Cindy Crushes Programming: DIY Evee Evolution Pins, by Teen Librarian Cindy Shutts

We are joined again by my fabolous Coworker Faith Healy who is here to talk about her super cute craft Eevee Evolution Pins! So if your teens love Pokemon give this a try. 

So I am particularly proud of this craft as I created the template from scratch and it came out so cute. This is not the first time I made a template from scratch, but sometimes you get an idea in your head and it does not work out the way you want. This one worked out great!

Designing the Template

So I was looking for program ideas on my go to site Pinterest when I came across a cute template for sewing Eevee evolution plush heads here is the link for anyone interested: https://cholyknight.com/2018/01/12/eeveelution-blob-plush/ . For My teens,  the amount of sewing it called for might be a little tough, but I hoped I could do something with the template. Unfortunately the template was very complicated, but it did have a reference photo. I looked at the photo and knew I could make a template that was simple just using the photo. It was harder than anticipated, but I did it. I used the Silhouette studio to trace the image to create an outline. It did not work great on all the images. Some I had to trace myself, but all that matters is that I created a usable design that I am happy to share!

Deciding the Materials

I went with foam, but you can use any material with this template. I just happened to have foam around to make some samples when testing my DIY template. I chose to do pins since I did have a bunch available from a past craft and I have done Pokemon badges before in foam and my teens loved them. You could do this using foam, felt, paper even. You could make them pins, pendants, earrings. I would just test out materials before making any decisions.

Making the Craft Kits

So I made the terrible decision to put all nine templates in one kit. I was just unsure which Eevee evolutions would be more popular with teens so I decided to all nine. I do not recommend this. It was a lot of work. I did make 36 kits, 12 for each of my library’s three branches. The cost was around $50 for the foam, pins, and bags.  If attempting this craft kit, I would break it down by Eevee Evolutions, just make sure to include Eevee in all the kits. If you are unaware, Jolteon, Flareon, and Vaporean are the og Eevee Evolutions. Umbreon and Espeon were the next generation. Then Leafon, Glaceon, and Slyveon came out, though Slyveon I believe came out a generation after Leafon and Glaceon.  Enough of pokemon lore, that would be how I would break it down in the future and what I would recommend to anyone attempting this craft kit. It is possible to do all nine, but be prepared for a lot of work.

One thing I had to do when making the kit is figuring out how much of each color I needed in each kit.  So I made the following charts below. I figured out the color breakdown of each eevee evolution, than I broke it down by color. The colors that are used more, I made sure to buy more of them in foam.  This method might not work for everybody, I am just more of a visual person.

Once I figured out what I needed I bought the foam. I cut up the foam so I would have 36 of each color that are big enough for what is required to be cut. From there I did the lengthy process of stuffing them with each color, 9 pins, 9 templates, and instructions.

Making the Instructions

I feel like it is pretty clear on how to construct, but I know instructions are always helpful. I made sure to include a color guide on the instructions so they know what colors to use with what piece. The instructions are not as pretty as I like, but I got sick with bronchitis and had to take a week off work and the release date was looming near, so I might have done them in a rush.

This is a simple and fun craft. It works great as a Take and Make. We literally have people come in to just pick up this craft kit.

I will also say this craft could be a fun program where you watch Pokemon and make your favorite eevee evolution pin.

Please feel free to share and use any of the documents I have provided.

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: Cindy Crushes Programming, Programming, Teen Programming