Happy Holidays everyone, I hope you had a safe and happy Merry Christmas.  I was able to have a little bit of fun today with my cricut.  After I cut the bird house out on my cricut and glued it together I knew that it needed a bird but I was not sure what to use.  I don’t have any bird embellishments.  A few months ago I bought computer printable Shrinky Dinks with a 40% off coupon from Michaels.  I decided to go ahead and make my own bird embellishment.

I bought some bird clipart from Country Graphics.  Trina Clark has some amazing clipart (digital stamps too!)  I imported the clipart that I wanted to use into inkscape.  I set up the document for an 8×10 sheet.  I followed the instructions included in the Shrinky Dink kit.  I had to reduce the opacity 50% on the clipart before printing and then printed the clipart out on the dull side of the sheet.

I then cut out the bird image. I used my Cutter Bee scissors from Joanns and they worked perfect.  I just took my time around the beak and tail.

I pre-heated the oven for 300 degrees.  The instructions said to cut a rectangle out of a brown paper grocery bag and place that on the cookie sheet and then put the Shrinky Dink on the paper to bake.  I just used a piece of card stock since I did not have a brown paper bag.  I baked the bird for about 3 minutes.  I watched it the whole time just like a little kid.  I thought that it was ruined in the beginning because it was bent and distorted but as the last minute completed it began to lay flat.  It turned out very nice.  I am extremely happy with this and know that I will be using this more often.  This is what it looked like when I took it out of the oven.  Amazing right?

Here is the birdhouse with a scalloped edge roof.

Sorry the picture is a little fuzzy.  I have tried every which way and color back drop to try and get this clear but with my light and camera, unfortunately this is the best that I am going to get tonight.  The little bird is really cute, and a crisp image and turned out very cute.  I don’t have the acrylic glaze that it recommends that you coat it with to protect it but I will pick some up later.

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