DIY Hairbow Centers

I started making my own hairbow centers a while ago when I was trying to find certain characters.  Out of "need" comes custom made hairbow centers!



So here is a Princess Peach hairbow center I made for my Super Mario bow...don't cha just love her :o)

I just made a lot of hairbow centers shown here.



Okay, here we go!

Materials:

Ink Jet Printer
sharp scissors
White Shrink Paper for Ink Jet Printers
Pre-heat oven to 350
cookie sheet
spatula

Use any kind of program that will allow you to enlarge images...Power Point, GIMP, or Photoshop.  Open a blank file that is sized at 8 1/2 x 11 inches and 300 dpi.  Add your image and size it to approximately 2-3 inches x 3-4 inches (I totally eyeball this one).  I can usually fit 10 images on a sheet, depending on how they are sized.  Once you've arranged your images, print them on your shrink paper and allow the colors to set for at least 30 minutes.  Cut them out and you are ready to shrink in the oven!  Shrink one image first just to get the hang of it.  Place the image on the cookie sheet and then in the oven...watch it as it shrinks up, very cool!  It will curl inot a bowl shape and then will flatten (although usually not all the way flat).  While still in the oven, flatten the image with a spatula.  Your image not only shrinks, but thickens quite a bit.  Once you take it out of the oven, it cools super fast...so flatten IN the oven.

If you have an image that is already dark, you may want to use your photo editing to lighten the image before you print on the paper.  In Photoshop Elements, I usually lighten 15% before I print.  Below is a picture of the original image with the final product on top.  Once you get the hang of this, it is so much fun!!  Of course you can always use these for earrings and necklace charms...just make sure to punch a hole in the paper before you shrink!