Tiny treasures for your favorite chick

As some of you know, I can’t let a holiday got by without creating mini-somethings. Once again I just had to turn these Sweet Peeps into charming, tiny, shrinky-dink bracelets. I say shrink it, string it, and strut it. And if you’re willing to also share it, you can wrap some tiny gift boxes in the Sweet Peeps paper patterns and add a few ribbons and flowers to complete the gift.

If you want to make a few of these you will need the Sweet Peeps Graphic Set (from LD) for the little charms. That set will give you all of the animals and eggs. Since you will be having to cut the pieces out by hand, this is the best set to work with. If you have a great cutting machine that can cut through Shrinky Dinks material, you could probably use the Sweet Peeps Icons Print-Cut set, but my cutter is not good for that thickness of material, so all shrinky-dinks that I make are hand cut.

Make sure when purchasing Shrinky-Dinks that you are buying for the computer ink jet printer kind, which can be run through ink jets only, not laser printers. I am linking you to their website here if you need to learn more (look for the “for inkjet printers” kind on that web page). Make sure you follow the instructions for shrinky-dinks. The color on the art will darken as it shrinks, but because most of the animals are pastel, they should look fine when shrunk. Also, it is very important to pre-hole punch the individual pieces before you shrink them, if you are wanting holes at the top of the pieces for stringing. I use a .125" or larger hole punch to end up with the little pin holes at the top of the charms. I might even recommend a .25" punch.

Once you have little shrunken Easter charms you can string or bead them into package tip-ons as well as fun costume jewelry for you and your peeps. I was able to find these cute glass beads that resemble the vintage style candy called Sixlets, and then, sure enough, I found the candy for Easter at Walmart to complete the vintage look. I was able to get the beads and Shrinky-Dinks material at Hobby Lobby, but you might have to find some of those items online. Oh, I even got these cute glass jars at Hobby Lobby and then spray painted the lids in pastel colors. These jars come in many sizes, the smallest much like a baby food jar.

I finished this fun project with papers as gift wrap from the Sweet Peeps Paper Pack, then used the Sweet Peeps Labels and Cupcake Toppers to embellish. I also used some precut colored flowers to add a few more touches to the gift boxes.

Another cute idea would be to use the cupcake toppers set as the charms, or zipper pulls, earrings, lots of ideas, with the Shrinky Dinks material. The circle art would be easy for trimming by hand. Also, one last note about trimming Shrinky Dinks is that I think it’s a good idea to leave a little white space around each item as you trim it out. Remember that a little space needs to be a little more for shrinking. I think the items shrink about 2/3’s of their original size.

Now, get out there and shrink to your hearts content!

When you care enough to send the very best~for free!

A great big thank you to all for caring enough to send the very best~comments here, and on facebook. For caring enough to “join” the blog and “like” the facebook page. But mostly I thank you for the time you take out of your busy lives to sneak a peek at the creatively satisfying world of Sheri McCulley Studio.

Your graciousness does not go unnoticed. I would like to offer you and your peeps two Easter card designs that I have made for this holiday. They can be downloaded from my U-Pick button (within the Sheri’s Creations folder). They are designed to fit into an A6 envelope and will tent fold to 4.5 x 6. Please make it your goal to print and share as many cards as you like for those you care about during this Easter season.

Here are samples of both cards, but remember in order to download the art you must click through the U-Pick button at the right. The first card file name is EasterGreetingCard.jpg and the second is HippityHoppityCard.jpg. Both can be printed on 8.5 x 11 cover stock, trimmed, folded, and ready to share with your peeps, young and old during your Easter celebrations.

Thank you all for visiting my sites as your time permits. I love what I do, and it is because of you I am inspired daily to keep doing what I love most.

If any of you would like to follow my facebook page and do not already, you can go here to find the page and learn a bit more about Sheri McCulley Creations.

Hanging with my peeps

I love garland. It can be hung in a swag, or dangled from above. It is the perfect way to get festive for a holiday, and this time, it’s for Easter. This week I got my peeps together with a few of the lucky ducks and honey bunnies from the Sweet Peeps collection on LD. I now have them playing ring around the rosie, as they twirl in the breeze on my studio porch.

This is a fun project to put together and use indoors or outside as Easter approaches. I simply used the Sweet Peeps Icons—Print Cut—file from LD to print, cut and glue together the Easter eggs, bunnies, chicks and ducks.

The eggs are made up of six identical pieces to build each egg. I glued them to the vertical axis with ribbon threaded through the middle. Then I printed two each of the bunnies, ducks and chicks (one flipped or reversed before printing to get a direct mirror image). I then glued them with the ribbon coming up from the now 3-D egg so it would also be glued between the animal pieces.

The additional flowers are made from precut and punched shapes with colored paper. I hole punched in the centers of each to thread the ribbons through. The ribbons hold tight to the flowers, so no need to glue, and this also allows for shifting the flowers up or down from the egg and animals as desired.

In order to hang the ring of friends I used an eight inch embroidery hoop and simply attached each piece of garland to the hoop with plenty of ribbon to bring all together at top and tie for hanging. I think the ribbons are about four or five feet long, so as to have plenty of length for this ring around the rosie garland, just in time for spring.

To hang out with your own peeps go to Sweet Peeps at Lettering Delights and choose from many icons, designs and patterned papers to help create and decorate for Easter in the sweetest way possible.

Hoppin’ down the bunny trail . . . and into your hands

Here comes Peter Cottontail, his peeps, his chicks and lots of decorated Easter eggs to help you celebrate the sweetest holiday of the year. They are from the Sweet Peeps collection and are now available on Lettering Delights and will be hopping for joy once you get them, craft them, and share them with your own peeps this Easter. (And they come with some freebies, so read to the end to see what you get today!)

The Sweet Peeps collection has a variety of sets to create with. There are 23 patterned papers to use for everything from gift wrap to scrapbook pages. A few are even designed with the perfect spot for the snap shot! You can see each paper design above, as well as a few samples of the Sweet Peeps alphabet.

In addition to the papers and alphabet, these sets (shown above) are also available on LD from the Sweet Peeps collection; they are:

• A dozen tags and labels for gift and party needs

• Cupcake toppers and wrappers come in sets of ten designs

• Five gift cards are available to trim and fold. They are blank inside and fit into A6 envelopes.

• Three different Easter invitations are available; one for an Easter celebration, one for an Easter egg hunt, and one for an Easter party. Each invitation trims to a 4.5 x 6.25 and fits into an A6 envelope.

• There are also three different basket designs which will be perfect for Easter and spring gift giving (the floral and pink baskets will be great for Mother’s Day as well).

In addition to all of the other treasures, there are also Sweet Peeps icons and motifs available as a Graphics set, a Print and Cut set and the ever popular Cut-its set. You can see the images for these sets below. These Easter icons have unlimited possibilities, and many purposes beyond Easter Sunday. Think springtime!

This collection can only get sweeter if I have a couple of fun freebies to add to the mix in time for Easter. Today’s freebie is of a dozen darling Easter egg wraps to help decorate eggs and coordinate with the other Sweet Peeps creations you will be making. See the sample below and click on my U-Pick button at the right to go directly to my free downloadables. The file name is called SweetPeepsEggWraps.jpg, so get it today and pick up some additional art at LD to start preparing for Easter Sunday.

In the meantime, start hippity hopping on over to Lettering Delights and get with the Sweet Peeps program. You can also get there by clicking on my Sheri’s Creations sign at the top, right.

Spring in a Basket

I’ve got spring on my mind. The flowers are blooming, the trees are budding and the birds are singing. Even I have a little spring in my step during this time of year. Let’s look forward to a beautiful and cheery Easter. Soon the Sweet Peeps will arrive to help us prepare for the day.

Something Sweet for my Peeps

Time for a little sneak peek of the latest collection I’m working on with Lettering Delights for Easter time. It is from my collection, Sweet Peeps, and it is all about sweet things for Easter. There will be a cut-it set for those of you who use a cutter, but not printer, as well as tags, papers, cards, graphics and more. This Easter collection has something cute for kids and something sweet for adults, so everyone can have a wonderful Easter weekend. There is also art that is great for springtime so the fun won’t end after Easter Sunday. I will also be having a freebie or two as we get a little closer to the event, so stay tuned.

Pen Pals from My Land to Thailand

Get your pen, because the Wee Are The World pals are back and ready to correspond with you and your neighbors, near and far.

I have twelve stationery sets of Wee Are The World kids, one for each pal from the collection. They are the sweetest, little sets for you to get and share with you local pals and friends across the seas. If you like them all you can even get the complete Wee stationery sets for a special deal.

The stationery sets are now available at Lettering Delights and you can get right to them by clicking on my Sheri’s Creations sign at right or click here. Each stationery set comes with a card, two notes, three labels and an envelope.

You can see each of these sets below, complete with all seven pieces. The sets available are Frenchy, Mukluk, Sushi, Tajie, Nina, Bongo, Tiki, Poncho, Dutchy, Java, Tawni and Cairo. They are only grouped in pairs below to save space, but are sold individually on LD.

Below is a sample of one stationery set similar to what you will get from LD. You will simply print, trim, fold, and glue the pieces. The only thing left to do is write to your pals and send. Please note, these envelopes cannot be sent in the mail as is, they are legally too small, and of course the free postage stamps cannot be used for actual postage. They are just for cuteness sake. :)

Above is a sample of the Mukluk set; trimmed, folded, and ready for use.

I also have a freebie to share! It is a set of twelve postage stamps to complete the sets. The postage stamps are designed to match the wee kids, and you can download them free here or at my U-Pick sign (at right, then choose the file title WeePostageStamps) to help decorate your wee envelopes. You can reduce the file before printing to 50% to get a traditional stamp size, or keep the art at full size as a mini global gallery or other crafting projects.

Sample of free wee postage stamps (above); you must click on my U-Pick sign (at right) to download the file.

Head on over to LD to get these darling pen pal sets from the twelve global kids and share the joy of letter writing on mini cards and stationery. Think of it as a mini break from typing and texting, but an enjoyable one for you and your recipients!