Charms!
This charm consists of 3 main parts; the sheets of plastic, the background newspaper, and the pressed and dried flowers. Read each section carefully before trying them out.
This is made from the clear plastic of fast-food salad lids. I mean the lids on top of those take out salad boxes from Burger King or Wendy’s. I’m not exactly sure but I think that plastic soda bottles work too. Now get out two of those (unless you are making really small ones). One rule to remember is that a 1/2 inch diameter circle will shrink to about a 1/16 inch diameter circle after heating. So knowing this, cut out a size that you want in any shape. I suggest starting with a circle or rectangular shape practically the size of the lid. Cut out two that are exactly the same and put one in the toaster oven. You should definitely use the tray that sits on top of the oven rack (it should have come with the toaster oven). I covered it with tin foil just incase things get messy. Set the heat on toast and set it for about 5 minutes. BUT YOU NEED TO WATCH IT UNDERGO THE HEATING PROCESS!!!! Over heating it will cause the plastic to burn and get melty. After the first minute or so, the plastic will start to curl in on itself and it will look like you messed up, but don’t panic it’s supposed to do that. It will eventually become thicker, smaller, and flatter. You need to get it out of the oven immediately when it stops moving and it looks flat. After taking it out of the oven, it’s crucial that you remove it from the pan and flatten it while it’s still hot. I placed it on my counter top and pressed it with the bottom of a kettle. Be careful, it will be hot. If you couldn’t flatten it because it cooled too fast, you can warm it up in the toaster oven and try it again. Do the same with the other sheet of plastic.
This depends solely on you. All you do for this is cut out a size of newspaper a bit smaller than the plastic sheets you made, and color it. I suggest you clip a piece with lots of fine writing on it because it looks the best. Use highlighters to color on the newspapers since markers tend to be too dark and the letters on the paper will not show.
THE PRESSED FLOWERS
Pick out a few small flowers and some stems with small leaves on them. None of these should be bulky. The key to pressing flowers is drying them as quickly as possible to maintain the radiant colors. So just pressing them in a book will cause them to lose most of their color, that’s why we are going to use a microwave. Prepare two sheets of coffee filter paper and two heavy ceramic tiles. Put a sheet of filter paper on top of one tile. Orient the flowers and stems so that they are not touching each other on a sheet of filter paper and place the other on top. Put the other tile on top of the whole thing and microwave it for a minute. Then take it out immediately and remove the tiles. Separate the filter papers carefully, the flowers will stick to the papers so peel them off. Use toothpicks, tweezers, or whatever you need to fix your flowers so they are positioned the way you want. The flowers
Now that you have all the parts, you can put it all together. Just use a clear drying glue to glue the newspaper on one sheet of plastic, then glue the flowers in an artistic fashion. Finally, put glue on the edges of the flower side of the plastic and use the second sheet of plastic like a cover glass.
