VB Tutorial: Mysterious VB Charm

Hey VillaBabes and VillaDudes!

Today we will be making Halloween charms using the VBKit Mysterious clip art and shrink paper. I will be using the Silhouette brand of shrink paper.

Items Needed:
VBKit digitals
Shrink paper
Scissors or Silhouette cutting machine
Printer
Parchment paper
Jump rings
Your oven

Step 1: Open or add your designs in Silhouette Studio® (software is free). Resize the clip art as desired. I have sized mine to be 6 inches in height. Please note that once the item is “baked,” the piece will be approximately three times smaller than the printed version.

If you are not using a silhouette machine, skip to Step #4.

Step 2: Add an offset to the clip art. To keep it simple, we will use the default offset (square border).

If you would like more of a true outline of the clip art (like below), please feel free to reach out to me and I will tell you how to accomplish that method.

Step 3: Add a circle to the design for the jump rings to go through. If you are using a Silhouette to cut the design, make sure to turn on the registration marks (found in the Page Setup panel).

Tip: Fill the circle with a color (preferably white) so that you can easily see where you are placing the hole.

Step 4: Place the shrink paper into your home printer. If you are using the white shrink plastic, print on the matte side. If you are using the clear shrink plastic, print on the side with no Silhouette watermark.

Tip: Print your design using the low or draft quality printing settings (this will prevent the design from printing too dark). After the paper is baked, the printed colors tend to be a couple of shades darker than what was originally printed.

If you are not using a silhouette machine, skip to Step #6.

Step 5: Place the printed sheet on your mat and feed it into your Silhouette machine. In the Send panel, choose Shrink Plastic as your material type. Make sure that you are just cutting out the outline and the inside circle of your shapes. Adjust your blade if necessary and send your cut job to your Silhouette machine. After cutting the designs, remove the designs from the cutting mat.

Step 6: Preheat your oven to about 325° F / 160° C. If you hand cut your design, don't forget to hole punch the clip art where you would like to add the jump ring.

If you are using the clear shrink plastic, remove the Silhouette-branded liner and place the shapes printed side up onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet. If you are using the white shrink plastic, place the printed shapes printed side up onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet.

The baking process takes approximately two minutes. Watch as the piece shrinks (it will curl and move and then lay flat again). The shapes will be much smaller and thicker than the shapes you started with.

Step 7: Once the piece is flat (or almost flat if you bake a bigger piece), quickly but carefully remove the cookie sheet from the oven. Right away, gently press the piece flat using a flat tool. You have a couple of seconds to flatten the piece because the plastic cools down pretty quickly. The piece may stay slightly curled if you don’t flatten it fast enough.

Step 8: Remove the piece from the cookie sheet, and add the jump ring.

(For the version on the far right, do not hesitate to reach out to me.)

And there you have it! Your very own Mysterious VB Charm.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to me. I will be more than happy to help!

Have fun making charms! Hope you all enjoyed this!