So it has taken a little longer than expected, but I finally have for you the final game gift promised from this post. Here’s a little project I did with my kids as a follow-up to our Tahoe vacation.
I am always looking for ways to use pictures from favorite trips or memorable periods of our life. I like the pictures not only of the people but of the details that were important to us at that moment that we could easily forget.
Did anyone play with shrinkie dinks as a kid? I remember having a Rainbow Bright set. Did you know you can get blank sheets of them for your printer? It’s almost more fun than I can handle.
We printed off a few pictures from our trip. For photos to work on shrinkie dinks, they need to be a bit washed out to make the final color true. We had fun picking out the pics. For this project we picked out several subjects that were in transit.
We added a little hand-drawn detail with a water-based marker.
Then cut along the lines.
And then came the fun part, we popped them in the oven. It is so much fun watching them curl up and become itty-bitty versions of themselves. Note, if you have an emergency and some curl over themselves, don’t panic! Just put them back in a little longer and they should flatten. Use a butter knife to carefully and gently flatten them a bit if you need to.
We added stands and have a pretty fun final product. Candy Land, anyone?































{ 32 comments… read them below or add one }
This is awesome. So much fun. Now I’m trying to figure out who or what I can make this for.
That is hilarious! I love it! Cutest project ever!
What a fun idea, Amber!
This is SO cool! We did a “Makeyourownopoly” game last year. These would bbe great to go with that game!
These are super cute! What did you use to make the bases?
Hi Cris, so glad you like them. I actually cheated and used play dough for the bases. But I’m headed out to get some modeling clay that will harden up and look nice once it dries.
Amber you are sooo cleaver..love this idea and Im already thinking of fun family Christmas gifts..Thanks for sharing..
OMG SO clever I am making these for sure!
Such a good idea…my mum is obsessed with board games – she’s definitely getting a set of these for Christmas :D
So fun! Can’t wait to do this, another photo project – yahoo! I missed seeing you on Sunday, you were in the front and I was in the back with the loud ones!!
This is a fantastic idea! Wishing we had this idea in our heads as we took pics of our families at the recent birthday party!
Such a cute idea! Thanks for sharing your creativity!
I love this idea so much! Thanks tons, I’ll be linking.
What a wonderful idea. Did you know that you can use regular shrinky dinks in your printer too? Remember to set you printer to “draft” or “economy” to make you print lighter, it works great!
Love it! So cool!
This idea is fantastic!! We always seem to lose our marker pieces anyway, plus my kids will get such a kick out of using their own marker!! Thanks for another great idea!
Rebecca@RootsAndWingsCo
what a fantastic idea! I have been looking for something unique for my nephew. I think this fits the bill.
This is such a fun idea! I’m definitely going to have to try it sometime.
WOW!! This is incredible!! Kids would absolutely love this! Thanks so much for sharing this fun idea!!
These are so fantastic!
I LOVE this idea!! I featured you on my blog today with a roundup of my favorite ideas:
http://oopsey-daisy.blogspot.com/2010/08/wednesdays-wowzers.html
THANK YOU for the inspiration!
This is so clever! I love it!!
(Found you from Oopsey Daisy)
Hi there! I`m from Argentina and I love the things that you do, they are great.
WOW! TOOOO fun!
I shared this on facebook.com/homemadegiftideas
Love this idea…just wondering what you used to stand them up
Hi April!
Thanks so much for your note! It has been a little while since I made these, so I am not sure of the exact details, but I do know I used some kind of clay. I’d planned to snag some from an old game, but ended up going the clay rought. It might be worth while to just browse the craft store and see if you can find a clay that will dry well in the shape you sculpt it. Good luck!
What a great idea, I was thinking what a shame my nieces are too old for this now but then I thought “nah…with the right photos they”ll still love it”.
This is great. Where do they sell the shrinky dinks?
Hi Esmer,
Thanks for your note! I picked up my shrinky dink sheets at Michael’s, but I’ve seen them online at Amazon too.
What great ideas! I’ll definitely have to start creating some because all we do is play board games and these would be so useful!
LOVE it! I am making a personalized Monopoly board for my husband’s bday and couldn’t figure out how to make nice personalized game pieces. I’m gonna have a pic of each of the vehicles he’s driven in his life and shrinky dink them! Fun! Thanks!!
Tammy, you are a genius. I LOVE this idea.
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