The Only Thing That Feels Normal

The moment I was brought back from the waiting room in the ER to see Darin for the first time since we'd arrived, I lacked confidence that there was anything I could do to comfort or help him.  I was afraid to touch him, as if I would cause more damage in doing so.  He was conscious and answered my questions, but the intensity of his pain and then the strength of his pain meds kept us from really conversing.  Pastor Scott encouraged me to pray for him out loud when I was at a loss of what to do for him, and I did, but I struggled to see my efforts as amounting to anything of value.

Later that night, Darin was transferred to the ICU and I only felt more reluctant and lacking in confidence to offer anything.  I wanted to support him, but IVs, monitors, beeping machines and the hustle and bustle of medical staff all seemed beckon me into the background.

I spent the first night in the hospital, but soon realized that I would need to stay at home for the overnights thereafter,  We had family members and willing friends to stay with him during the long nights ahead (more on that later) but our children needed the presence of their mother at night and I needed to try to be somewhat rested for spending my days at the hospital.  I slept in our guestroom at home.  I just couldn't handle being in OUR bed without him.  Sleep was hard to come by and was often interrupted by anxiety attacks. I missed him terribly. I wished he could hold me.

I was put in touch early on with another woman whose husband experienced a spinal cord injury a few years back and is now living with paraplegia.  We started to connect through phone calls and texts.  An early message from her read:

 "Keep your chin up.  He's still with you and that's what is important. He still has arms to hold you and the kids."

Her words were so reassuring.  Getting to a place where he could hold me again seemed pretty far off but eventually, after he'd been on the rehab floor for awhile I was able to climb onto his hospital bed and squeeze in next to him every so often.  One of those times he said to me:

"Holding you is the only thing that feels normal to me right now."

Even though I had gained more confidence to support him, encourage him and advocate for him long before that moment, I realized something very important right then. It was not what I did for him that made the biggest difference.  I wasn't going to let him down or mess things up if I didn't always know the "right way" to react in moments of crisis.  I was giving him a gift simply by letting him hold me. I was the only thing that "felt normal" when everything else had changed.

We, like every couple, have had our struggles in marriage. We have had times where we felt like we just kept dealing with the same "issues" over and over and over again.  Every so often it has seemed like a losing battle.  Forgive the cliche but the fiery trials we have been facing during the past couple months have truly burned away the petty things and revealed just how much victory God has actually given us.  Victory might not have always "felt" like what we wanted it to through the years.  But now I believe that victory is "holding on" even when it is hard.  And now, it is literally the best gift we can give to each other.

xoxo,

Sometimes Fear Traps Us in a Dungeon

Darin had recently been transferred out of the ICU.  It had been over a week since Lucy and Collin saw their daddy whisked away on a fire truck and in a couple of days they would see him for the first time since the accident.  It was a daunting task, but I knew I needed to start explaining to them that their daddy's injury would mean permanent changes for him and all of us. I showed them a picture of their daddy immobilized in the ICU complete with an NG tube, all kinds of monitors, and a picc line.  I told them that when he came home, he would be in a wheel chair and probably wouldn't be able to walk yet (if ever). I told them that no one but God knew when he would be able to come home from the hospital.  For a five and seven-year-old, it already seemed like an eternity since they'd seen him.  I was not prepared for all the questions that would come from them, particularly from Lucy, when I gave them this information.  Here's a sampling from one of our conversations:

"How will Daddy go potty when he gets home?"

"Well. I don't know yet.  But the doctors and nurses will teach him how to go potty."

"How will he get his pajamas on?"

"Well, I will help him!"

"But are you strong enough?"

"Well, I don't know! But I hope so."

I ended up being grateful for the questions, because they helped me to systematically confront many of the disorganized  fears that were floating around in my brain. Our family has faced a lot of fears, starting the moment the accident occurred, and new ones have popped up each day ever since. 

Two days after the accident-the day before Darin's surgery-I was pretty shaky with fear.  I could best describe it as the feeling you have when you are about to throw up.  You aren't looking forward to it, but you know that you will probably feel better when it is all done so you wish you could hasten it. On that day, I was talking to my sister on the phone and she told me that her youngest daughter, my 11-year-old niece, Grace, had written and illustrated a story for my kids that was intended to help them through this difficult time.  She hadn't put all the finishing touches on her artwork, but my sister promised to send me pictures of the story in a series of texts.  When I received them, the story took my breath away.  It turned out to be the very thing I needed to get through that day:

"Once upon a time, there was a beautiful princess named Lucy.  There was also a very strong and courageous knight named Collin"

"One day, Collin was on his way home from outsmarting a giant and conquering a dragon and he heard the beautiful voice of a girl singing a beautiful song. He thought, 'Oh my, that must be Princess Lucy!  I must go and see her!' But there was one problem. He couldn't find where she was."

" 'Hmmm,' he thought, 'How will I be able to know where Princess Lucy is? Ooh! Maybe I should call her name and she will answer me!' He cupped his hands around his mouth and called, 'Oh Lucy!  Where are you?!' Then he heard a faint, 'Down here, strong and mighty Collin, the monster has put me in a dungeon!' "

" 'What monster? Is it a dragon? I'm good at fighting dragons!' Collin said. 'No,'  Lucy said, 'It's a very bad monster, his name is Fear. You have to conquer it!' Lucy was shaking, just thinking of his name. 'Don't worry, I will,' Collin said.  Then, Fear started coming out."

" 'He's (gulp) bigger than I thought,' Collin said.  Then Lucy whispered, 'Pray! Think something like God is with me, God is with me! It will help!'  Collin started to slowly walk toward Fear, thinking, 'God is with me, God is with me!' Fear felt really confused, because Collin wasn't scared."

"Fear started backing away while Collin was stepping forward.  Then Collin smiled.  He stopped, he looked fear right in the eye and yelled at the top of his lungs, 'I...AM...A...STEVENSON!!'  Fear looked terrified. Then, in a sudden burst, he disappeared."

" 'We conquered the fear! We conquered the fear!  Hooray!' Lucy and Collin shouted with delight. And ever since that day, when Collin conquered the fear, Lucy and Collin and the whole kingdom lived happily ever after.  The End."

 

I wonder if my sweet niece had any idea the gift she gave our entire family when she wrote and shared this story with her cousins.  For me, personally, I have been given a way to articulate my experiences ever since Darin fell off that ladder:  Sometimes, the "very bad monster named Fear"  has trapped me in a dungeon. Things seem complicated in those moments.  But the solution for me, in Christ Jesus is simple:   Pray. Say "God is with me!" Remember who I am in Him, and take the first few steps in facing my fears.

Does this story touch you too? If you know of anyone, big or little, who could use some encouraging words about facing fear, I hope you will share it with them. I would love for Grace to know how much impact her story has on others, so if you or someone you know is ever touched by it, please let me know so I can pass it along to her.

By the way: please don't copy, or redistribute Grace's story, or present it as your own.  If you share with others, I ask that do so by simply sharing this blog post as is!

xoxo,

Darin

It's been fairly quiet over here for awhile. Despite my inactivity on this blog, 2015 is proving to be a big year for our family, and not in a way we would have ever imagined, expected or asked for.

On March 27th, we were enjoying a relaxed and laid back Friday afternoon.  Darin had taken the day off from work and we were enjoying a little "stay-cation".  We had stayed the night before at a local hotel that had an indoor water park.  We'd been back home for perhaps an hour and a half and it was a beautiful day.   Darin decided to go into the backyard to finish installing a zip line that he'd been working on for Lucy and Collin.  It was a part of the amazing play barn he'd been building for them:

Nora was napping, Lucy was working with one of her respite providers, Collin was engrossed in his own activities and I was tidying up in the "school room" when I heard a thud from outside and the sound of Darin groaning in pain.  I quickly ran to our backyard and found him on his back sprawled on the ground. His fifteen foot ladder, fully extended, was leaning against our maple tree. 

 "Honey, should I call an ambulance or do you think I can get you into the van and take you to the ER?" I asked him calmly.
"Call an ambulance," he responded with a calmness that matched mine. Thankfully, our next door neighbor was home, saw what was happening and was by Darin's side while I ran in to retrieve my phone.

I told Lucy and Collin that their daddy was hurt, I was calling an ambulance and that we were going to "trust God with their daddy". I dialed 911 and went back to Darin who at this point was completely unaware of what happened, what day it was or what he had been doing.

In a flash, a team of paramedics arrived, assessed his condition, cut his clothing off and put him on a stretcher. Lucy and Collin witnessed these moments and Lucy immediately began crying and expressed her fears that her daddy was too hurt to go back to work and that we would not "have any money to buy food".  Collin watched silently with his lip quivering. Our pastor's wife, Laura, arrived to stay with all the kids so that Ruth, Lucy's respite provider could be relieved and I could go to the ER with Darin.

We made it to the ER and I sat calmly in the waiting room, waiting to hear what the initial exam and x-ray revealed.  I was determined not to "jump to any conclusions" yet.  Our pastor, Scott showed up and was already giving support and praying with me when the trauma doctor approached me in the waiting room.

"He has a fractured vertebrae.  And a spinal cord injury.  He has sensation in his legs, but no movement," she explained.

"Sensation, but no movement," I repeated, "Ummm, what is the difference between sensation and movement?" I dumbly asked.

"He can tell if something is touching his legs, but he cannot move them. He will be transferred soon to the ICU where you will meet with a neurosurgeon to discuss the next steps."

The calm suddenly gave way to fear and Scott put his arm around my shoulders as the tears freely came.

 A LOT has happened since that afternoon.  Darin was hospitalized for a total of 40 days.  The hospital stay included a seven-hour surgery to stabilize the burst vertebrae, one week in the ICU, one week in acute care and four weeks of inpatient rehabilitation. He spends most of his time in a wheel chair now, but praise God, he has regained some mobility in his legs!  He can even do some walking with a leg brace and his walker! But things will never be the same.

He is now back home and has been here for three weeks. He is trying to get used to life with his new disability and we are all adjusting to big changes.  I am learning to be his caregiver, keeping up with parenting our children, and starting to pick up as many of his former household responsibilities as I can.  We have A LOT of help.  We have more support than we could have ever dreamed of.  We are NOT on this journey alone.  God is taking care of us through His people.

It is still hard.  There are a lot of unknowns about the future and we are facing a lot of fears. I don't have a lot of free time.  Right now I am staying up later than I should, typing this.  But, I feel like I need to start processing the past two months in writing and also document the journey going forward as best as I am able.  I want to use this blog as an outlet to do that.  I hope you will be blessed by the stories I have to share.  Stay tuned.

 

 

xoxo,

My Favorite Early Learning Math Materials!

I am definitely not a math expert. And while math was never my personal favorite subject in school, I find that I really enjoy doing math activities with Lucy and Collin in our home schooling efforts. As a kid I had a few experiences in school that caused me to lose confidence in my ability to understand or be successful with math.  Looking back,  I realize how those moments really affected me negatively and I wish I could somehow go back to my younger self and undo some of those confidence-shattering math encounters... Of course I can't do that, but I CAN do whatever I can to help my kids experience a level of success in math at an early age and try to bring some joy into their learning process.

This is just a smattering of materials and activities that I do with Lucy and Collin to supplement their main math curriculum (they both do kindergarten level math at this point).  They seem to genuinely ENJOY these activities, and if we can tackle math in an enjoyable and playful manner, then all the better in my opinion!

1. Inchimals by Fat Brain Toys

We LOVE Inchimals!  This is a set of 12 beautiful wooden blocks, ranging in length from 1" to 12".  Each block is represented by a different animal, and includes the inch markings on the sides.  Not only do my kids love using their inchimals to measure things all over the house, but they love using them to solve the math equations included in the spiral-bound dry erase book included with the set.  The math equations are presented using the animals that are assigned to the blocks.  Below is an example of a simple addition equation that Lucy solved by finding the "lady bug" and "mouse" blocks.  One she determined the length of each block and wrote their numerical value below, she was ready to add the two pieces together and then search for the inchimal that was equal to the sum of the two original blocks.  In this case, she figured out that "mouse" + "lady bug" = "rabbit" or 4".  As your children work their way through the book they'll encounter subtraction and more complex equations to solve.  I love that they can grow along with it!

2. Do A Dot Art Markers, Ready 2 Learn Giant Number Stamps, and Ready 2 Learn Giant Math Signs Stamps

I snagged these jumbo number and math sign "Ready 2 Learn" brand stamps from Zulily sometime ago, and we are sure putting them to great use!  The number set includes stamps for numerals 0 through 9 and the math signs set comes with stamps for addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, greater than and less than and equals signs.  My kids love it when I pull out our giant ink pads, construction paper, giant stamps and our Do A Dot markers! They get to pick out the color of paper, color of ink, and number stamps (which they truly find thrilling!) and with my guidance, stamp out an equation at the top of their paper.  If we work with addition, then they use the Do A Dot markers to stamp out the number of dots indicated by their chosen numbers and solve the equation visually.  When doing subtraction, they stamp out dots representing the larger number and then use little squares of paper to cover up the dots corresponding to the second number in their equation. My craft-loving kids just love the process and feel so pleased when they solve their equations.  It may seem like a lot of trouble to go to for a couple of math equations, but their delight in the activity makes it worth it for me.

3.  Eeboo Preschool Lotto Game and Mr. Printable's Simple Printable Numbers

During Lucy and Collin's preschool days, our family spent a lot of time playing the delightful Preschool Lotto Game together!  Now they go for games that are a little more complicated during free time, but we have found ways to breath new life into this game by incorporating it into subtraction lessons! 

 

I printed off and cut out several sets of these simple number cards from the Mr. Printables website and keep them tucked inside the game box.  To play the game, each player takes their own game board which has six illustrations on it arranged in a grid. Players take turns drawing tiles from the center of the play area and matching the tiles to the identical illustrations on the board.  The first player to fill their game board wins. 

To turn this game into a subtraction lesson, the kids and I play until everyone has filled their game board.  Then I have each kid find a number 6 card, representing the total number of illustrations on their board and a subtraction sign card (which is included in the set).

Then I call out a color, and each kid looks at their board and removes from their board every tile that has that color in it.  Once they have removed and counted those tiles, they find the corresponding number card and arrange it with the other cards the found before and create a subtraction equation to solve. Then it is simply a matter of them counting their remaining tiles on their board to identify the difference. 

 

We normally refill their board with all the tiles and call out more colors several times to work in as many subtraction equations as they have the attention for.  Obviously the lesson is a bit limited by the fact that the highest number we are subtracting from is 6, but I found it to be a good introduction to the concept of subtraction.

4. Learning Resources Primary Bucket Balance and Learning Resources Centimeter Cubes

It is pretty hard to teach kiddos the concept of measurement without giving them something tangible that invites them to personally explore it.  The Primary Bucket Balance and Centimeter Cubes make it easy to introduce the ideas of measuring mass using items found around the house.

Sometimes I will take a basket and fill it up with small household objects.  Then I present the items to the kids along with the bucket balance and tub of plastic centimeter cubes and have them discover how many centimeter cubes are equal in mass to each object.  They are instructed write down the number of cubes for each object and once they find the number for each object they then arrange the items in order from least to greatest. It is also fun to have them guess the answer before they take the measurement and see them experience delight when their guess was close, or wonder to learn that their item had much more or less mass than they guessed.

Of course there are so many more things you can do with these items! This little activity is just one way we enjoy them. It is also pretty great just to put these items in the kids' hands and see what they come up with on their own. 

5. Kathy Troxel Addition Songs and Subtraction Songs (with addition and subtraction flash cards)

For the most part in our home schooling efforts, I emphasize foundational mathematical concepts over memorizing rote facts. But, memorization definitely has its place in our curriculum and when I do introduce memorization tasks I try to make them as pleasant as possible! Kathy Troxel's music has made these efforts seem effortLESS! 

To make the most of the memorizing attempts I wanted to pair these songs with flash cards so there would be a visual and auditory component.  I looked for the most simple addition and subtraction flash cards I could find and ended up with these by Trend Enterprises:

     

  

We are slowly downloading our way through Kathy Troxel's Addition Songs and Subtraction Songs albums. I simply stack the flash cards in order before playing a song with the kids and we sing along and flip through the cards together. Pretty simple but my kids seem to enjoy it and haven't protested once when I pulled the cards out and played the music. 

6. Dot to Dot Books

Often I find that when I am doing school with my kids one of them is needing individual attention while another is left without much to do.  It is nice to be able to point them toward something that they can enjoy and do independently!  When I want to point them towards something that will reinforce math-learning I frequently gravitate towards dot-to-dot pages. It seems like such a simple suggestion, but my kids  rarely tire of them and I like the way they help them in recognizing and putting ordinal numbers together from least to greatest. 

If you are wanting to invest in some supplemental early learning math materials for your kiddos, I sincerely hope this has given you some ideas that will be helpful!  Do your kids have some favorite math activities?  Please tell me about them! I am always on the look out for fresh ideas!

xoxo,

Fabric Party Hats Pattern for SALE (here goes nothing!)

Hey Friends!  I want to thank everyone who downloaded the "test" version of my little Fabric Party Hat Pattern this past month!  I have had fun tinkering with and revising it over the past several weeks and I feel like I have gotten it to a place where I am ready to list it for sale.

 

I had the pleasure of sewing and shooting the photographs included in the pattern at my favorite local shop for fabric and yarn.  Many thanks to Jessica over at Stitch for graciously allowing me to use your beautiful space! Should any of you find yourselves in Cental Iowa  (which is a way cooler place than you might think!!) you ought to stop by!

As for my little pattern, I sincerely hope that if you give it a whirl, you will find it to be a fun and creative endeavor.  As this is my first attempt at pattern-writing, I would love feedback or questions!  If there's any way I can make your experience in making this hat more pleasant for you, I hope you will contact me!

Lastly, as I am just getting my feet wet at this, I would appreciate any help in terms of sharing the pattern with others you think would enjoy it!  I would especially be so honored if you felt it was worthy to pin on any of your boards on Pinterest. : )

The link to the pattern can be found here as well as on the side bar over on the right!

Thanks and much love, friends!

xoxo,

My First Attempt at Writing a Sewing Pattern (and how you can help me out!)

Like I said in my last post, I love crafting! And a few years ago I decided I loved it SO much that I started selling some of my original creations locally and online. It was such an honor when others chose to spend money on something I had made! It contributed to my joy in life. After having fun with that for a couple of years, though, I recognized the need to phase out of it (at least for awhile) due to the stage of life our family was in.

While I'm definitely still not in the position to invest as much energy and effort as I once did in selling my creations, I have been considering dipping my feet back into the craft-business waters just a bit!

It didn't take me long to realize what my first step back in this direction ought to be. I knew it had to have something to do with my most popular offering from my craft business days... My little fabric party hats:

I created my first fabric party hat almost five years ago when I was preparing for Lucy's second birthday. I had sewn her a special party dress for the occasion and was attempting to use card stock to make a classic party hat for her celebration. Right as I was wrestling with the paper trying to get it into the perfect cone shape I looked down at the scraps left over from making her dress and I thought, "Hey! I wonder if I could use THESE to make a longer-lasting hat to coordinate with her outfit?" This is what I came up with:

It was  a wonderful surprise to discover that other folks seemed to like these about as much as I did!  They experienced their share of popularity in the local shop where I was privileged to sell crafts.  One of my favorite memories was when I was perusing the blog of a local photographer who was going to shoot our upcoming family photos, and my hats turned up a few times as photo props in her galleries. Fun!

I have had others express interest in making my hats in the past, but I would tell them that I would happily make one for them but wasn't quite ready to divulge my hat-making-process.

Well, I have decided that the time has come to offer my party hats up as a detailed sewing pattern for sale in digital download format.

It turns out pattern-writing is its own skill set!  It is one thing to come up with a design simply for my own crafting pleasure. It is quite another thing to put my thought process in written and visual form so that others can successfully create their own versions of my design.

But I am excited to try.  I now have a rough draft of my pattern put together and I am looking for some friends who possess basic machine-sewing skills to test-sew my pattern for me and give me feedback before I start...you know... asking people to pay up before I give it to them. : ) When I put an initial inquiry on Facebook yesterday, I was thrilled with how quickly people volunteered!

I have decided to go ahead and throw the link to my pattern up here on the blog and list it for FREE from now until January 30th, 2015.

So!  For any who are interested in trying it out, I invite you to download the file (included at the end of this posting), give it a whirl and give me a little feedback.  Here are some specific questions for you to consider:

1. What do you think about the level of detail included in the instructions? Too much? Too little? Too confusing?
2. What typos or grammatical errors did you notice?
3. I think I already know the answer to this one but... is the "pretty" font too much?  Should it be simpler?
4. How was your experience working with the pattern template provided?  Should it be redrafted in any way?
5. Give a price range you think would be fair to ask of a potential buyer.

**A note on the photography: The photos included for instructional purposes are rough and not intended for the final draft.  When I have been able to work on drafting the pattern so far, it has not been at peak times for natural lighting nor have I a great place to stage the the hats to be photographed. I am currently working on finding some help and a better location to take high-quality photos for the final draft. But the rough images you'll work with will be representative of the content I am going after.  Do tell me if you think there are some steps that don't have photos but should, or if any of the photos provided are unnecessary in your opinion!**

I do have a goal of getting the final version up and listed to sell by February 1st. So if you intend on giving meaningful suggestions to be incorporated into the final draft, then I would ask that you aim for giving me feedback by Monday, January 26th!  

All feedback should be e-mailed to: erikajoyfuljourney@yahoo.com.

If you don't get around to making the hat by then and can't offer feedback, no problem.  Please just enjoy the pattern and know how much I appreciate your interest! 

I do also ask that you all enjoy this pattern for your own personal use only, and do not sell the pattern itself or hats made using the pattern!!

If you do make the hat and have a positive experience, I would be ever so grateful if you would also help me when the final pattern is for sale by sharing  the link with others who may be interested. Maybe add it to one of your Pinterest boards (if Pinterest is your "thing"). Instagram a photo of your final product and let curious admirers know how to get the pattern for themselves! You get the idea. :)

Finally, here is a link to download the pattern itself. 

You can also grab it from the side bar over on the right.  

Thanks for your interest and I am looking forward to hearing about your experiences!

Xoxo,

My First (maybe only) Online Craft Tutorial

Ok, y'all.  I love crafting.  If you know me at all you know that I love crafting.  Also, I am a sucker for a great online crafty tutorial (no big news there either, right?).  But I have yet to venture into the world of offering my own crafty tutorials on this little blog. At any given time I have about five or six ideas of crafty projects I could share in tutorial form, but I have refrained to do so for three reasons:

• There are just so many out there! Been on Pinterest much? I've often thought it would just be "white noise" to start sharing my own.  And really, how original are my ideas anyway?
• When I have a crafty idea and set to work creating, I rarely bother to stop and take pics of the individual steps or think it is worth it to take the time to write out instructions.
•  I am prone to immerse myself too much in projects and allow myself to use my creative outlets to avoid the mundane but important responsibilities of every day life. I want to avoid the temptation to let a new "hobby" of producing online craft tutorials take more of my time than is healthy and wise.

But tonight I have decided to break my online-craft-instruction-silence and share my first (and maybe only) tutorial on this blog. This project was just too delightful, quick, simple and sweet. I must share.

Who remembers doing "Shrinky Dinks" as a kid? I have fond memories of coloring in little images on flimsy plastic sheets and handing them over to my mom to place in a hot oven and watching them magically shrink down into sturdy little charms and trinkets.  Good times!  Except, I don't really recall what we ever did with the final projects. (Do you, Mom?) I am guessing not much before they eventually ended up getting thrown away.

Recently I got my hands on some blank sheets of "shrink film" and have been experimenting with creative ways to use them while enjoying all kinds of warm fuzzy childhood memories.  Also: I am constantly looking for ways to cherish Lucy and Collin's original artwork and preserve the especially sweet drawings without allowing the piles and piles they produce to take over our household. I decided to use shrink film to transform some of their most treasured drawings into these quirky keepsake Christmas ornaments and key chains.

Here are the supplies and tools I gathered:

• shrink film (my stash was given to me by a friend who was clearing out some of her craft supplies) I haven't found a place to purchase it locally, but it is available for online purchase at Amazon.
• sharpies in a variety of colors
• baking sheet
• standard sized hole punch
• scissors
• metal jump rings (found in the beading section of craft stores)
• metal key rings (also found in craft store beading sections
• bakers twine (or any yarn or thin ribbon works)
• metal spatula
• selection of children's drawings

While you can have your children (if you are comfortable with them using a permanent marker!) draw directly on the shrink film, I enjoyed the process of looking through and picking out some of my favorite of theirs that I had been holding onto for sometime. I just placed the shrink film over their drawings, matched the colors as best as I could and traced their drawings.  There was something sweet about the experience of tracing their artwork. It helped me enter into their little hearts and minds and I gained some insight into their creative processes while paying close attention to the details they deemed important.

 

 I made sure to write in each child's name and the year when I traced the drawings. When the tracing was complete, I just cut each image out and punched a hole in the top.

 

Next, I arranged them onto the baking sheet and placed them in the oven at 275 degrees.

I stayed close to the oven and kept watch while they were baking. After 3 minutes they had shrunk down quite a bit but I knew they weren't done because the edges were curled up and the images looked a bit distorted. Don't let the curled up edges make you think that it's not working right. 

After 3 MORE minutes I knew they were done because they were perfectly flat and the images were no longer distorted.  Just cute tiny little perfect versions of the originals. : )

 

They cooled off super fast and were ready to be turned into key chains and ornaments. For the key chains, simply attach the jump rings to the hole at the top of the finished little trinket.  I used my fingers, but would probably have been easier with pliers. Then just attach the metal key rings to the jump rings.  The jump rings aren't necessary, but I feel like the pieces hang better and look more appealing with the jump ring attached. For the ornaments I just threaded a length of red and white bakers twine through the hole and tied a bow.

Here's a look at one of the finished key chains next to the original drawing to give an idea of how much "shrinkage" occurs. There are a lot of fun family gift possibilities here.  I know a few grandparents, aunts, uncles and older cousins who would get a kick out of receiving these. They also make a great Father's Day or Mother's Day gift option. Make up a few for yourself or even for the little artists themselves to keep and treasure. 

Since this is my first time putting my own craft tutorial "out there" do me a favor and let me know if you decide to try it yourself.  And if so, do tell how it worked for you and if you modified it at all or ended up with a different final product. : ) Thanks for reading!

xoxo,