Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Artist Palette Necklace Tutorial

I have a confession.  I'm dreaming of writing a craft book.  As much as I enjoy making finished products, I'm happiest when sitting at my craft table, dreaming up new projects.  It must be the scientist in me but I just love experimenting.  So I'm thinking of writing a book.  Which means I am putting lots of extra time into craft experiments and tutorials.  You may have noticed an increase of tutorials on the blog.  If you ever have feedback on them, I would love to hear it.  With that in mind, here is another one of my crafty experiments.  Enjoy.


As you may know, I love playing with shrinky dink.  I had so much fun dreaming up the woven shrinky dink bracelet.  This time, I took it to the next level and incorporated another childhood favorite, Perler beads.  To start, draw out the shape of an artist's palette on white shrinky dink.  You can freehand it if you feel confident, otherwise just print and trace.


Cut it out and then cut out the thumb hole.  I used a hole punch and then scissors to enlarge the whole a bit.  I also punched a whole to hang it from but later realized this was irrelevant; it melted away.


Bake your shrinky dink at 325 degrees F to shrink it.  Now take it out of the oven and crank the temperature up to 375 degrees F.  Arrange your Perler beads around the palette; these will be your paint blobs.


Okay.  Now put it all back in the oven and be careful not to knock the Perler beads over.  It took about 20min for my beads to melt into blobs.  During this time, you will notice that your shrinky dink starts to melt around the edges.  That's fine.  Shrinky dink can be cooked at a temperature of 450 degrees F to fuse the pieces together and that typically involves a little melting.  [Note- I baked mine on parchment paper, but you may want to use a glass baking dish.  According to the directions, shrinky dink needs to be fused on a glass dish.  I noticed that my parchment paper baked into a nice tan color at 375 so I probably will try glass next time.]


Once melted, remove from oven and let cool.  See what I mean about the small hole I punched melting away?  That's fine though because you can use your thumb hole to attach a chain with a jump ring.


That's it!  All done.  Now put on your necklace and take some awkward modeling shots of yourself where your head is cut off.  Perfect.



14 comments:

  1. It has been ages since I used shrinky dink! Looks like fun and the end product is cute! :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Maybe my friends and I missed the trend, but I've never used shrinky dink! Perler beads, yes, but shrinky dink is a new one for me.

    It's so cute! And I do my modeling shots the same way. After a while, I just stopped trying to get my head in there, ha ha.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Cute! This is such a great goal to work towards. I wish you much luck!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Melting these beads was a GREAT idea!!
    I also think of more projects than I can ever make in a lifetime - a book would be great! And a staff to make up all the ideas you come up with, too. Wouldn't that be fantastic?!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Awesome job, Jenny! I love the idea of using the beads for the paint colors.

    Publishing a book is a great goal. Keep working away at your tutorials and start researching what the process will involve. Best of luck. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for the advice! I've started reading up a little on the process but in the meantime I'm working on growing my blog and improving my own crafting skills.

      Delete
  6. what a cute little palette. Great for any artist! I think it would be great for you to write a book - I enjoy your blog immensely! {:-D

    ReplyDelete
  7. That is so cute, Jenny! What a genius idea! If you're interested, I'd love to link to this project(and some of your other jewelry tutorials) on our site, AllFreeBeadedJewelry, directing our readers back to the tutorial on your blog. Let me know what you think!

    Thanks for sharing!
    Kelly Spence
    Editor, AllFreeBeadedJewelry.com
    kspence@primecp.com

    ReplyDelete
  8. So pretty and creative! I wonder if you would consider linking this post up with MY craft linky party too -- This tutorial is perfect for linking up and showing my followers your pretty necklace. I use Pinterest also to showcase my favourites. http://www.snapdragonshots.com/2012/05/sunday-school-linky-party.html
    jennie. x

    ReplyDelete
  9. THANK YOU for linking up at my craft party! Soooo many great tutorials to choose from and browse. Maybe you will stop by again NEXT Sunday and say hi !
    Ive pinned your work to my Pinterest Board if thats ok?
    Jennie. x

    ReplyDelete
  10. This is too cute! I can't believe you made it from perler beads! Thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  11. I've done shrinky dink jewelry but your idea of adding perler beads is inspiring!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hey Pearl- Thanks so much! I love experimenting :)

      Delete
  12. Hi Jenny, I'm a first time visitor to your blog due to Pearls newsletter "The Beading Gem Journal". I have never done Shrinky dink but just have to try this. It would make a wonderful gift for my daughter she just started teaching painting. I will be visiting again and Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for your comments! I love hearing from my readers :)