The Making of Little Deer.

Here are the instructions for the Oh Deer project . I made her into a brooch. I have more plans for this little deer in the coming weeks. I really do want to know if you come up with any projects to use her in. Please share and we'll all play!

Here she is in all her deery glory. I think her name is Dorothy.


I copied this image onto a word document and sized it to fit the paper sheet without any borders.

Then I printed the image onto a sheet of Shrink It Plastic for printers.

Using a small pair of scissors cut out the pieces

Place the arms where you want them

Pop a hole through the arm and the shoulder pieces at the same time using a hole punch.

Over lap the legs at the hip and pop a hole through there too.

Use the tip of the scissors to drill a hole in the skirt where the legs will join. Don't just push the scissors through there, twist them gently and the hole will get bigger gradually and not tear the plastic.

Here are the pieces as they will be baked. Get the oven on to 500 or the hottest setting and put a piece of parchment onto a baking sheet. I fold the edges so the parchment doesn't curl up on me and burn.

Bake each piece separately so you can keep an eye on them. If you put them all in at the same time I'm pretty sure there will be apocalyptic consequences.

This is the video of what happens in the oven. Keep the door open a crack so you can see what's going on and keep an oven mitt on so you can rescue things if you need to.
It's going to look pretty ugly for a while. Just let it happen and after it looks like it's stopped shrinking you can flatten things out.

After it was done shrinking I turned it over with tongs while it was still in the oven.

I pulled the door open and slid out the wrack and pan and used a smooth egg flipper to squash the piece flat while it was still hot. It cools very quickly so move fast.

You can see how small she is here in my hand.

One leg to go. You can really see how much the pieces shrink here with one still full size. The colours also deepen quite a bit.

Some things you will need to put her together.

Teeny plastic faceted beads in the same colours as her clothes. I put two for her arms and one for her skirt on head pins.

Put the beaded head pin through both the arm and the torso pieces.

Cut the head pin to 2 cm long with wire cutters, and turn the cut end with double round nose pliers so it is a spiral on the back of the piece. The spiral and bead will keep the wire headpin in place so the limb will move freely like a joint.

Repeat the process with the other arm and both legs.

I used the E 6000 glue to fix on some pretty flowers and ribbons and rhinestones. Add what you like or leave her plain.

I also glued a pin to the back.

I think she's going to be cute with spring blouses.

Don't forget to post a link to what you made in the comments box. I really am excited to see what you make.

:)