Charmed, I'm Sure!

The day finally came - I received my charm bracelet kit and charms in the mail from Saucy. You remember that I was participating in her Halloween Charm Bracelet Swap don't you?

I was soooo excited, and even more so when I opened the package and was WOW-d by the goodies that poured out...


I spent forever opening all of the little packages and ooh-ing and aah-ing over the charms that had been created all over the US and Canada. So neat! Every single one was joyful, but here are a few of my faves...

Super original design based on Edgar Allen Poe's "The Raven"

Clever clay creations... I love the half eaten bar of chocolate!

Scrabble tile anything's are neat-o...

And you know I love me some kitty cats... : )

Then it was time to assemble the bracelet, so I unpackaged everything and laid my charms out...


I was a little intimidated but I forged ahead anyway and it didn't take long before... ta da!


(Yup I have little wrists...)




(I swear my arms aren't as hairy as these pictures make them look! Ha!)

Ridiculously cute, no? I can't wait to show this off on Halloween! Thanks to Saucy and ALL of the ladies who participated in the swap! Happy Halloween!

Third Time's a Charm!

When Saucy announced her Halloween Charm Bracelet Swap I knew I wanted to participate right away! Halloween is one of my FAVORITE holidays, and this is the first time I've ever participated in a swap - what a great way to start!

Essentially, there are about two dozen of us making a set of 12 charms each. We mail them all to Saucy who divvies them up and sends us back a charm bracelet kit complete with twelve charms from the aformentioned bloggers. NEAT-O!

I knew right away that I wanted to do something with Shrinky Dinks to make my charms. This is funny, because I've never used Shrinky Dinks before. But in true Joanne fashion I figured I'd just work it out as I went along and it would be easy as pie!

Well... it WAS easy, in theory....

I just made some SILLY mistakes along the way...

Learning curve?

After two failed batches (trial and error folks, trial and error!) I finally had a finished product I was proud of.

To make my pumpkin charms, I used a pumpkin stamp stamped in black ink on paper, and with the Shrinky Dink plastic over the top I traced my pumpkins in black Sharpie marker.



Once dry, I flipped the plastic over and colored the pumpkins with an orange Sharpie marker.


I then cut them all out, and punched a hole in each with a regular sized hole punch.


After that they went into the oven for some shrinking magic!



I sealed the colored side of the charms with a coat of clear nail polish, which gave the charms a nice sheen, and then added 6mm rings to each.


Then it was time to package them individually for the swappers...



And wrap them up (just for fun - check out the ribbon!) and mail off to Miss Saucy!


I can't wait to get my charms back and assemble my bracelet - don't worry, I'll be sure to share pics!

So reader, what Halloween-y projects are you working on right now? Do share! And expect to see more SPOOKY things on Ready, Set, Craft very soon!