Make Your Own Rainbow Loom Charms

Sofia loves craft projects. Some of her favorite projects in the past include making our own Shrinky Dinks which you can read about here, and of course, her Rainbow Loom project which you can read about here.

However, my daughter tires of an activity easily if there is nothing new, so when my aunt was trying to order 25 red simple Rainbow Loom bracelets for my Grandmother's 83rd birthday tomorrow, Sofia would only commit to making 5 (which between you and me - she outsourced to her nanny - but that's a secret) since I think she's starting to get bored with Rainbow Loom.

Day out with Grandma a few months ago

Since my grandma is getting older, I convinced Sof that we needed to do something special for her bracelet and we decided to make our own charms.

It's so easy. I just brought out our make your own shrinky dink kit, yes, it's the same kit in the post I mentioned above which we bought from Daiso in Singapore and which was shipped to Manila together with all our things, using (Number 6) plastic take out containers.

While Sofia now has several Shrinky Dink Kits (thanks to everyone who gave us - since they felt sorry for us because we needed to make our own), we still like the freedom of making our own because it comes in handy, especially when you want to make things like Chinese Character Rainbow Loom Charms, which is what we wanted to do for Grandma.

Step 1: 

We did an experimental piece first. We traced a circle on the Number 6 Plastic using the bottom of a Poster Paint Bottle 

Step 2: 

Sofia cut out the circle, then I punched in 3 holes beside each other, to make sure that the hole is big enough for the rubber band to pass through after we shrink it. Then with the remaining space, I wrote out the Chinese Character, and Sofia signed it since this is her newest project.

Step 3:
Baking Time. Just put your charm in the toasted oven once you've decorated it, and cut it out to the final shape that you want your charm to look. And Voila!

The finished product! It fit just right in the bracelet so we decided to
mass produce.

Since I was doing all the Chinese Characters, we decided to put them only on Grandma's bracelet. The other bracelets just got commemorative Taima is 83 charms.

These commemorative charms are all handmade by Sofia

Our Charms ready to go into the toaster oven.

Sofia watching over her project.

Tip: You know that it's about to be done when the plastic starts curling up. Just wait a few more seconds because it will flatten again after it shrinks.

This is what happens when it's done. After it flattens, it's done.

Look at all our  Rainbow Loom charms!

We made Grandma's bracelet with
Good Luck, Happiness, Longevity and Love.

While 4 lucky others get Taima 83

It's such a simple project that can keep your kids busy for hours! They can be as creative as they want, and they can pile on the charms! I can just imagine what the kids can make if they started drawing with colorful permanent markers (I just saw Sharpie's impressive display in National Bookstore and I wanted to buy all the colors!) Just make sure that there is always an adult when it's time to shrink the charms. just saying.