Saturday, June 28, 2014

Minecraft Shrinky Dinks Craft Tutorial

All rights reserved copyright cassie's creative crafts
Copyright Cassie's Creative Crafts
Hello, I want to share another Minecraft craft that you can do with the kiddos. So how does one get so attached to this game, you ask? Well...play the game and you will see. It really teaches the kids motor skills.

So, today we are going to talk about how to make Minecraft Blocks using shrinky Dinks. You can use your finished product to make so many items, for instance, you can make a charm for a necklace or bracelet, they can be a magnet, a keychain, or even earring, plus so much more! We are making magnets and keychains with ours.

Supplies
  • printer (make sure you set your printer settings to its correct settings for the shrinky dink paper)
  • Shrinky Dink Paper that you can print on with inkjet printer (there are many kinds, I used the one below)

  • Sandpaper
  • oven or heat gun (not hair dryer!) Heat guns are made to work with crafts. See the one I have below...


  • accessories (keychain, chain for necklace, magnets, etc.)
Getting Started

  1. You need to sand the shrink dink paper really well. *some shrinky dink paper doesn't need to be sanded but I think that if you are wanting to print on it then it needs to be sanded.* sand it really well up and down and then side to side and I do this a couple of times. (The sanded side is the side you will print on and so it needs the texture but the sanding needs to be evenly sanded and no shiny areas of the paper showing through.
  2. Once it is sanded and you have cleaned it off, you can now print the blocks of your choice onto the paper. I have included some of the blocks we used if you want to download them.
*note* I do not claim these Minecraft images as my own. I downloaded them from the internet and can give you the places and websites of where I got them from. 

property of cassies's creative crafts

*They appear big when you print them but they shrink to about 1 inch or a little smaller*

property of cassias creative crafts
Here is what they look like printed on the shrinky dink paper! pretty cool, huh!!
Depending on which blocks you print, sometimes the detail doesn't show, but the ones above worked out well!

After you print them, I would allow them to dry for several hours.
After they are good and dry, then here is where you want to make a whole if you are going to make a keychain or jewelry.

Next, we but them out and then used the heat gun CAREFULLY to shrink them. *If you use a heat gun, don't freak out if the the blocks start to curl up into a ball. That is NORMAL. Keep using your heat and it will straighten out. 

*They also curl up in the oven too but we don't usually see that. There are directions on the packages on how long to heat them in the oven. PLEASE FOLLOW DIRECTIONS. 

Then, we LIGHTLY and VERY CAREFULLY sprayed them with a varnish-keeping the spray at least 12 inches from them and do not allow them to get fully wet from the varnish because the ink will run! We learned that by mistake. :) 

Then, you are ready to make what you want out of them.

They are so much fun and really hold a lot of detail in them once they shrink. 

See below of some of the finished ones that my boys and I made. We were pretty happy with how they turned out. I really liked the creeper one too but it got ruined because I put too much varnish on it at first.. The TNT block was one of my favs too. So, I hope you enjoy this project as much as we did making it because it really is fun, unique, and craft!
property of cassia's Creative crafts
Above, is the grass block we made...property of cassie's creative crafts
property of Cassie's Creative Crafts
Cow we made w/ Shrinky sinks. copyright Cassie's Creative Crafts



property of Cassie's Creative Crafts
Above, is the cow that we made. copyright Cassie's Creative Crafts

Property of Cassie's Creative Crafts
Here is the TNT block we made. copyright Cassie's Creative Crafts

Property of Cassie's Creative Crafts
Above, is another picture of the TNT block we made. copyright Cassie's Creative Crafts

Property of Cassie's Creative Crafts
Here is the Enderman we made. Property of Cassie's Creative Crafts

property of cassies creative crafts
Here is a spider that we made. Property of Cassie's Creative Crafts


Well, I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. I would LOVE to see what you did with it and what you made out of them!

#minecraft #crafts #kidscrafts #tutorial #crafttutorial #jewelry #shrinkydinks #keychain


Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Plants vs Zombies DIY Memory Game With Free Printable

Hello,

Plants vs Zombies DIY memory game tutorial. copyright Cassie's Creative Crafts
Plants vs Zombies DIY memory game tutorial. copyright Cassie's Creative Crafts


So my boys have gotten into the cell phone and xbox game, Plants vs Zombies and recently, Plants vs Zombies Garden Warfare on Xbox. The Garden Warfare is completely different than the first game and has better graphics and a whole different goal to the game.

Let me tell you that this game is highly addictive! I have since gotten into the Garden Warfare and it has me hooked! My husband, boys, and I are all playing this game.

What is different about this one is is you can be a plant or a zombie and you control the characters and it is an open toy box world and you fight other people online in multiplayer and level up your characters on plants and zombies and you can customize them as well with various items and I LOVE IT! The only  thing I do not like is how bad it glitches. It does this constantly causing us to lose a whole game and have to sign out and back on. Plus, the loading time in-between the games is ridiculously long! This makes it worse when it comes to being a HUGE time waster! However, I am hooked and don't plan on quitting and finding a cure to my game addiction anytime soon! :)

Since my boys love the game so much, I created a memory/match game in photoshop for them to play with and we played this over and over the first night! They love the memory game and like to race to find the characters they like best. They even learn how to share and trade because if one has a character match the other one wants then they trade. I can't ask for more.

I am not claiming any of these characters as my own. I found each character on the internet and I just wanted to use them as my craft matching game for my boys. If you would like to know where I got a certain picture, feel free to email me and I will be glad to inform you. Also, please don't claim any picture I make here or idea as your own. I also have no affiliation with Popcap (maker of Plants vs Zombies) I am just simply a fan of the game and have 3 other fans in my house!

I am sharing with you how I made the memory game and I am also including the actual printable cards I made for you to enjoy! They would be great at a birthday party as a game or as a gift in the goodie bag for the guests to take home! These are not perfect because I just made them for our family to enjoy and thought I would share them with other PVZ lovers if wanted! :)

So here are the pictures of the game after they were cut out...


Plants vs Zombies DIY memory game tutorial. copyright Cassie's Creative Crafts
This is the back of the cards. It is needed so you can't see through the cards with the logo printed copyright Cassie's Creative Crafts.

Plants vs Zombies DIY memory game tutorial. copyright Cassie's Creative Crafts
Here is a picture of some of the characters after I cut them and we were playing! copyright of Cassie's Creative Crafts

First, you need to print them out on thick paper, like card stock. Is will be about 48 matches all together.

To get the PVZ Garden Warfare logo on the back of the cards like in the top picture, I printed all of my matches out first, then pulled up the front cover page with the logo and then fed my paper with the character matches back through my printer but turned them over to print the logo (manually printing it) you have to be careful and make sure you are putting you matches back into the printer the correct way so that the logo prints right side up and not up side down. Note: printing the logo on the back of the cards is a necessary thing because if you don't, then you will be able to see through the cards and then you might have some cheaters!!! lol!

Then, this is OPTIONAL- you can spray a varnish or protectant spray on each of them to protect the ink from running in case it gets wet. If you do this, let it dry for several hours before using. Make sure to spray in a well ventilated room or outside.

Second, after they are printed correctly on BOTH sides and protectant spray is completed, you can now cut them out. I had my kiddos help me. I actually cheated and stacked two pieces together and cut them CAREFULLY out to speed up the cutting process! :) It seemed to work just fine.

Third, you should be ready for lots of fun and playtime with the game! OPTIONAL - you can also laminate each card if you want to make sure they don't get bent and will last longer. I beat my kids once and they whooped me every other time after that! We actually got to laughing so hard playing this game that my cheeks hurt afterwards. Usually my family is very competitive and my oldest started out this way with this game and we had a talk about just play for fun and he did and we had the best laugh! It was priceless!

Well, here are the free printable of the game if you would like to print them out yourself. Remember, I worked hard on these and so please do not claim them as your own, do not sell them in any way to make a profit. If you would like to share it with someone else, then please link it back to my blog or send them my blog link. Also, I am not claiming that I made these characters myself, I got them off of the internet and can give you the sources of where I got them if you would like.



Click on the download links below the pictures to download each page...


Plants vs Zombies DIY memory game tutorial. copyright Cassie's Creative Crafts
Download 1st page

Plants vs Zombies DIY memory game tutorial. copyright Cassie's Creative Crafts
Download 2nd page

Plants vs Zombies DIY memory game tutorial. copyright Cassie's Creative Crafts
Download 3rd page

Plants vs Zombies DIY memory game tutorial. copyright Cassie's Creative Crafts
Download 4th page

Plants vs Zombies DIY memory game tutorial. copyright Cassie's Creative Crafts
Download 5th page

Plants vs Zombies DIY memory game tutorial. copyright Cassie's Creative Crafts
Download 6th page

Plants vs Zombies DIY memory game tutorial. copyright Cassie's Creative Crafts
Download 7th page

Plants vs Zombies DIY memory game tutorial. copyright Cassie's Creative Crafts
Download 8th page
Plants vs Zombies DIY memory game tutorial. copyright Cassie's Creative Crafts
Download front page

Remember to print this last page (front page)  and print on the back of the character match pages.

I hope you enjoy these as my family and I have and will for years to come.

Thank you for stopping by!

All rights in this post and every post in this blog are property of Cassie's Creative Crafts.

#plantsvszombies #memorygame #tutorial #DIY #plantsvszombiescraft #crafts #freebie #printable #printie

Saturday, June 7, 2014

Product Review: Plants Vs Zombies Mini-Figure Toy Set

Hello,

This is my first product review and I am doing this to hopefully share and inform others about certain products. The product I'm reviewing is a toy min-figure set that I bought for my 9 year old son because he finished all his chores and saved up his money. Both of my boys absolutely LOVE Plants vs. Zombies game (especially the new one, Garden Warfare). Here is a picture of the product I ordered. The name of the product is:

                                      Plants vs Zombies Mini-Figure Set (6 Figures)


                                                            

                                                  I ordered it from Amazon.com.

Maker: Popcap (which is the creator of the game itself)
Made in: China
Cost: $19.77
Shipping: This product qualified for Prime membership - so, shipping was FREE!!
Durability: The scuba diver zombie and brown coat zombie are very flimsy and can easily be broken. Neither one of them stand up on their own either. The scuba diver has one flipper off and so he is uneven. The Yeti zombie and plants appear to be more durable.
Realism/quality of characters compared to the game: The characters look like the game and I think they did a fantastic job with that. However, the paint does seem to chip off easy on some of them.

I do wish that they made more of the common characters or at least had more of them in the box. This is the only one I have found with these characters.

Overall, This product has satisfied my boys and they love Plants vs Zombies game and love the characters, I just hate they they are afraid to touch them in fear of breaking them.

I still would recommend them to a Plants vs Zombies lover because of the realism. I wouldn't buy them for a child under 7 unless they don't chew on toys because they will break, chip paint, and can't handle a lot of playtime.

Hope you enjoy them! :)




#plantsvszombies #productreview #toys