The Magic of Shrinky Dinks

the-magic-of-shrinky-dink-earrings

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!

before shrinking
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!

Alexa

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Fun with Shrink Plastic

S with fab Brini Maxwell illustrations

I’ve been having fun making little shrink plastic creations. I want to get some more Sharpies and colored pencils to make up more. I only have a couple of colors of Sharpies at the moment, so I couldn’t really do much. I did make them very basic and geometric, which I think turned out successful. By the way, I photographed these first two on the inside pages of Brini Maxwell’s Guide to Gracious Living. Gotta give a shout out. The illustration and photography in this is wonderfully mod!

S with fab Brini Maxwell illustrations

For these, I chose to outline a 3 inch vinyl sticker stuck to my shrink plastic. I had to carefully remove it not to leave any sticky. It worked really well, since I know my handwriting couldn’t match that of a font if I tried. I used an old Aleene’s Shrinky Dink that I had on hand. It’s not currently sold, but there are plenty in the marketplace and at your local craft store, so finding it should be easy! They also have an inkjet printable version, so you could not even bother with doodling an image, rather you could have a clean and precise designed illustration or photo. It’s really up to what tickles your fancy!

TP Shrink Art

I’m not really sure what I’m going to do with these, but I know there are tons of things to try. Even if they end up in a drawer, it’s a fun creative exploration that I got to discover as I watched TV.

I thought it would be fun to see what other projects were out there, so here’s a list of some super simple & fun ones you may like to try as well!

Check out these amazing Shrinky Dink illustrative necklaces by my friend Silvia!

Make a statement with this necklace from Alisa Burke.

June at Planet June stamps on your shrinky dinks to make super fab ring

Wear your pet around your neck with Punky Style

Revisit the 80’s with these fun Cassette tape shrinky dinks.

Cool spirograph Shrinky Dinks by maitreya…remind me of childhood.

Kristy Neale’s adorable Home Sweet Home card.

Cool photo toy camera photo pendants from jnhkrawczk’s Flickr stream

Rad medals from sirmorrow on Instructables.

Until next time Swellions!

Alexa

My first Shrinky Dink!

My first Shrinky Dink

No joke! I’ve never made Shrinky Dinks before tonight. While over at Silvia’s tonight, we decided to craft and she suggested Shrinky Dinks, to which she received a resounding yes from me!

I actually own two packages of Shrinky Dinks…the regular kind and the digital inkjet kind. I’ve just never gotten them out and played, though I’ve always intended to. There are a lot of crafts like this that I always say I’m going to try, yet never do. I don’t know, sometimes I just lack the motivation.

So, tonight, there were no excuses! I doodled to my heart’s content, then Silvia slid them in the oven to shrink. After she got them out, she pressed them between two glossy paperbacks. And even after that, we layered them on top of each other and fused them together even more in the oven. The result is almost a fused glass look (there are instructions for this in the packet).

I really enjoyed making them and could see why people get so addicted to them! I may just have to drag out those packs and give a go on my own!

Until next time Swellions!

Alexa