Kickin' it old school...

Remember Shrinky Dinks? Man, I think I'd forgotten about them, but they really are pretty cool. Here's how it all started....

My daughter's Girl Scout troop are first-year Juniors. For those not 'in the know' - Junior level is 4th & 5th grade and is the first level they can earn a big award. For Juniors, the Bronze Award is the highest award they can earn. Basically, there are several 'prerequisites' they have to work through and then they complete a 'big' project - something that benefits their community somehow and takes about 15 hours to complete.

We're only in our first year as Juniors, so we won't be working on the final project until next year but we needed to go ahead and pick a 'theme' because a lot of the pre-work has to relate to our final theme. We talked about general themes where girls their age could really make a difference... whether it be the homeless, the hungry, animals, children, elderly, etc. These girls, though, are all about animals... so that's the direction we're heading.

Over the next few months, we'll start on that pre-work, but we'll also start checking out some local agencies that we might be able to help with our project. In our area, we've got an excellent SPCA, the Humane Society, Texas Wildlife Rehabilitation Coalition, CAP, Special Pals, and several rescue agencies (shout out to Lone Star Boxer Rescue, where we got our doggies). Feel that linky love? Check 'em out!

Wow - I sure know how to make a short story long, right?

Anyway, we're starting with the SPCA. We'll take a tour, of course, but they also offer a patch project for scouts. As part of that project, we discuss seveal aspects of responsible pet ownership. At our meeting on Wednesday, we discussed the different ways of pet identification - tags, tattoos, and microchips. The girls also threw out spraypaint, but they're just kooky like that.

As a fun go-along activity, we brought out the Shrinky-Dink (paper? plastic? what the heck is that stuff?) and some tag shaped templates (heart, circle, bone, etc.) The girls traced, wrote and colored and then I took them home and shrunk them. They turned out really cool, very cute, and I would LOVE to show you... but I just don't have the time to graphically edit out all of the addresses and phone numbers they included on their tags, like good pet owners. Is it odd that all 12 of our scouts' families have pets?

But just for you... so you can experience the magic... here are some before, during, and after photos of some fun Shrinky Dinks my kiddos made over the weekend. These are photo'd on a standard size sheet of paper so you can grasp the shrinkage.

Run to Hobby Lobby, grab some of this stuff... and start making things. No idea what we'll do with most of them, but it's pure fun!

Here's the before. Paige made the kitty (she cut off one leg), Blake made the chicken (????) and their friend made the ghost.

Here's the during... I pulled them out of the oven to get a picture of the funky way they curl up in process. This is about 90 seconds into the baking... they don't take long. A little longer in the oven and they really do flatten back out.

Here's the 'after' with a close up shot following. So cute!!