicks into the lollipop, stab it into the top or bottom cardboard and NOT in between them. The toothpick will not go through the hardened hot glue. If you want to make it extra secure, you can add glue to the toothpick as well.
- Since cellophane is a plastic, not all adhesives will properly stick to it. I've found that glue tape and double sided tape are the best adhesives for cellophane.
Since a lot of peeps liked the last meme keychain, I thought I'd do another one 🤗 (inspired by the recently viral Grumpy Barbara)
Dimensions:
- Grumpy Cat Chaem (approx 2.75" x 1.25")
- Shrink plastic
- Keychain
Tips & Tricks:
- I used Posca markers (acrylic markers), which I highly recommend! They aren't the cheapest markers, but the quality is unbeatable. It's super bright and pigmented which makes the image look so much better. HOWEVER, it is still possible to make this keychain with regular markers, the colors just won't be as bright and solid.
- I heated the shrink plastic at 325 degrees Fahrenheit and took it out when I felt like the plastic stopped shrinking.
- I used a large flat object to flatten the trinket right after taking it out of the oven (the shrink plastic hardens extremely fast so you have to be faster). People tend to use large heavy books. I personally don't have any on hand, so I just use some thick cardboard and put pressure down on it with my hand and works like a charm!
- I highly recommend drawing out a ruler on a test sheet of plastic and shrinking it first for proportional reference. Fair warning, it does shrink A LOT.
- Fair warning: the final keychain IS NOT super sturdy and has to be handled with care.
- Shrink plastic is convenient and easy BUT not reliable. The grumpy cat I made is actually stretched and not perfect. Even when taking all precautions, shrink plastic is very finicky and overall will give you decent results, but takes a lot of practice to get consistently perfect results.
Ramune Couple Keychain
This was my first time using a laser cutter and it was so much easier than I expected! I used the xTool P2 laser cutter. To be transparent, I was gifted this product, but after testing it out for a bit and actually creating something custom with it on only my third try, I'm genuinely impressed. This product is a bit on the higher end but they have a lot of different tools at different prices depending on your needs. If you're at all interested at expanding your creative abilities, I definitely recommend checking it out esp since they have a St. Patrick's Day deal going on!
Dimensions:
- Ramune (approx 3.75" x 1.25")
- Heart (approx 1.25" x 1.25")
Main Materials:
- Acrylic sheets
- Acrylic paint
Tips & Tricks:
- I designed everything on Illustrator and used the xTool program to cut and engrave the designs.
- To fill in the engravings, I just used blobs of paint to fill in the holes and wiped away the excess with a baby wipe. I did a lot of research and found this to be the easiest and most resourceful method with what I had.
Materials
Amazon Storefront: I've curated all of my recommended materials here, complete with personal notes explaining why I love them! If you're seeking suggestions, feel free to take a look. However, if you're not into affiliate links feel free to skip it!
xTool Laser Cutter: My newest addition to my little creative workshop! I'm still learning more and more by the day, but I can definitely say it's my favorite tool by far. I have the xTool P2 laser cutter, but they offer a large range of tools. I highly recommend checking out what they have, especially since they have their St. Patrick's Day Sale going on!
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