Fun with Shrinky Dinks

Anyone else remember playing with Shrinky Dinks when they were young?  I must admit I was pretty excited when I found out that they were still around.  I bought a couple of packs for the kids to play with way back in December and finally got a chance to bring them out during Spring Break.

For those of you who are not familiar with the magical world of Shrinky Dinks, they are basically plastic sheets that you draw or stamp on, cut out, and place in the oven for a couple of minutes.  Then you watch in amazement as they shrink down to approximately a third of their original size {they also become thicker}.  Okay, maybe it’s not quite that amazing but the kids thought that it was pretty cool and anything that entertains my kids that is not a TV or computer rates pretty high in my books as well.

They also now have shrinky dinks that you can run through your printer.  Since the boys’ favorite game is Candyland, we made some Matthew and Connor play pieces.  Sorry I don’t have any pictures of this process.  I was trying to figure everything out with two boys climbing all over me.

In the instructions, they recommend decreasing your photo saturation by 50% so that the ink is not too heavy.  As well, the color intensifies when you put it in the oven.  I did this with Matthew’s figure and his legs ended up purple.  For Connor’s, I left the saturation much higher and he ended up with bright red legs.  Somewhere in between would have been perfect!

Once your photo is ready, you just print your photo on the Shrinky Dink photo sheet {make sure it is on the sticky side}, let it dry for a couple of minutes, and cut out your shape.  Pre-heat the oven to 300 and place your shrinky dink on a cookie sheet covered on top of a brown paper bag.  The shrinky dinks first curl up and will then flatten out after about one minute.  Sometimes it gets stuck in the curled position so make sure you are standing by to help it out if needed!

Immediately after it comes out of the oven, press it flat.  Remember, they are hot so use something over it!  You only have about 5-10 seconds of molding time before it hardens but you can always place it back in the oven for a few more minutes and try again.

The photos also make cute key chains.  Just remember to punch your hole before you shrink it {and remember that the hole will shrink too!}  I had started to perfect the color saturation by this point!  After the shrinky dinks have been heated, seal them with clear nail polish so the colors don’t run.

So what did the kids make?  Matthew made a backpack tag:

For the robot and bunny shapes, I ran the Shrinky Dink sheet through the Silouette {on the magnet setting}  It didn’t cut all the way through but enough so that the lines were visible to cut out the image.  The inside lines were also visible to make it easier for coloring in {you can see this more on the robot}.  We added the bunny to a piece of scrapbook paper and attached one of the magnetic pins that came with the pack.

Now just in case you thought Shrinky Dinks were only for kids, check out these other great projects that I have come across.  I am definitely planning on bringing the Shrinky Dinks back out one night when the kids have gone to bed!

They can be used to make some awesome jewellery: