DIRECTIONS:

1. Print the five jewelry charms (the two printout pages).

2. Take a sheet of shrink plastic and position it on top of one of the printouts- tape it in place so it won't move around.

3. Using a black permanent marker, trace each of the five pictures onto the plastic. Be sure to leave a bit of room between them to make cutting them out easier. Also, be careful of how hard you press on the marker- the lighter your pressure, the finer the line (good for tight spaces like the eyes and ears). If you have trouble drawing straight lines, use a ruler to trace the outer edges of the pictures.

4. Once you've traced all of the pictures onto the plastic it's time to break out your coloring box. If you're going to use color pencils I suggest Crayola- they're brightly colored and grind down easily on the plastic. But before you start coloring, here are some tips. Don't color too much in the same area- it can actually remove the color from the plastic and usually creates a high-gloss area so you can't recolor it. If you use pencils they'll leave some major dust- when you wipe it off be very aware of WHERE your wiping it to. I had just colored Zee's hair black and pushed all of the dust downward- into his face, where it settled. I had to start all over again. And lastly, don't worry if your colors don't seem very vibrant- they get a lot darker as the plastic bakes. Just concentrate on not leaving holes of white showing through.

5. After you're done coloring, you may want to go back over all of your lines again with the permanent marker. This is an optional step- if you're careful about not coloring ON the black lines you probably won't need to touch them up.

6. Using a sharp pair of scissors, carefully cut each piece out. You want these lines to be as straight as possible- lines that may look 'okay' when they're big tend to look very different when they're small.

7. When all of the pieces are cut out, use your hole puncher to make a hole in each charm. Be very careful when you're doing this- if the hole is too close to the edges it may weaken the charm when you attach it to the bracelet. I'd suggest punching the hole at two milimeters from the edge. And the holes don't have to be at the center of each piece. For most of my charms, I put the holes in the corners so they'd hang from the chain at different angles.

8. For baking directions, consult the instructions on your shrink plastic package. Some brands don't mention this in their instructions so I'll give you one tip that I think is useful- use wax paper to shield your baking pans. Some pencils, markers, and inks leave a hard-to-get-rid-of residue when they're heated; wax paper prevents this stuff from attaching to your cookie sheets.

9. After you've baked your charms, and let them cool, it's time to assemble your bracelet. Using needlenose pliers, carefully open a jump ring just wide enough to loop it through the hole in one of your charms. With the jump ring still open, loop one end through a link in the bracelet (or, if they bracelet doesn't have circular links, just put the chain itself inside the jump ring). The diagram I've included below isn't a great drawing but it does show how the charm should be connected to the chain. Carefully close the jump ring with your pliers. This can be tricky- you don't want to snap the jump ring and you don't want to bend it into an odd shape. It should look just as it did before you opened it. Repeat this step until all of the charms are attached to the bracelet.

And you're done! Bee sent me a great pic of the bracelet she made so you can see what the finished product looks like. Thanks, Bee! I really appreciate it! Also, notice how she included circular tabs to hole-punch instead of making holes in the pictures themselves- very clever variation to keep in mind! :D So, now that you have a piece of TZP-themed jewelry it's time to head out to the mall. You've got to find a microchip top to complete the ensemble.