How to make an I Spy Game

You will find this project is so much fun to do with the kids, as they can help choose what to use for the I Spy game pieces. Of course I needed a way to incorporate our wonderful clear stamps into this project so with the use of Shrinky Dinks we were able to condense the size of the image and make it a fun way to incorporate it into the game.

Here I stamped my clear rubber stamp images with Stazon Black ink onto the Shrinky Dink and then colored the images with permanent markers. Stuck them in the oven and cooked them according to the Shrinky Dinks instructions. I used one image from each of the 3 themes we carry, Fun with Fish, Farm Friends and Circus Act. I did a different quantity of each so that they can count how many they see of each when the kids play the game. I drew some pumpkins to add to the fun.

Next, find all the goodies you want to include in your I Spy Game. Use paper clips, safety pins, coins, beads, buttons, some confetti or whatever else you can find handy~don't forget your Shrinky Dink images.

I cut a circle of different sizes from coordinating card stock ~ so that I could layer it later and give my I Spy Game some durability. If you are unable to do a circle, then a square will work just great! Use an Exacto knife with a ruler to cut out the square.

Then clip all pieces of card stock together to layer it.

Cut your layered pieces into a square and then glue them all together. I used a little bit of glue on each sheet around the circle area. I cut another plain piece of card stock the same size as my finished layer pieces to use for the back. Do not put the back on yet!

Glue a clear sandwich bag onto the back of your layered card stock, glue just around the square part and then fill the bag with your "treasures". Use glue to put the back on to cover the baggie and then I used clear packing tape all around the edges to seal it up [framed it]. You can make a note of how many items you put inside the baggie before you seal it up; I did not as some of the pieces do not show because I left the baggie square. Ask your child "how many yellow paperclips can you find", as it is a great way to re-enforce counting.

Have fun with this project and take it on trips as a way to entertain your child~it does not take up much space. Kids crafts are fun when you include your children and rubber stamping can be incorporated in almost any project :).

Thanks for visiting and fill free to comment on this project. Visit our storefront to purchase your stamps today or stop at our website to find out more about us. Never stop stamping!

Shrinky Dinks and Clear Rubber Stamps

As kids we enjoyed not only using rubber stamps on rainy days, but we also loved doing Shrinky Dinks. Shrinky Dinks was first sold in stores in 1973, so parents that grew up with Shrinky Dinks love doing them now with their children. You can draw free hand on the plastic or you can use rubber stamps and color in the shapes, do a combination of both.

In the following pictures you can see how much fun we had with Shrinky Dinks using our Bigfoot & Pickle Face Creations clear rubber stamps. Below the girls are coloring in their designs on the plastic sheet.

When using rubber stamps with Shrinky Dinks, you must use alcohol-based permanent ink stamp pad and Shrinky Dinks recommends Stazon Inks because they have been tested. We colored in with permanent colored markers to get the look we wanted. Note: since many of the projects I do are for young kids, when doing this project the adult should stamp the image on to the paper and then advise the child the importance of not coloring on themselves or any other surface with the permanent markers. I informed the girls that they were using "big" girl markers and needed to only color on the plastic. They thought it was cool they could use markers they don't normally have access to. Here was our results. The girls wanted to go off and play so into the oven the pieces went.

Put them in the oven for 3 minutes and look at the results.

Now they stopped playing to make some bracelets with the Shrinky Dinks.

Warning: don't forget about the 21 month old! I turned my back for about 3 minutes and here he wiped the child safe/washable ink pad all over his face. He wanted to work with us but I restricted him to the washable inks, as you can see he is ruthless.

Here are some better photos of the steps. Here I stamped the images and let them dry. Be careful as the ink will slip a bit on the plastic creating some ink smudges.

Colored the images with permanent markers. The image is flipped because I wanted to try the coloring on the opposite side as the instructions were not really clear where to color. If we colored on the same side as the stamped image it seems to smear the black stamped image with the markers.

Into the oven and here is the results. Shrinky Dinks shrink to approximately 1/3rd of their original size and become 9 times thinker-per the website at http://www.shrinkydinks.com/. The images are real transparent and colorful when not laying on the brown paper.

This was such a fun project to do with my daughter and her friend and took me back to my childhood and made me realize that you don't have to do much to have fun. Use Shrinky Dinks as embellishments to your homemade cards, bookmarks or to use accents at your kids parties.

Kids crafts are so much fun and what a great way to use your clear rubber stamps. To purchase our product go to our storefront or check us out on Amazon. Never stop smiling and having fun. Happy Stamping!