I have a new obsession…Shrinky Dinks. Now I know a lot of you probably tried your hand at these when you were a kid, but this is one craft I didn’t do as a kid. I did play Tiddly winks, but that’s a whole other random kid experience. LOL.
Shrinky dinks are like my experiences with tie dye, I love the entire process, especially the reveal! It’s fun to create, but then it’s fun to see how well the finished piece turns out!
Basically all you do is draw/doodle on your Shrinky dink plastic (my plastic was bright white and purchased at Michaels) with a permanent marker or color marker in the shape of your choice. I used a bowl as the guide for these earrings (they shrunk to about 1.75″1.75″ inches in diameter. You have to make the original design super large cause it shrinks down about 75% of that size! Sometimes the results can be less than stellar if you used too dark of a color of marker or if you cut your shape out wrong. In the case of these earrings I’m planning on giving my friend Chloe, they turned out perfecto! I have always loved the mix of black and white stripes with a colorful floral. So fun!
Here’s what I started out with. They were so pretty before, that I almost didn’t want to shrink them down, but I’m glad I did. The square ones on left didn’t fare as well. The dark blues were too dark when they shrunk and I wasn’t too happy with them.
If you’re curious how I doodled my rosettes, I show how to make them in my doodled roses post. There’s also a how-to video I created.
Yes, this obsession will last a few more days until I move onto the next thing. I jump around all over the place. I kinda think I have crafty ADHD or something. Do you love making this fun “dinky” craft as much as I do?
Until next time Swellions!
You can also stamp on them. If you get the matte film, colored pencils turn out all velvet-y looking!
Don’t forget to punch a hole in them before you shrink them if you are planning on hanging them. A hole punch shrinks to the appropriate size.
You can do endlessly fun things with Shrink Plastic. I’m a huge fan. Makes for fabulous jewelry components.
Love these!
Cheers,
Madge
If you don’t want to buy expensive Shrinky Dink brand plastic you can use the plastic that you get at the grocery store in the bakery area that cookies etc come in. You just scuff it a bit with sand paper, decorate, punch you hole and bake.
They are beautiful and so inspiring, thanks for sharing!