Shrinky Dinks Grow Up! Fun, Fast and Easy for All Ages

Remember making Shrinky Dinks? We would trace images or draw freehand and then bake them on a cookie sheet in the oven till they were harder, thicker and 1/3 the size. Good times.

But, now Shrinky Dinks are better. Not only are they designed for more sophisticated image creation – you can run them through your printer! – but you can now shrink them more easily with a heat gun! No more oven needed and it makes it so much easier to make just one. We discovered this fact a few months ago and since then have been creating lots of fun projects with Shrinky Dinks.

This project made by Sarah Owens for Craft Warehouse

 

Also new is that you no longer have to be good at drawing to get a great image. One of our favorite image sources was rubber stamps! So many adorable designs to choose from and they are line drawings, which is exactly what you want.  Just stamp the image on a piece of paper and then scan and enlarge or enlarge on a copier. It needs to be about 150% or 3X bigger than you want it to end up.  When you have the size you want, print it out with your inkjet printer.

Once the images you want are on your Shrinky Dinks paper, color them in as you want. We found colored pencils to be the best to work with, but you could use permanent markers, too, like a sharpie. The colors get darker when they shrink, so keep that in mind.

If you want to use the shrunken dinks on a chain or with a hook of some kind, make sure you poke the hole in them BEFORE you heat them up. Remember that the hold needs to be 3X larger than you need it to be, as well.

Craft Warehouse carries supplies to make all of the projects shown.

A Small List of Cool Things you can Make with Shrinky Dinks:

  • Jewelry (necklace, bracelet, pin, earrings)
  • Zipper Pull
  • Bookmark or Planner Clip
  • Charm for Tassle Fob
  • Charm for Keychain
  • Magnets
  • Glue on to clothespins
  • Glue on to Firefly Lights for custom light strand

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