Cindy Crushes Programming: Three Make and Take Programs for Teens, by teen librarian Cindy Shutts

Today Teen Librarian extraordinaire Cindy Shutts has three fun make and take program ideas that would be fun for tweens and teens.

Shrinky Dinks

This is a classic craft. I used to do them all the time pre pandemic but now I realize it is an easy take and make. I am doing fandom Shrinky Dinks. I am including different coloring pages they can trace to make their image.

Supplies:

• Shrinky Art Paper Kit
• Sharpies
• Coloring pages
• Toaster oven or oven
• Oven Mitt
• Scissors
• Optional: hole punch

Industructions:

1. Trace your image from the coloring page with a sharpie on the Shrinky Dink page and color it in as needed.
2. Cut your image from the Shrinky Dink page
3. Use a hole punch if  you want to make your image a charm.
4. Turn the oven on to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Please do this craft with parental or guardian supervision. Make sure you have an oven mitt to take the image in and out of the toaster oven.
5. Place the image on a tray in the oven. Make sure your tray is for oven use. Please use an oven mitt.
6. Watch the oven for 1-2 images. It should shrink. If  it curls and looks like it will not uncurl, remove the tray with the oven mitt and use the scissors to press down the image.
7. Please wait to touch this Shrinky Dink until it has cooled.

Bottle Cap Pins

We had Riverdale comics in because we had already ordered comics before free comics book day. So our Crest Hill Branch teen librarian Faith Healy came up with doing a Bottlecap Riverdale Pin to help give the comics away.

Supplies Needed:

• Bottle Caps               
• Elmer’s Glue
• Character Sheet        
• 2.2 in cloth pins
• Hole punch for preparing the bottle cap

Here are Faith instruction’s

1. Make your own set of Riverdale Pins or Archie Comics Pins or mix and match. Choose your favorite eight characters to make your pins and cut them out to fit on the bottle caps.

2. Put down a light layer of Elmer’s glue on top of a bottle cap, place your chosen character on the bottlecap. Then place a light layer of glue on top of the character and on the sides. This layer will give the pin a sealing layer to stay nicer longer. Leave them to dry. Anywhere between 30 minutes to 2 hours.

3. Each bottle cap should have two holes punched in it. Open a safety pin and slide in the two holes.

4. Wear the pins, place them on your backpacks. Trade and share with friends.

Fairy Jars

This is a craft I have done many times. In fact last year I was doing one to two jar crafts a month. I loved doing fairy tale images and all different types of fandoms images. Hamilton images were very popular. You can do a theme. I think that works best.

Supplies:

• Jar
• Tissue Paper light colors work best
• Image printed and cut out ot using the silhouette Cameo Machine
• Glue
• Tape
• Accent pieces such as ribbons and buttons and fake flowers
• Glitter Glue (Optional)
• Glue Brush
• LED Tea light

Instructions:

1. Place your image inside the jar. You can tape or glue the image inside the jar
2. Place a layer of glue around the jar and then gently place the tissue paper around the jar. Trim off any extra. I am very careful about making sure the silhouette in the jar is not covered by the over fold of the tissue paper. You also want to create a very small part where there are two layers of tissue paper.
3. Add another layer of glue on top of the tissue paper.
4. Wait for it to dry
5. You can use a layer of glitter glue on top if you want.
6. Add accent pieces. I like to add my accent pieces to the top of the jar. I open the jar so I can see how it will be when I need to replace the light inside or turn it back on.
7. Turn on the light and place it in the jar.

Cindy Shutts, MLIS

Cindy is passionate about teen services. She loves dogs, pro-wrestling, Fairy tales, mythology, and of course reading. Her favorite books are The Hate U Give, Catching FIre, The Royals, and everything by Cindy Pon. She loves spending times with her dog Harry Winston and her niece and nephew. Cindy Shutts is the Teen Services Librarian at the White Oak Library District in IL and she’ll be joining us to talk about teen programming. You can follow her on Twitter at @cindysku.

Filed under: Teen Crafts, Teen Programming