Shrinky Dinks - Information, links, ideas and patterns for shrink plastic crafting.

I remember Shrinky Dinks from my childhood, but somehow I never got to make my own. I am going to remedy that now. I have just purchased the Shrinky Dinks Book by Klutz, and plan to shrink plastic to my heart's content.

I plan to add photos of the projects I create using Shrinky Dinks.

Updates: My Shrinky Dink Projects

I completed my first Shrinky Dink project. Wow! It was so quick & easy. I traced a sunflower pattern from the Shrinky Dinks Book using a regular pencil. Then I colored the sunflower with colored pencils and outlined the entire design with a black Micron Pen.

I then cut out the design with scissors and used a 1/4" sized hole punch in the tab area.

I had no trouble with the shrinking. I used a toaster oven & was able to watch the "magic" through the window. The size of the design before shrinking was 1-1/4" across, which shrank down to 1/2".

When I selected my design, I didn't have a particular idea for a completed project. I really just wanted to try out the shrink plastic & see how it worked.

After seeing the finished sunflower charm, I decided to turn it into a bookmark. I created a long braid from green embroidery thread, which became the "stem" of the sunflower.

Pictured here is another project in which I incorporated Shrinky Dinks. I used the giraffe pattern from the Shrinky Dinks Book to create an adornment for a handmade book.

I used Micron Pens to color the giraffe. They come in a wide variety of sizes & colors and work great on the shrink plastic. A simple coordinating braid (made from embroidery thread) was added to the giraffe charm to create the tie fastener for the book.

The book is a giraffe themed "deco" (artists book in which a different artist decorates each page in a handmade book according to the book theme), which I created for another artist in a group that I participate in.

The entire project came out really nice. I can see that I will be finding a lot of uses for shrink plastic.

Pictured here is a project I completed using Shrinky Dinks.
(Click image to view larger photo.)

This little art doll was created from an original 9 piece pattern. My colorful "doodle" design was done with a black ultra-fine sharpie marker and colored pencils. I incorporated summertime graphics into the design - a sun, a beetle, a bee, a butterfly, a storm cloud, a sunflower and some vines.

I punched a row of holes across the top of her head before shrinking, and attached colorful fibers to create her hair. I added the little purple satin rose with craft wire.

The body sections were joined using silver jump rings. She measures just over 5-1/2" tall.

I am very happy with the results! This project was so much fun!

Halloween Fun

I am already in the Halloween mood! I made these little Jack O'Lantern buttons using a 1" circle punch. I simply punched my circles from Shrinky Dink plastic, then drew my little faces with a black Indian ink pen. I colored them with colored pencils, and punched holes on the sides with a 1/8" punch. The buttons shrank down to just under 1/2" and are really cute! The buttons are for decorative use on my art projects ~ not for use on clothing.

I also made a few Halloween charms. I doodled my designs on paper and then traced along on the shrink plastic using my Indian ink pen. I colored them in with colored pencils and punched holes with my 1/8" punch.

I plan to use the charms on Halloween themed chunky book pages.