Have no clue what to get the beau in your life for Valentine’s Day? Whether he’s metrosexual, geek chic or a metal head, you can make a pair of cufflinks to fit his taste.
• A pair of cufflink blanks
(You can purchase cuff link blanks from kitkraft.biz.)
• E6000 glue
• Two small items of your choosing or shrink plastic
Be creative with what you glue onto the cufflinks. Use guitar picks for the rocker in your life, or use die if he likes games. Other ideas are cut-up circuit boards, computer chips, band pins, buttons and old jewelry pieces.
Shrinky Dinks are also great for creating custom cufflinks. You can purchase shrink plastic from any craft store, or you can reuse any grade #6 plastic. Most clear plastic containers from bakeries and restaurants for “to go” food items are #6. Using a permanent marker, draw your image onto the plastic. Make sure the image is approximately three times larger than the finished size. Cut out the shape and color it in using permanent markers. Place the shrink plastic on a cookie sheet with the colored side up. Bake it in a 350-degree preheated oven and watch it shrink! It will take about three minutes for the plastic to finish shrinking.
Take your shrink-plastic charms, guitar picks, or whatever items you have chosen, and glue them onto the flat base of the cufflink blank. The E6000 glue can be very tacky, so be careful not to get the glue on your fingers or clothing. Let the glue cure for at least 24 hours before wearing the cufflinks.
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The Mississippi Free Press produced this story through the MFP Solutions Lab, supported by the Solutions Journalism Network. This series digs into Mississippi’s systemic issues and sheds light on responses to them in other communities. Beyond just reporting on problems, these stories interrogate their causes and inspect potential solutions.
